I graduated from uni with a finance degree. Also has 3 papers from ACCA. I'm just curious. Please anyone, let me know!

Hallo, hope all are well.

I have bought a Karup Design Japan bed and I am looking to buy a really good mattress to go with it.

In the past, the best mattress I ever had was when I decided to order one called "orthopaedic" - although I have no back issues at all - and it came double-sided (so sort of "fleecy" on one side for winter and "plain" on the other side for summer). Unfortunately, that was 20 years ago and in another country.

My worst experience was when I ordered a "memory foam" pillow here in Germany and it was so uncomfortable, unpractical and just seemed to make me sweat.

I tend to like firm mattresses (as I drop asleep on anything) and find that even a decent IKEA mattress does me very well. I wonder if anyone can give me any positive stories or recommendations after buying a new mattress from a German merchant (I live in Munich). I want to buy a really good one, but not just "the most expensive" (as I honestly find IKEA quality good).

Thanks in advance.

Is it shampoo? Is it conditioner? Is it shampoo and conditioner? Is it lotion? I don’t know. And google translate hasn’t been much help

Hello!

Today, on Allerheiligen, I visited my hometown and sorted through some old, forgotten documents belonging to my grandmother. I was partly driven by nostalgia and partly because I’m currently reading a historical book about WWII, knowing my great-grandfather was an active participant in the war.

It turns out he was sent to the Gusen concentration camp. Among the many documents, I found letters from him, most of which I managed to transcribe and translate—except for a few that I can't decipher. My knowledge of German is limited, so I can’t make sense of these. Any help with translation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

https://preview.redd.it/ex7vju8xedyd1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b046dca77bd3caa7f8386cf87ff0686abfa6c130

https://preview.redd.it/j0r8zt8xedyd1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60d2eee78d197f40984851a55d23070e1bf8eae5

https://preview.redd.it/qot5wu8xedyd1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=673193671ec6d978d49a26224151f4a2969f1045

https://preview.redd.it/p6l48v8xedyd1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d2aadf4f1da7be7a3f6042aa1aadd6795717a5fd

My fiance will go to the military duty in turkey and smartphones will be forbidden. If I cant find anything I will choose the cheapest international SMS tariff and pay stupid prices but if there is something like an SMS package, Im open for any solution

I received a job offer from them; they saw my profile on Indeed. They want me to download Telegram to proceed with an interview for a remote position. What gives me pause is that I'm American and I know absolutely zero German. They don't seem to have any business in the US that I could find either. I'm wary of scams, so I was hoping to get some insight into their business. Any info helps. Thanks!

My husband and I have been considering moving to Germany but we would like to find out beforehand what exactly our titles homologate to in Germany. I studied Integración Social. Is a Grado Superior similar to an Ausbildung?

Thanks!

Hi guys! I’ve been living in my new apartment for about 1 month now. Since I moved in I had issues with the shower and radiator not always being hot. I brought it up immediately to the apartment company and they said they’d work on it. That was about 3.5 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago I messaged them again saying it’s still an issue and had no response. I reached out to them this Monday saying the same thing, no response. Now that it’s starting to get cold this is really becoming and issue. I know in Germany it is possible to withhold rent due to issues like this, does that mean it’s time to then? And if so, how do I go about that correctly? Thanks in advance!

There are some large sites for English language webnovels, like Royal Road, but where do German authors publish their German webnovels?

My exam is on 10th December, anyone here sitting for this exam?

We can create WhatsApp group to prepare for it together

SO this is something very important I would like to know since I may or may not have done Schwarzarbeit for 2 months and I want to come back to study and live there.

For context: I applied for a job in person in a kind of healthy fast food because I needed money and they needed people. I got the job and started working pretty fast, kind of 1 or 2 weeks after it (in June). I need to be precise it was a student job. The training started and they showed me how everything worked and how I should do things. The thing is I never sign any contract for that. (I actually don't remember). I remember that I gave them my health insurance information as well as my tax number and bank account. So probably I did sign it. The thing is 2 months after I started, the employer was asking me for my Immatrikulationsbescheinigung. I was unable to give it to him since I wasn't enrolled at the university because I took a semester break. I ofc told him that. I asked him if I could give it to him in September once I re-enrolled and he just gave me a deadline. Well after the deadline he saw I was unable to give it to him and he fired me at the end of August (did not work that month). I got the letter and that was it.

