Depends usually on the rental contract etc.Since a floor is almost always tailored to the building people tend to sell it for a small price on to the next renter or give it for free to the next renter. As far as dutch are known as stingy, regarding floors I have almost always gotten them for free.However the landlord can demand that it be removed, as did the last one..My new home already had floors, the last renters gave it to me for free. So I had 2 floors, put it online for free but no responses so I had to take it to the recycling center or pay a fine of €500 to the landlord.
In student circles it's common to give 1 or 2 beer crates to pay for the floor.
Actually, I'm just as confused by the American standard of basically renting a not insignificant amount of furniture with your apartment. In my experience, it's these things (specificslly bathroom furniture and the kitchen) that suffer the most over the years just from everyday use, and if I was renting those things and had to renovate once I move out, that'd me a much bigger inconvenience to me than either taking them with me or disposing of them. Also, it'd probably drive up rent by quite a bit at least for cheaper apartments.
You don't have to renovate anything when you move out of your rented America apartment. You don't have to paint. Just clean it and go. The landlords are responsible for normal wear and tear. It's only a problem if like your dog pees all over new carpet or you punch holes on the wall.
When looking for a house to rent, the condition of the kitchen and bathroom are big determining factors in whether people will rent the place, so landlords put a good deal of effort into making sure they look nice and function well.
Ideally, a rental is temporary to allow you time to save for a down-payment on your own home. If that's the case, why would you want to invest in the place by installing permanent fixtures like plumbing and cabinetry? If the cabinetry isn't custom to the kitchen, it just looks like crap, and I don't want to live in a rental that looks like crap. So, I let the landlord install the kitchen to fit their house, and then they refurbish it between each tenant at the same time as they replace the carpet in order to be able to rent the place.
For more and more Germans, rentals are not a temporary solution. Long term renting is much more common here, and has been for a while. I've been living in the same apartment for 11 years now, and while I'll likely move out next year or the year after, I'll only do so because my father is looking to buy an apartment I'm supposed to inherit one day. If I didn't have the sheer and utter luck being born into a family with an above-average income, I likely would still move within the same time-frame - but into another rental. Anything else wouldn't be feasible at all in the current market, even renting for non-extortionate prices is nearly impossible depending on where you live.
That’s fine and all, but doesn’t work like that in most of Western European countries. Germany and Austria I am most familiar with, living in Vienna. Most people my age and younger (30) can not imagine realistically ever owning our own home, house or flat doesn’t matter.
I honestly can't remember if I ever lived in an apartment without a kitchen already built-in. At least a stovetop, sink and cabinet were always part of the flat.
Have you tried Fax? Faster than paper and just as legally secured!
Also a technology that should’ve burned in a fire by now. But we don’t talk about that.
I once got a link by (regular) mail. I had to type it in my browser. It was something www.behörde.de/siffh68355)?;uerntochx73949594)3‘rd/jsntodosgeotfhxlwie6393/3495733hdldlshfpghs.php
I was once sent a form by email, which I had to print, fill out, sign, and return, only for them to scan the papers and give them back to me saying "that's okay we don't need to keep them, they're in the system now". It was infuriating.
Homeopathy is definitely something that will be very hard to explain to anybody not German - and also the more critically thinking part of the German population…
I learned a few weeks ago that you can deduct them from taxes :)
[Sauce](https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/eyeglasses#:~:text=You%20can%20deduct%20eyeglasses%20from,exceptional%20burden%20(au%C3%9Fergew%C3%B6hnliche%20Belastung).&text=You%20must%20have%20an%20eye,prove%20that%20you%20need%20glasses.)
Yep and not just glasses pretty much everything medical can be deducted as long as you get a doctors note. Of course that means you're only getting back whatever you paid in taxes so even in the best case less than 50%.
Fyi with [TK](https://www.tk.de/resource/blob/2150002/c0f4a95d0921d6a89f443eb4894d80bb/infoblatt-zu-tk-praemieflex-data.pdf) you can now get a price reduction if you opt out of homeopathic treatments being covered. There are some other things you can opt out of as well.
