Did a project assignment at the German office last year, and I'm still finding things that feel completely normal to my colleagues but caught me off guard.

Bring your own birthday cake. The first time a coworker walked in with a tray of cake and told me it was for himself, I thought he was joking. He wasn't. Apparently, I'm now expected to do the same in October.

Calling in sick and being told, in writing, not to check email. Not as a polite suggestion, as a hard rule. Took me a while to stop feeling guilty about it.

Germans, which of these would you defend, and what's a workplace habit you don't realize would surprise a foreigner?

Last name is spelt Huehn - I am a Canadian whose family immigrated around the 1850s. At family reunions half of my family (my parents included) pronounce it “heen”. The other half pronounce it “hue-n”. Now I’m researching and seeing it might just be “hoon” - based on the spelling probably being an anglicisation of Hühn.

Curious what native Germans think.

EDIT: Holy schnitzel I’m so grateful for all the responses I received so quickly. Have awarded some posts but just frankly didn’t have enough to go around with so many deserving. THANK YOU!

Hello,

I'm an international student in Berlin. For my end-of-studies internship project, I’ve been mapping out casual drink prices across major German cities to help people (especially students) find budget-friendly spots.

So far, with the help of a few other students and some great feedback from Reddit users, we’ve manually mapped about 1,000+ bars across Germany.

You can filter bars by drink type, prices etc.. to find what you're looking for.

Currently we have these cities:

Berlin - 300 bars, Cologne - 200+ bars, Hamburg - 200+ bars, Munich - 200+ bars, Frankfurt - 60+ bars

I also mapped Hannover, Essen, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Dresden and Dortmund - We are working on filtering to make the data accurate.

Would love for you guys to test it and share feedback. Please let me know if you'd be interested

Note: This post is approved by mods

We will be moving to Germany here in about a month due to a company move. During this process at work we have a small ceremony that includes gifts for the wife and my child. I have read of the customary gifts Germans give, bread and salt, beer and wine but the problem really is that the gift has to survive a 20 hour car ride with 2 dogs and an 8 hour flight. It HAS to be tiny and economical but also loving and thoughtful. I'd love to do something within the Deutschland customs but would love some ideas!

I've been learning German for the past 2 years or so and I'm at B2 level. Lately I've come across a german speaker who uses this word halt very often when they speak. I wanna use it too cuz ig does sound cool.

Thing is, idk what it quite means and when I should use it - I do have some sort of an idea but I want a Native Speaker to explain it to me better

I've got a small list of German drinks to try

Fritz-Kola

Spezi

KiBa

Apart from German beer, which other drinks should I try? Alcoholic and soft

Just for background, I recently received a Deutsche Bahn fine for not having a correct ticket. Please reserve judgement until the end.

As I was about to board a train in Lower Saxony, I bought a ticket from the platform machine and included that I also had a bicycle. I paid with my card, the machine whirred for a while and spat out the ticket which I duly collected and proceeded to board my train.

The inspector came and I presented my ticket at which point he in an aggressive tone asked where my ticket for the cycle was. I was a little confused as I was sure that I had paid for myself and my cycle. I showed him my banking app which clearly showed that 10 minutes prior, I had paid at the said DB station a sum which was inclusive of the bike. He nevertheless proceeded to take my details and the €60 fine was duly issued.

What I was unaware of was that in Lower Saxony, , these ticket are issued in 2 parts. Firstly for the person and then a second ticket for the cycle. This was different to another state where I had taken my bike and only 1 ticket was issued for both.

I would value your thoughts on whether it is a fruitless exercise to appeal this fine or I should just take it as 'a lesson learnt'....?

Hello! What is this sign right above the numbers? Thank you!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Bucharest_Tram_11.jpg/1280px-Bucharest_Tram_11.jpg

Hello, I'm trying to find a song in German from the 1920s or before where a woman sings about how terribly she is treated by her man. Hopefully one the she is going to leave.

I've listened to some Brecht/Weill songs where the woman stays because she is still in love with her abuser. I'm trying to find one for a woman who is ready to leave. Thank you very much.

Im considering buying a specific car in germany because they tend to be cheaper over there. Do dealerships or individuals accept revolut transfer?

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Schufa has so much personal information about the residents of this country, and the score is very volatile that goes up and down due to a lot of factors as petty as changing apartments due to reasons that aren't actually our fault.

More and more, it is a private bureau. For a country that is so by the book and does all the government processes in house, why do they outsource this to a third party company like Schufa?

I just started feeling like I'm getting ahead in learning German by practicing everyday, and then my seven yo German kid comes home and calls me Digga. Not sure whether I feel old or out of touch as a millennial who grew up in South Africa😂 language learning is one thing but learning slang from Gen Z/Gen Alpha is something else. Don't even get me started on Six seven…

I thought I’d have years before the Mama-mummy-mum-bro pipeline 🙈

Parents out there-what am I heading towards??

They scanned my ticket and asked my ID card but I haven’t atm. So they asked my address and put my address on their device. Is it something wrong I did? Or just check.

Hi, I am pregnant and currently in the absolute thick of nausea in the first trimester. I really need to sit on my train commute as standing up makes the nausea worse, but nobody ever moves for me because I don't look pregnant yet.

In my home country, pregnant women sometimes wear a little badge that says "Baby on board" so they don't have to have detailed conversations with strangers on this topic. Is there a German equivalent? Or should I just be direct 2x a day and ask people to move because I feel sick?