I left Germany in December last year because I did not enroll at the Uni due to some personal stuff and came back to my home country for some months (visa also expired since I was not a student). I find myself now in another country with my parents. I now am enrolled back at the university and I am studying online. I am planning to go back for exams and then stay there for good.

So I am wondering, I know Schwarzarbeit is very bad.... so idk if it is too late or if I still should do something about it. I don't know how bad the consequences could be. I want to apply for a student visa in January but I am very scared that they will find out and they will deny it. I don't know what to do. I ofc learned my lessons. When I am back I will do things right but for now this is what troubles me...

Please give me some tips and advice

Hi everyone, today encountered weird situation and want to hear your opinion. I was driving on the autobahn and guy in BMW in front(left lane) of me amost stopped to talk with a truck driver on the right lane. I guess guy in BMW though that truck cut him off or something. I signaled him to drive, since lane in front of him was empty. Then he was driving relatively slow(60-70) in the left lane for approx 3-5 km, then he went to the right lane. When I was overtaking him I noticed that he was filming me on his IPhone. I wasn't antagonising him during his slow ride, maybe once speed up and closed distance to him to approx 5 meters, since lane was empty and I thought he would speed up. So what are your thoughts on the situation? Also what do you think he will do with footage?

Hi everyone, I am one of the master's students at TUM and want to get your opinions about a project we are doing. Our problem was raised by Small and medium-sized companies in Germany that want to improve themselves in the field of sustainability but have a lack of know-how and resources regarding studies in this field (sustainability reporting, evaluation, employee encouragement) and sustainable digitalization. And we basically want to develop an app with these 3 main goals:

1-A points system that will encourage the employees of SMEs to contribute to sustainability

2- Measuring the sustainability and SDG contributions of SMEs with parameters such as CO2 emissions, water use, and energy efficiency with an AI-supported software

3-Ensuring that SMEs are matched with experts in their field to solve specific sustainability-related problems

I would really appreciate your input about this idea

To all holders of the German Blue Card, I have a question. I arrived in Germany just over a year ago and started working with a D visa under the Blue Card paragraph. I waited almost a year for my residence permit appointment, and finally, I received my card. During the appointment, I was informed that I could change jobs without notifying the ABH (Ausländerbehörde) only after another year, as the year only starts counting from the time I received the card. This means that an entire year of my work experience was not counted due to the long wait for the appointment. So, I have a few questions:

1. After notifying ABH of a company change, they have 30 days to object. Has anyone here ever received such an objection?
2. At what point should I send the notification about the company change: after submitting my resignation letter or after signing a contract with the new company?
3. Am I allowed to sign a contract with the new company before notifying the ABH?
4. What happens if I’ve submitted a resignation letter to my current company, signed a contract with the new one, and then receive an objection from the ABH?

I'd be very grateful if you could share your experiences.

I am confused about which ones to select, since a lot of people i see on YouTube have cgpa more than 8.5/10 ( probably 1.6 something), mainly in German universities, although a lot of them are not from visual computing. Could anyone doing visual computing help me out? My final year project was in visual computing ( computer vision ) , and it got a 25 lakh rupee funding ( around 35k euros ), I have published a paper on this. Additionally, I worked on a computer graphics project, funded around 77 lakhs rupees (around 85k euros or something), by the government of India. But my GPA is average, and I am unsure if I have a chance.

I have applied to :

University of saarland ( Visual computing)
University of bonn ( Computer Science, with visual computing for my master Theis).

but i think they are very competitive, is there any university that I can apply as safety.

Hi friends, i have an issue

Im in my last semester of bachelor studies, starting to write my thesis. However, i got offered a full time position that would suit me just great. The company handled my blue card application. However, now it turns out that, as I havent yet gotten my Masters here, I might not be issued a blue card. The company handling it initially said all should be good but are now backtracking.

I then to be on a safe side also applied to extend my student permit.

My question is: will they not issue me a BC because im a student here yet and only have my bachelors from another country? And it they miraculously do, will that affect my study status? The immigration experts assigned to me seem to be not really very versed in the matter as one would have thought.

My permit expires 15th of November and thats when my job start that was supposed to be, but no wore from the ABH.

Any tips?

Tnx! 💖

I am trying to figure it out but all of it its in german and it doesnt really makes sence if you translate it.

Would I get accepted into a TUM Master's program with a bachelor's from KIT assuming I pass TUM's admission test? I'm basically asking if TUM accepts Master students from KIT, which is ranked lower..

