Where to live in Germany?

[Mercedes S600]

Originally Posted by erbsenzaehler

Zwischenfrage: Wohnst du in einem Altbau oder einem Neubau? Rein interessehalber.

In einem modernisierten Altbau.

[KidGibNick]

thank you for successfully over-riding my thread with arguments...

part of the reason i want to live in Germany is because my family is german, and it's where i feel comfortable. i want to perfect the language by living in the environment, while using my business skills to work for a company requiring an english speaking professional.
as well, Germany is centrally located to a variety of great countries to visit on weekends/vacation...including those in southern Europe.

Canada is such a big country...Europeans don't realize how lucky they are to have such dramatic landscapes that change with a few hours drive or cheap Ryan-Air flight. "The grass is always greener on the other side" as we say.

[goschio]

Originally Posted by KidGibNick

thank you for successfully over-riding my thread with arguments...

part of the reason i want to live in Germany is because my family is german, and it's where i feel comfortable. i want to perfect the language by living in the environment, while using my business skills to work for a company requiring an english speaking professional.
as well, Germany is centrally located to a variety of great countries to visit on weekends/vacation...including those in southern Europe.

Canada is such a big country...Europeans don't realize how lucky they are to have such dramatic landscapes that change with a few hours drive or cheap ryan flight. "The grass is always greener on the other side" as we say.

Thank you, that is what almost every german forumer understood. But for one person (we call him miesepeter) it was hard to understand that someone from Canada might actually like Germany.

I have a mate from Australia who lives in Germany for 3 years now. And he loves it.

[thun]

Yeah. Just remember that your discussion will continue on page 11.

[KidGibNick]

I would love to see this continue to page 11...

Any comments about neighbourhoods, crime, culture, etc in different cities...all recommendations are welcome.

[Mein Name ist Hase]

Originally Posted by KidGibNick

I would love to see this continue to page 11...

Any comments about neighbourhoods, crime, culture, etc in different cities...all recommendations are welcome.

Hamburg:
In Germany we say northern people are more reserved. Actually that's true for almost all parts of northern germany. But not for the bigger cities and definitely not for Hamburg. Quite the opposite actually. And they're very tolerant when it comes to foreigners (avoid east-germany, avoid east-germany, avoid east-germany) . Don't go beyond the borders of Hamburg. Only farmers live there. Very nice people but they can't drive... stay away from the streets when you see a car with a license plate that begins with "PI" or "STD".
Best parties in the world!

Köln(cologne)/Düsseldorf and the rest of the rhineland:
People in the rhineland are supposed to be very cheerful persons. And they really don't fit in the cliche about the narrow-minded german. But there are also very weird people living there. They seem to think that it's still 1970, just watch their dress code. You'll also have a hard time understanding some of the dialects there. Oh, and even though it should be a good thing that there are half a dozen major cities right next to each other in northrhine-westphalia, there's a big problem: they all hate each other.
Be it because Köln and Düsseldorf argue about who has the biggest balls or cities in the ruhr fighting wars over soccer.
Best currywurst in the world!

München
People in munich are distinguished, bourgeois and they'll think of you as a punk if you walk over the street when the traffic light's still red. They work very hard and... well, actually almost all stereotypes about germans are typical for bavarians. You get the idea.
Stay in the cities! They're very multicultural by contrast with the rural population. Most bavarian villagers have never seen a foreigner or heard someone not speaking bavarian. Even some other germans have been hanged by villagers because people thought they're russian spies. Best...fucking...beer...in the world.

///
Crime and neighborhood:
Unfortunately it's everywhere the same in germany. When you get mugged or beaten for no reason it's likely that it was a foreigner of some special cultural background, male and between 15-28 years old.
So it's also always not a good idea to live in neighborhoods that have high rates of foreigners.
Living in highrises is very unpopular in Germany. Whenever you see a residential highrise, it's most probably build some decades ago, looks like a crappy concreteblock, houses at least 60% foreigners and is very cheap. Stay away from those areas.