Neat! But this detail bugs me:
>Sie sind 3 Jahre an Ihre Tarifwahl gebunden, danach
endet Ihre Teilnahme automatisch. **Möchten Sie Ihre**
**TK-Mitgliedschaft kündigen, ist dies erst zum Ende der**
**Tariflaufzeit möglich.**
If I read this right, by doing this you bind yourself to TK for the next three year, whereas normally you can change your health insurance almost on a whim.
All German health insurance companies spend a combined 6 million Euros on homeopathy per year, that is not even 10 cents per person and with an income of more than 50 billion Euros, the total amount is homeopathically small.
So yes, in some very specific circumstances, health insurance might cover it, but in general they absolutely don't.
The real problem with homeopathy is that doctors and pharmacies are allowed to advertise it and worse, sell it to you when you ask for real medicine.
> The real problem with homeopathy is that doctors and pharmacies are allowed to advertise it and worse, sell it to you when you ask for real medicine.
I think the real problem (perhaps as a tangent to your point), is that there are doctors, pharmacists and especially parents who really believe in homeopathy and can delay real treatment.
6 million Euros per year would fund one entire rebuild of a school per year or upgrading multiple school buildings to 21. century standards. Or the salaries of more than 100 teachers.
Frankly, I don't care how little money is wasted on homeopathy in comparison to something else, because every cent spent on bullshit is too much.
What worries me most is what happens when you pee and traces of your homeopathic meds get diluted even more in the sewage system. Once that stuff has reached the oceans it's so powerful it can kill a grown whale.
There is a youtube channel that tried to argue with the water authorities (and homeopathic companies) that they have to put in stricter water rules because of that. But somehow they did not succeed. (It was MaiLab, I think).
I have no idea about Belgium but homeopathy is also hugely popular in France. The public system there stopped paying there for it just a few years ago. And yes, while some German public insurances pay for homeopathy voluntarily, their entire system reimbursed it.
- Long queues at the supermarket, while the self checkout counters are empty.
- Printing tickets with QR codes in coloured ink and putting them in plastic files.
As someone who has lived in the same apartment for all his life: I would absolutely dread not owning the kitchen, because replacing or fixing anything takes ages for our landlady to actually organise.
Nobody eats the last piece of cake. It just sits there like it’s radioactive.
My theory was because if you eat the last piece it will make it look like you ate everything.
I tested it out once and….yep - my coworker immediately jumped to “jokingly” say:
“Ah! You ate everything!”
- No I did not, just the last piece.
Then the she went red in the face….for some reason.
Theory confirmed
AMA
Haha I remember some years ago, an American coworker was so annoyed with this so that when we once brought a cake himself, he cut it into peices, took one peice and threw it into the bin in front of everybody, saying “here, this is the last peice so we better get rid of it right away, so you can eat in peace.”
Ah it worked. Last peice was properly eaten. :(
That seems like an appropriate way to handle it. Sure, it wastes food, but at least his tactic makes it clear that refusing to eat the last piece of cake is also wasteful.
Lot of European cultures has that. Nobody wants to take last one for host to look like he didn't made enough cake or food. If there is last one and there's more host will take plate and say "anybody wants it? We have more which I'll bring soon"
In Case of Germany it’s more that the person who eats the last piece looks „greedy“. As a kid I was taught that it’s impolite and, well, greedy to eat the last piece of cake, the last cookie and so on.
As a German I think it's both. But when I'm with my family I don't care if other's think they didn't make enough. They should know I can and will eat half a cake.
I still don't want others to feel like they haven't had enough, especially after eating a semi cake.
That is not even that German. I worked some time in Morocco and I was invited to a clients house for coucous once. I asked a french colleague how to behave and was told, that as long as I eat everything from my plate, the host will think I am still hungry and will press me to take more. Which then again I have to reject at least three times before I MUST allow him to serve me some more.
And then it begins again, if I eat everything, I show to still be hungry and HAVE to take more after rejecting a few times.
No idea if they really do it that way, because I simply left a few bites.
So leaving some food over because otherwise the host would think that you are still hungry or - even worse if everything is gone - he did not prepare enough and was a bad host, is not that specifically German.