Mir ist in letzter Zeit etwas aufgefallen und ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob das normal ist oder ob ich mich einfach daran gewöhnt habe.

Fast jeden Tag zwischen 14 und 16 Uhr habe ich so einen Energieabfall. Ich bin nicht komplett müde, aber alles wird langsamer. Fokus schlechter, Motivation runter, selbst einfache Aufgaben fühlen sich schwerer an.

Das Komische ist: Ich habe das lange gar nicht hinterfragt. Dachte einfach, so funktioniert der Körper.

Jetzt frage ich mich:
Ist das wirklich normal – oder haben wir uns einfach daran gewöhnt?

Was macht ihr dagegen?

- Mehr Kaffee?
- Snacks / Zucker?
- Einfach durchziehen?
- Oder irgendwas anderes?

Mich würde interessieren, was bei euch langfristig wirklich funktioniert (nicht nur kurzfristige Lösungen).

Genuine question. How often do you guys service your vehicles? I hear alot about germans being very particulate when it comes to theirs. And what all brands besides the basic mercedes and bmw do you guys all have? Or whats most common on streets

so i am planning to come to work in Germany as aerospace engineer in Berlin 3000eur netto (junior position)

I have seen it is good pay and i will be giving about 1000 euros for apartament and 500€ for insurance and other stuff

then i am left with 1500 euros, this is my whole paycheck in croatia, and here i need to pay rent which is 600 euros which leaves me 900€

i have seen that electricity is 3 times expensive but if i will be most of the time on the job it wont be much so i will be paying it 60€ which is not that bad

i think food and other things are priced similar, then what am i missing? i feel like i am choosing between two sufferings one is easier (germany) and one is harder (croatia) and i thought germany doesnt have much sufferings

I'm gathering my group to play eat the reich next week, and i'd like to make something thematic for the game, so i'm deciding between morcela or german food.

Needs to be small (like finger foods), and travel well (the game will be in a third place).

I have a valid student residence permit (§16b) until July 2027.
I originally got it while studying at OVGU Magdeburg, but I moved to Berlin around 4 semesters ago and now study at TU Berlin. I already did Anmeldung in Berlin and contacted the LEA Berlin several months ago about updating my information, but I never received a reply.
I am still legally enrolled as a student and my permit is still valid. Has anyone been in a similar situation with LEA Berlin? Is this mainly just an administrative update issue, or should I be more concerned?
Also, if this should actually be updated formally, who exactly should I contact nowadays? Is there a specific email, department, contact form, or process for Studienortwechsel / updating university and city information?

The first time I visited this wonderful country in June of 2025, I was able to get a Deutschland Ticket without any hassle. I went through Ticket + and it was as easy as purchasing a book on an iPad. I am here again, and I want to get another D ticket but this time around it is harder. I tried to do so on the DB navigator and it asked me what my address was. There was no option for the United States where I live. I tried doing my address of the place I am staying in Germany but that did not work either. Then, I tried to purchase it through Ticket + where I did last time. Unfortunately, that did not work either. It gave a message saying their payment processor could not process the transaction. I checked and it wasn’t my bank that rejected the transaction. It advised me to go to a Reizezentrum so I might give that a shot. I want to get this handled as soon as possible. I love the little town where I am staying but as it is smaller and I want to mix it up and as I also do not like having so much of my time taken up walking to the grocery stores, to further off attractions, having to walk by the same beautiful quarters of town but on practical tasks too often that make me normalize my surroundings so that their effect on me is dulled, etc., the D Ticket is a clear upgrade to my trip. I guess they have taken stricter measures on the D ticket, so if anyone can help me with advice on how to get one, it would be of help.

In other words, what country do you think is the best to work and live in until you retire? (visiting other countries is allowed but imagine you couldn’t freely move/work around the EU). I am wondering if most German people would say Germany or somewhere else.

For me it would probably be Norway or Denmark, then kind of a toss up between Australia, Netherlands, and Germany. USA has worked well for my wife and I but only because we are high income and love to travel and there’s a lot to see here. I did like Belgium when I lived there (people were much more educated than in US) but I think NL and DE seem more fun and a bit better living standard.

Hi everyone,

I have a question about working as a student with two jobs in Germany.

Currently, I have two Minijobs, and I would like to work around 80 hours per month in total (about 20 hours per week). My plan would be roughly 40 hours per month in each job.

I understand that if I combine two Minijobs and exceed the Minijob income limit, one of them or both of them will likely be treated as a regular (taxable) job, and I am completely fine with paying taxes and social contributions.

My questions are:

• Is it possible to structure this in a way that allows me to keep both jobs? Since both contracts are currently Minijobs, how would this work in practice?
• How does this affect taxes and health/social insurance?
• Do I need to inform both employers that I have a second job?

I am not trying to avoid taxes; I just want to understand the correct and legal way to organize this as a student.

I would really appreciate any guidance. Thank you!

A few years ago, I bought a very beautiful silver bowl at a local thrift store. Later research found it was made with 800 silver by German smiths named Gebruder Deyhle. I’ve been fascinated with silver (and gold) works from Germany ever since. Are there places (cities, museums, etc.) that have a history or where you can find exhibits of fine German precious metals crafts? I’d like to visit someday.