[matheking]

Originally Posted by Mein Name ist Hase

Hamburg:
So it's also always not a good idea to live in neighborhoods that have high rates of foreigners.... Stay away from those areas.

I don't agree with that. In some of the most lively quarters there is lots of foreigners. So if you want to live in an urban environment, you just have to accept a certain amount of foreigners. The next point is, that most german cities apart from the big three or four have small quarters. So it is likely that just a few stations away from your expensive appartment there is a poor area. So even if there is less "robbers and beaters" in front of your house, you will meet them when you ride the bus or train, are shopping in downtown or go out at night.
Personnaly I live in a neighborhood with a high rate of foreigners and haven't gotten into any trouble since I left school more than a decade ago. It is one of the mentioned lively quarters and criminal rates are not significantly higher than elsewhere (says the police). People that are easily frightend by the "Bild"-newspaper and think that foreigners from eastern and southern europe are the root of all evil, propably don't agree with that. But that is because they expect something to happen. Most of them have never been robbed or beatend, but if you would ask them, they would say, that they are at a high risk!
I wouldn't say, that it is perfectly save to live in my neighbourhood, but that is nowhere. So your decision should be more, if you want to live in a lively urban area, or in an outer suburb.

[goschio]

Agree with you. Many urban quarters have a very high percentage of immigrants and are generally considered as very livable. Lived for 4 years in Frankfurt Bockenheim and really enjoyed it. Never had any trouble. I just had to leave my apartment and had in one street approximately 20 different food outlets from 10 different countries (Turkish (2X), italian, german wurst shop, japanese sushi, chinese (2X), american (subway), greek, thai, indian (2X) etc.).

But then its quite hard to find any quarter in Frankfurt with low immigrant population. Perhaps some rich suburbs up in the Taunus mountains.

Perhaps its different in other German cities, but in Frankfurt I see immigrants as very positive aspect of the city.

[kato2k8]

Originally Posted by goschio

Perhaps its different in other German cities, but in Frankfurt I see immigrants as very positive aspect of the city.

In most German cities you'll find that most quarters have sort of a baseline foreigner percentage - 10%, 15%, like that. It's relatively rare to be concentrated, but if it is, it's usually not some ghetto, but an area with a very large amount of student housing, military housing or other areas like that.

Originally Posted by Mein Name ist Hase

Living in highrises is very unpopular in Germany. Whenever you see a residential highrise, it's most probably build some decades ago, looks like a crappy concreteblock, houses at least 60% foreigners and is very cheap. Stay away from those areas.

Of the three highrise areas in Heidelberg, Boxberg houses 18.1% foreigners (out of 4.400 ppl), Hasenleiser houses 20.6% (out of 4.900 ppl), and Emmertsgrund houses 19.9% (out of 7.200 ppl).
Average for overall Heidelberg is 15.6% in official statistics, or about 22% when including US Military and dependant housing.
Not like those three stand out particularly.

[Schnitzel]

Originally Posted by kato2k8

Of the three highrise areas in Heidelberg, Boxberg houses 18.1% foreigners (out of 4.400 ppl), Hasenleiser houses 20.6% (out of 4.900 ppl), and Emmertsgrund houses 19.9% (out of 7.200 ppl).
Average for overall Heidelberg is 15.6% in official statistics, or about 22% when including US Military and dependant housing.
Not like those three stand out particularly.

A highrise-colony doesn't make the whole area. There could be several highrises with 80% foreigners living there in an area with very few foreigners percentage-wise.
But normally mostly foreigners live in those cheap highrises

[kato2k8]

Originally Posted by Schnitzel

A highrise-colony doesn't make the whole area.