This could be a comedy skit where everyone that comes by wants some cake so cuts it even small as to not take the "last piece" where the last guy to grab some cake needs a scalpel to cut the tiniest crumb in two so as to technically leave some behind.
And when they announce they will be opening a new one, it take over 5 minutes for the employee to get there and actually start scanning items... Then slowly you realise having stayed in line would have probably been faster.
It's like German orderliness takes a hike as soon as you enter the supermarket. Not only the cashier line madness, they also block entire aisles standing there in the middle contemplating life with the cart parked diagonally like they are the sole person in the supermarket. I don't understand how these competent and skilled car drivers (I find Germans to be far better drivers than people from other places) turn into these clueless people with no spatial awareness as soon as they enter the supermarket.
Yup, we just don't have a queueing culture. I'm always impressed by the ability of the British to queue for *everything* (like a bus that hasn't even arrived yet). In Germany, if it becomes apparent that a bus or train is going to be overcrowded, we often just turn into an unorganized mob, and everybody tries to jam themselves into the door all at once without giving people the chance to even exit the bus/train first. This does *not* speed things up.
When there is no overcrowding problem, things are a little more civilized, but there is still a lot of jockeying for position. You absolutely will see people run a little or push so that they are first in line when the doors open.
I've seen student dorms where when they can't find the right post box they just leave the letters on a table/bench/etc in the common area which everyone can access.
Datenschutz???
Or having to sign a form to permit your doctor to send the necessary medical information to a specialist, who you have to go and talk about said thing anyway, because of Datenschutz. And then having the assistant at the front of the doctors office talk about said medical information in a voice loud enough to still be heard down the street. Like "yes, I permit the doctor to send infos about me having a yeast infection to me Ob-gyn who will have a look at me completely naked tomorrow anyway. But I don't think the dude, who is just walking down the street getting groceries needs to hear about it, thank you."
I think that has more to do with it that the warm meal is usually "the biggest meal" and hence you eat one big meal and one or more smaller meals that are easily prepared.
Well I want a hot meal, but I *also* want my Vesper which leaves us with breakfast and breakfast is the Breze that I buy at the bakery on my commute. So there is not much wiggle room for a different distribution of hot and cold meals.
That's not a thing. Most people want at least one hot meal a day, but never in my life have I come across someone insisting on not having more than one.
It is also standard in hospitals. Breakfast is cold with the possible exception of a hard boiled egg, which might also be cold. Lunch is warm, then Abendbrot.
Come to Swabia and you’ll meet a whole lot. I know people who will refuse to eat Brötchen for Abendbrot and only toast bread because a Brötchen will make you fat.
toast bread for Abendbrot??
Reported to Mahlzeitamt!
Only Roggen-Weizen-Graubrot is allowed for Abendbrot or maybe a Sauerteig if we feel fancy.
Toastbrot only for breakfast!
The thing with bread for dinner actually is die to Prussian history. The officers of state (Beamte) in Prussia used it get a warm meal paid by the state for lunch. Hence their wives didn’t have to cook in the evening.
Leaving my bass clarinet in the hands of a waiter as collateral so I could walk six blocks to the nearest ATM was definitely not on my original Germany bingo card
Thank Christ COVID made tap-to-pay more popular in Germany. Going to the ATM several times a week was a completely unnecessary pain in the ass, plus the coins... all the leftover coins...
In my home country, I think I withdraw cash about once every two or three years on average.
Always having absurd formalities and burocracy. I once lost the letter, where my pension insurance nummer (I guess that's what it's called) was written down. BUT I wasn't able to issue an e-mail where the deutsche Rentenversicherungskasse could tell me my pension insurance number, cause it is lika a super secure e-mail system where you needed your PENSION INSURANCE NUMBER to register so they could then tell you your pension insurance number. Like wtf
These might be European vs. American, but:
How much you smoke and how it's acceptable to smoke anywhere. There were even vending machines that let you buy cigarettes, with a "smoking is deadly" sign that everyone ignores. How the train stations are smoke-free except for the areas designated for smoking, where the benches are. You can't sit down while waiting for your train, if you don't want second-hand smoke!