I already hold a driver’s license from my home country in Asia, but after living in Germany for a while, I decided to convert it to a German one. Unfortunately, my license isn’t eligible for a direct exchange, so I’m required to go through the theory and practical exams here (Umschreiben). Ironically, a German license can be exchanged directly in my home country.

I knew Germany was one of the most expensive places to get a license, but I was still shocked at the actual costs after registering with a driving school. Here’s a breakdown of the charges I’m facing:

1. Anmeldung + Lern-App: €300 + €100
2. Fahrstunden: €70/45min
3. Vorstellung zur theoretischen Prüfung: €175
4. Vorstellung zur praktischen Prüfung: €275
5. Theorie + Praxis TÜV: €25 + €130

Assuming I’m a decent driver and only need 10 lessons, this adds up to €1,705. Even if I count the €100 Lern-App as useful, I estimate only about 47% of these costs go toward actual learning, while the remaining 53% feels like “admin fees.”

My main gripe: Items 1, 3, and 4 seem unreasonable. I understand that these costs are common or standard. But the driving school mainly just schedules the exams for me. The service I get for these costs doesn’t feel justified. And since I can’t schedule exams directly with TÜV, I’m forced to pay these “weird" bundled costs through the driving school with no other options.

On top of this, I have another €130 in miscellaneous costs for things like translation through ADAC, the first-aid course, and other paperwork. And, of course, anything involving a German official body is paper-based, which only adds to the delays.

All in all, the process of getting a license here feels unnecessarily lengthy, expensive, and bureaucratic.

What do you all think?

My friend is about to finish her STEM PhD in Germany in spring. She lived here for 5 years with a residence permit according to paragraph §18d. She read, that after this she is eligible for an 18-month job search residence permit (Aufenthaltserlaubnis zur Arbeitsplatzsuche § 20 AufenthG). She currently has "Erwerbstätigkeit erlaubt" on her permit.

But then there is a problem: it's unlikely that she will find a job, which explicitly requires her exact academic education - more like Quereinsteiger job in IT that looks for graduates in STEM (her degree listed in the job requirements, but not in the job title). In this case, does the employer have to go through a labor market check to hire her? I vaguely remember seeing something about test conditions being relaxed from 2024 onwards, but can't remember where. Maybe I'm mistaken.

Another thing is that my friend is Ukrainian. I've read that Ukrainians with §24 (temporary protection) can work without restrictions, so I assume, no labor market test?.. Would it then be wiser for her to apply to §24 instead of §20 in order to be hireable? However, to my knowledge it's very hard to leave §24, let alone get the permanent permit afterwards

To answer possible questions:

1. no permanent permit because of omnipresent short-term contracts in academia

2. she can't go back to Ukraine, as her home is near the active war zone

Do you have any recommendations in this case? Thank you a lot in advance!

I’ve heard that Germany doesn’t sell cold medicine like the US does. Am I allowed to bring NyQuill or Sudafed with me incase we catch a cold?

Hi everyone!

Our 5th anniversary is coming up in December, and I’m planning a surprise weekend getaway for my husband. We’re based in NRW, where it’s flat and snow is rare, so I’m dreaming of something a bit more magical—a cozy spot in Germany with mountains, snow (if we're lucky!), and that perfect Christmas vibe.

I’m thinking of a cute little town or maybe a cabin in the forest, somewhere we can feel truly away from it all. A hotel with mountain views, a cozy cabin, or even a resort with a sauna would be amazing. We’re aiming for a romantic, wintry escape, ideally with a dusting of snow around December 20th.

Would love any recommendations for those fairytale spots with great scenery and seasonal charm!

Does this sound like something a German would say?

“You can’t do this to me! I’m a law abiding citizen!”

Have a friend who lives in Germany. Close to Bad Durkheim.

They lost their pet this week and wanted to know if it would be viewed favorably if I tried to send them flowers with a nice note/card?

If not, what would be a better way to support them and send them some love from the USA?

I ask because in the USA it’s a thing to send flowers when a person or a pet passes away.