Umm, the pointed-out three areas each have 80% of the population live in highrise buildings. The other buildings are:
- Hasenleiser - low-rise apartment buildings (with foreigners, as they're cheap and run-down)
- Emmertsgrund - single homes, built with social support
- Boxberg - only has relative highrises (every damn building higher than 8 storeys)

Emmertsgrund splits further into "North" (22.4% foreigners, highrises) and "South" (15.4% foreigners, residential homes) btw.
Boxberg was built in the 60s, and for the most part primarily houses German pensioners and families, as well as a sizable student and professional population (ie with high turnover).
Hasenleiser actually has more foreigners living in the low-rise 20s-built apartment blocks than in the 70s-built highrises - they're cheaper (and more run-down).

Sure, traditionally, each of these high-rise areas had a definitive foreign population (except Boxberg) - Turks in Emmertsgrund, Albanians in Hasenleiser. However, back in about the mid 90s, both of these groups moved socially upwards, and moved away into better quarters. In the highrise colonies, they were replaced by Spätaussiedler.

[goschio]

Originally Posted by kato2k8

In most German cities you'll find that most quarters have sort of a baseline foreigner percentage - 10%, 15%, like that. It's relatively rare to be concentrated, but if it is, it's usually not some ghetto, but an area with a very large amount of student housing, military housing or other areas like that.

But foreign population is not that interesting IMO. Many suburbs have a large percentage of immigrant population with German passport. As a result you might have only 20% foreigners but 50-60% immigrant background population. In this case, racial or ethnic census like in the US or the UK would make more sense.

[KidGibNick]

Do you foresee any problems that a 24-year old caucasian male from Canada who speaks some German could run into...whether its from local Germans or foreigners?

[Energy2003]

as long as you don´t speak french here there´s absolutly no problem.

btw: like in all places in the world there can happen theoretically something.
But there´s surely less risk for anything in a developed country like germany

[KidGibNick]

Can anyone tell me about mid-week nightlife, clubs, pubs in Koln, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Hannover, Frankfurt, Stuttgart or any other significant towns?

[Justme]

Originally Posted by KidGibNick

Can anyone tell me about mid-week nightlife, clubs, pubs in Koln, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Hannover, Frankfurt, Stuttgart or any other significant towns?

Frankfurt is a bit quiet on the nightlife front mid week, Hamburg on the other hand is one of the best places in Europe for nightlife.

Many good descriptions here of places for you to try out. Hamburg is definitely one of the nicest cities in Germany and I can't imagine you would be disappointed there. It has such a nice feel as a city and is a very interesting place.

Berlin is my favourite city in Germany, but I read that you were not so interested in it.

I wouldn't recommend Frankfurt so much. It is excellent for travel though as it has very good rail and air transportation, but then it becomes more of a city that you enjoy "leaving" than staying.

I am sure you will enjoy living in Germany. The quality of life is very good her. But it's also quite slow to adapt to new ideas (There is still no Sunday shopping here, and I presume you will say "so what", but trust me, everyone I know that said that before moving here suddenly realized how much they missed it) Then again, the bars are really friendly and nice, and the markets sell fantastic food, cheeses, salami's and sausages that you simply won't believe.

If you enjoy television, get a dish and point to Astra 2D so you can get UK TV. German's can do so many things really well. TV though is simply not one of them.

Have you made a list of your top choices for cities which to move to yet?

[erbse]

German television offers loads of good stuff, you just have to know where to watch.

There isn't much of a difference to the rest of Western Europe in this regard.

[Squig]

As someone who likes to watch movies in their original language I disagree. Dubbing just sucks in most cases, England, the Netherlands, Flanders and the Nordic countries are just better for that kind of stuff.

[erbse]

Who's watching movies on TV, anyway?
Commercials, censorship, technical quality, lightning strokes...


There's nothing like some good DVD evening with a bunch of buddies and a full beer crate

[Kampflamm]

The BBC is 10 times better than ARD. They don't spend their license fees on Volksmusik and movies for pensioners.