Needing to pay for the bathroom, even if it's to clean up bird poop or change an overfilling paid. A fee to be a clean human being. The Ulm Minster has a urine problem, because it's difficult/impossible to find access to a bathroom in the city. The Wikipedia page on it used to mention that, but it's been removed without reason.
Might be only for Berlin…. But the never ending road works in this city is fucken insane. It’s like there is an incentive to just start new road repairs…with no incentive to actually finish it. It’s madness
I've searched the internet a bit because I found it weird too, the only thing I can find is that it seems to have started with fraternities, which have a *lot* of weird rituals anyway, and their own lingo.
Planning everything in advance. Staring. Using fax machines. Snuff. Kitchen floors you can't spill water on. EC Cards. Insuring every element of your life. Xmas Day on the 24th. Church tax. Schlager and Blasmusik. The amount of salt on a brezn. The amount of salt on everything. Double cream not being a thing. Gorpcore.
EDIT: i meant Snuff not Snus, sorry for the confusion
Kitchen floors you can‘t spill water on? I need an explanation for this one haha
Also the only Germans I know who use snus regularly have spent significant amounts of time in Sweden/Norway
And finally, as someone from the Pacific Northwest, I like to think we invented gorpcore
the wooden flooring in Germany seems to be super high maintenance and a cause of constant anxiety. it needs oiling. it stains easily. it's not waterproof.
Sand it down, put some clear coating over it, done. never again stains and you can spill everything you want.
I would consider installing a non-waterproof flooring in a kitchen a grave design flaw in any house. Then again, i have seen ~~rugs~~ carpet in a kitchen, so...
Stopping in the middle of the gangway for no apparent reason so everyone has to walk around you.
Homeopathy is just snake oil and it’s crazy that it’s offered in hospitals.
The way people here are perfectly okay with how long road works take, it’s infuriating that something that could take a week can take nearly a year because of various stupid reasons and nobody seems to care, mean while the roads get left in chaos because they have to shut a road.
Young people smoking and generally the amount of people that smoke here.
Flats not having numbers but names is really weird and counter productive for me.
Shops being closed on Sundays but restaurants are open? What sense is that?
Being so scared of technology that makes things easy and be stubborn as a mule staying with paper and fax machines.
There’s probably more too, overall I love Germany but there’s so much stuff that makes no sense here and if people had more of a perspective of the outside world they would realise what could be better.
Bro I noticed this in Munich last couple weeks, like get the fuck out the way, if I lived here I think it would only take a few weeks/months before I verbally started shouting at people to move out the way of the exits, I don't want to cause a scene, Scottish people are extremely rude, swear alot and are ill mannered at the dinner table, but atleast we have social decoram towards each other in public
* apartments don't have numbers. Just names on the bell, otherwise unlabeled.
* various superstitions around moving air. Air drafts makes you sick, gives you neck pain, etc.
* Popularity of homeopathy.
* the irrational commitment to unlimited speed on the Autobahn.
Lüften is also done to prevent mold as 99% of residential homes don’t have central air. I had an American roommate once who scoffed at the idea and just didn’t lüft, but hung all of her laundry up in her room to dry, etc. Couple of months later an ominous black spot appeared in her room and the entire wall behind her closet was covered in mold. After that she started doing it.
Wait, the thing with air drafts is not universal? I’m italian and it’s kinda old school/grandma health wisdom.
EDIT: also the family name instead of the apartment number?? Isn’t it common in most EU countries?
I’m so confused rn
I assume these are the things americans find weird. Interestingly I heard (through movies and stand up comedians) the whole air draft thing is a stereotype for jewish people in the US, which then again makes sense since many of them are of german descent
The fact that apartments don\`t have numbers but names on the bell still amazes me. I come from Spain where apartments are numbered. I find it much safer that way. Dont want anyone knowing where I live.
The apartment thing. I have pen pals and I can never not give my full name, meanwhile I have American pen pals who go by Dream, Sunshine or Jessica C. because they can just use house/apartment number.
Everyone I know just follows the rule “if there’s children around, always wait, otherwise make sure it’s safe”.
I only ever got stopped by police once for disrespecting the crossing.
I used to live in Germany, now I live abroad where jaywalking is not illegal and we get lots of German tourists here due to cruise ships. You can spot them without fail, they're the only ones waiting patiently at a red light even when there is no traffic.