My mom and brother are coming to visit me in Germany this month, so i in the middle of October I got them deutschland tickets. I was gonna get both on the DB app, but for some reason after I got one for my mom they just weren’t accepting my attempts to get one for my brother. So I decided to get it somewhere else because I know that you’re able to get it through other sites. The one that I saw no matter how I searched and was the first one to pop up was de-ticket (https://de-ticket.com/en), and it seemed like a great site and I’d seen the logo before and everything so I didn’t really question it. But now after seeing some reviews and people talking I just really don’t know and am quite scared that it’s not going to be valid. Plus if I want to get a valid one I can only do it today because it’s already the 1st of November. Please help urgently. The ticket also had a 5€ discount which I found odd and should’ve led me to not buy it.

UPDATE: Honestly I don’t trust it, so I’m not even gonna try to use it. Better to be out 49 than 60 euros. Plus I don’t want to be using a sketchy ticket even if it works the first couple times. I want to try to dispute the charge on my card, but it’s probably a long shot since it charged me in the middle of October and it was debit. I’m gonna claim it was fraud but I’d need to send further proof. Does anyone know how I’d be able to “prove it” to a certain extent?

UPDATE 2: I contacted them, saying that I’d like a refund due to an invalid ticket. They responded immediately asking if I got checked and had issues and if I could send a picture. I stated that I didn’t, but upon further research realized that it was untrustworthy and I would therefore not even try to use it, since I didn’t want to get fined or use a ticket that was gotten through something sketchy. I also said that since it was only the first of the month and I hadn’t even used it, that I hoped it would be less of an issue. They responded saying that they’ve had some issues with some tickets not scanning properly in the past, but they’ve fixed it. But he said he’d cancel my ticket and refund me as a show of good faith. Thank god. I hope it’s a quick and easy process

Hello you all.
I will be going to a fair in Dusseldorf and intend to purchase some very expensive samples which I intend to bring back home with me.
I understand I am entitled to a tax refund on my way out of the Germany/EU.
I have a few questions:

1. How do I go about requesting the refund? WHat are the steps? Where exactly should I go in Dusseldorf to do that? Do I need forms prepared before going to these offices?

2. I read you need to show the goods you are purchasing. Does that mean the goods will need to be in my carry on? Can they possibly be put inside the bags I am checking in?

Any tips to avoid last minute problems will be highly appreciated.

That’s less than 1k a month. It’s very tough making ends meet on that kinda budget. Rent itself is crazy. The average rent I’ve seen on some websites is like 600€ for a shared flat (WG) and if it’s less than that it’s so difficult to find accommodation when you’re competing with lots of other people. I’ve had a rough time finding accommodation and I don’t even live in the most expensive cities. Can someone give me recommendations for student jobs that can make me an extra 200€ a month? Clothes can be so expensive and I need to buy clothes for winter. Sorry if this feels like I’m venting but what do y’all think is the right budget for a student to live comfortably in Germany?

Hi everyone,

Recently moved to Germany and in process of converting license.

Looking for budget small car with reliability in Germany. (Already looking on mobile.de)

Usage will be within city majorly (<100km/month). Insurance +services +fuel cost should not exceed 300/month

I am open to any brand, would prefer hatchback. Would definitely prefer MB, BMW, Audi, Toyota and VW.

My (12 years) history of owning car in Asia was:

Cressida Nissan sunny Corolla 13 Corolla 16

Thank you in advance.

Hello Leute,

I was wondering how the dental and health care system works in Germany and if it is free or whether you have to pay for stuff?

I'm a dual citizen of UK and Deutschland so obviously I would be accessing the health care system as a German but I'm not sure how it works.

Does it change if you're working or have no job? Thanks

Edit: since some people can't read and jump to conclusions, no I'm not planning on taking advantage of German healthcare, I simply wondered how it worked because a lot of EU Citizens in the UK go back to their country.

Hey everyone,

I’m hoping someone here has had a similar experience and can offer some advice. Here’s my situation:

I obtained my driver’s license in Bulgaria a few years ago while living there. Recently, I moved to Berlin, Germany, and unfortunately lost my wallet, which contained my Bulgarian driver’s license. Since I no longer have residency in Bulgaria (I am also not a citizen of Bulgaria. I lived there with a residency permit which is expired already) and am now a resident of Germany, I’m unsure how to proceed with replacing my lost license.

I’ve emailed the Landesamt für Bürger- und Ordnungsangelegenheiten (LABO) in Berlin to inquire about the process, but I’m still unclear on the necessary steps, required documents, and potential challenges. If anyone has gone through a similar experience or has knowledge about replacing a lost foreign driver’s license in Germany, I’d greatly appreciate your insights.

Thanks in advance for any advice!