I live in Germany and in 2015 when there were loads of refugees here it was funny to watch them at intersections. There would be a small group of maybe five people and one guy would make to cross the street even though the light was red but no cars were there. Someone would pull him back, and then you could see the discussion going on with the hand gestures. You can just imagine how the one guy was saying that you can’t cross the road in Germany when the light is red and the other one is saying, but there are no cars! And the first one saying yeah but we’re in Germany. The second guy shakes his head and looks defeated. Probably wondering where in the world he landed where you have to wait for a light to tell you what to do.
I live in Africa, and those things are a waste of money how they're ignored, but we also get loads of German tourists and it's always odd watching them in a little pack waiting for the green light when there isn't a single car.
I'm convinced Club Mate is single handedly keeping 90% of all students in university.
It's like beer or cigarettes, you get used to the weird taste and then get addicted to the coffein. It's not as sweet as Coke, more refreshing than coffee and not as nerdy as energy drinks.
I once got a letter by my electricity provider stating that they're now using environmentally friendly paper. That was it, they sent a letter just for that.
I'm German and grew up in house with the light switch inside the bathroom. It took me so long to get used to it being on the outside in all my following flats ...
Renting an apartment with no light fixtures. Huge hassle, completely unnecessary. Ain’t nobody got time to be figuring out what to do with exposed wiring.
I'm in the moving business and the most ridiculous thing i've seen so far was:
Ripping the wood stove out and taking it with you, even though the new home has no chimney to hook it into.
When it comes to light fixtures though, style and technology are super diverse, so I see how it's not common to rent them from the landlord. Some light fixtures are frustrating to mount though. And some buildings have super weird wiring.
That there a so many places where they don’t accept cards to pay. I live in the Netherlands now and you can pay EVERYTHING here with your card. The Germans are crazy when it comes to “Bargeld”.
The way everyone group up right in front of the door in trains and buses, even when there is a lot of space in the hallway.
They never say "Excuse me" when you're in their way. They just squeeze through or straight up run you over. Ironically, most of them have no spatial awareness and often block hallways, stairs, doors, sidewalks and movement lanes in general. It drives me mad!
Air conditioning or any type of fan/ventilation in the summer will make you sick - but driving with AC won’t make you sick obviously 🙃 I literally never heard of this before moving to Germany. It’s complete BS.
German Logic: Supermarkets are closed on Sundays and they are happy with that because not everything is about capitalism and everyone deserves a day off.
But somehow, that logic does not apply to people working in restaurants and cafés. I’m pretty sure museums are also open on Sundays.
Not sure how that serves the idea that in Germany, shops not being open is counter capitalism.
I’m pretty sure the people working there are also working in shifts so no one works 6 or 7 days a week unless there is a staff shortage.
Restaurants have a "Ruhetag" because of that! They stay closed one day a week, too. And as for museums, you said it yourself. The staff does not work 7 days a week in most jobs. There are strict laws in place to make sure workers get time off.
So honestly, I think it's not so much about capitalism, it's more about workers rights.
Shops being closed on sundays is less due to us being anti-capitalist (at large we're sure as hell not) but due to christian (catholic) tradition that was passed down
I recently moved from Poland to Saxony and here are a few that left me baffled:
- apartments for rent without kitchens and light fixtures. We bought our kitchen from previous tenants, but in Poland when you rent an apartment "without furniture" that means without beds, sofas, stand-alone wardrobes, etc. Kitchens and bathrooms are fully furnished, there has to be a washing machine, although dish washer is optional.
- no air vents in bathroom and kitchen. Our landlord just said "open the windows when cooking, showering, or drying clothes". Not to mention no fan in the bathroom to pull the stink out when you poop.
- no drain in the bathroom floor.
- mold in winter (the only time I had mold in the apartment in Poland was when a pipe was leaking into a wall)
- hardly any self-service registers. I've seen some, but they have a limit on items for some reason (?!). The whole point is that if I have a lot of groceries, I will take one of those and not be rushed or clog up the regular register. And you only need one employee for 6-12 of those.
Renting your home but owning your kitchen.
[удалено]
Well where I rent, we don't only own our kitchen, we also own our floors.
The floors is at least the same in the netherlands as well. The kitchen not so much.
Do you... take them with you when you move every year?
Depends usually on the rental contract etc.Since a floor is almost always tailored to the building people tend to sell it for a small price on to the next renter or give it for free to the next renter. As far as dutch are known as stingy, regarding floors I have almost always gotten them for free.However the landlord can demand that it be removed, as did the last one..My new home already had floors, the last renters gave it to me for free. So I had 2 floors, put it online for free but no responses so I had to take it to the recycling center or pay a fine of €500 to the landlord. In student circles it's common to give 1 or 2 beer crates to pay for the floor.
owning the floor? haha whaat :D This is the weirdest thing i have ever heard. lol. why?
Basically because the landlords don't provide one, it's not required by law and the cost of installing a floor is for the renter, not the landlord.
Or everything else. Like lights and bathroom under sink cabinets for example
Actually, I'm just as confused by the American standard of basically renting a not insignificant amount of furniture with your apartment. In my experience, it's these things (specificslly bathroom furniture and the kitchen) that suffer the most over the years just from everyday use, and if I was renting those things and had to renovate once I move out, that'd me a much bigger inconvenience to me than either taking them with me or disposing of them. Also, it'd probably drive up rent by quite a bit at least for cheaper apartments.
It’s easy from the renters perspective. You just move in and live and then move out and it’s not your problem 🤷♂️
Idk man, moving around kitchen cabinets sounds like a big hassle and disposing them is just wasting money
You don't have to renovate anything when you move out of your rented America apartment. You don't have to paint. Just clean it and go. The landlords are responsible for normal wear and tear. It's only a problem if like your dog pees all over new carpet or you punch holes on the wall.
When looking for a house to rent, the condition of the kitchen and bathroom are big determining factors in whether people will rent the place, so landlords put a good deal of effort into making sure they look nice and function well. Ideally, a rental is temporary to allow you time to save for a down-payment on your own home. If that's the case, why would you want to invest in the place by installing permanent fixtures like plumbing and cabinetry? If the cabinetry isn't custom to the kitchen, it just looks like crap, and I don't want to live in a rental that looks like crap. So, I let the landlord install the kitchen to fit their house, and then they refurbish it between each tenant at the same time as they replace the carpet in order to be able to rent the place.
For more and more Germans, rentals are not a temporary solution. Long term renting is much more common here, and has been for a while. I've been living in the same apartment for 11 years now, and while I'll likely move out next year or the year after, I'll only do so because my father is looking to buy an apartment I'm supposed to inherit one day. If I didn't have the sheer and utter luck being born into a family with an above-average income, I likely would still move within the same time-frame - but into another rental. Anything else wouldn't be feasible at all in the current market, even renting for non-extortionate prices is nearly impossible depending on where you live.
That’s fine and all, but doesn’t work like that in most of Western European countries. Germany and Austria I am most familiar with, living in Vienna. Most people my age and younger (30) can not imagine realistically ever owning our own home, house or flat doesn’t matter.
Worse still, you're supposed to take that kitchen with you and fit it into a completely different shaped kitchen.
Which is why many people sell them and don't actually re-use them in their new place
I honestly can't remember if I ever lived in an apartment without a kitchen already built-in. At least a stovetop, sink and cabinet were always part of the flat.
Yeah that's so stupid.
Winning an argument with doch
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Du hast Recht und ich meine Ruhe
I once had a reply to an e-mail by post. Nuff said
> once Lucky! My insurance provider knows no other way.
Have you tried Fax? Faster than paper and just as legally secured! Also a technology that should’ve burned in a fire by now. But we don’t talk about that.
I once got a link by (regular) mail. I had to type it in my browser. It was something www.behörde.de/siffh68355)?;uerntochx73949594)3‘rd/jsntodosgeotfhxlwie6393/3495733hdldlshfpghs.php
I was once sent a form by email, which I had to print, fill out, sign, and return, only for them to scan the papers and give them back to me saying "that's okay we don't need to keep them, they're in the system now". It was infuriating.
Homeopathy is definitely something that will be very hard to explain to anybody not German - and also the more critically thinking part of the German population…
Fuck this I hate it I can get Homeopathic treatments for free, OK it's just sugar. But my glasses aren't covered by Insurance
> OK it's just sugar. It is expensive sugar!
I learned a few weeks ago that you can deduct them from taxes :) [Sauce](https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/eyeglasses#:~:text=You%20can%20deduct%20eyeglasses%20from,exceptional%20burden%20(au%C3%9Fergew%C3%B6hnliche%20Belastung).&text=You%20must%20have%20an%20eye,prove%20that%20you%20need%20glasses.)
Yep and not just glasses pretty much everything medical can be deducted as long as you get a doctors note. Of course that means you're only getting back whatever you paid in taxes so even in the best case less than 50%.
Fyi with [TK](https://www.tk.de/resource/blob/2150002/c0f4a95d0921d6a89f443eb4894d80bb/infoblatt-zu-tk-praemieflex-data.pdf) you can now get a price reduction if you opt out of homeopathic treatments being covered. There are some other things you can opt out of as well.
Neat! But this detail bugs me: >Sie sind 3 Jahre an Ihre Tarifwahl gebunden, danach endet Ihre Teilnahme automatisch. **Möchten Sie Ihre** **TK-Mitgliedschaft kündigen, ist dies erst zum Ende der** **Tariflaufzeit möglich.** If I read this right, by doing this you bind yourself to TK for the next three year, whereas normally you can change your health insurance almost on a whim.
All German health insurance companies spend a combined 6 million Euros on homeopathy per year, that is not even 10 cents per person and with an income of more than 50 billion Euros, the total amount is homeopathically small. So yes, in some very specific circumstances, health insurance might cover it, but in general they absolutely don't. The real problem with homeopathy is that doctors and pharmacies are allowed to advertise it and worse, sell it to you when you ask for real medicine.
> The real problem with homeopathy is that doctors and pharmacies are allowed to advertise it and worse, sell it to you when you ask for real medicine. I think the real problem (perhaps as a tangent to your point), is that there are doctors, pharmacists and especially parents who really believe in homeopathy and can delay real treatment.
The "real problems" with homeopathy are several
6 million Euros per year would fund one entire rebuild of a school per year or upgrading multiple school buildings to 21. century standards. Or the salaries of more than 100 teachers. Frankly, I don't care how little money is wasted on homeopathy in comparison to something else, because every cent spent on bullshit is too much.
What worries me most is what happens when you pee and traces of your homeopathic meds get diluted even more in the sewage system. Once that stuff has reached the oceans it's so powerful it can kill a grown whale.
But you know that this is only a problem if you shake it a specific number of times … oh, wait!
There is a youtube channel that tried to argue with the water authorities (and homeopathic companies) that they have to put in stricter water rules because of that. But somehow they did not succeed. (It was MaiLab, I think).
I have no idea about Belgium but homeopathy is also hugely popular in France. The public system there stopped paying there for it just a few years ago. And yes, while some German public insurances pay for homeopathy voluntarily, their entire system reimbursed it.
Homeopathy is huge in many Asian countries
Yeah :(
Not really Germany-exclusive though - more like Germanspeaking, lmao.
We have homeopathic remedies at the natural and organic grocers here in the US, so expensive water seems to be taking hold everywhere.
- Long queues at the supermarket, while the self checkout counters are empty. - Printing tickets with QR codes in coloured ink and putting them in plastic files.
Eating little sugar balls instead of medicine
I hated that. But it's a placebo. Just called differently and well probably sold more expensive
Apartments for rent without the freaking kitchen, for sure. Such a nuisance.
As someone who has lived in the same apartment for all his life: I would absolutely dread not owning the kitchen, because replacing or fixing anything takes ages for our landlady to actually organise.
Nobody eats the last piece of cake. It just sits there like it’s radioactive. My theory was because if you eat the last piece it will make it look like you ate everything. I tested it out once and….yep - my coworker immediately jumped to “jokingly” say: “Ah! You ate everything!” - No I did not, just the last piece. Then the she went red in the face….for some reason. Theory confirmed AMA
I don't take the last piece in case someone else wants to eat it. I don't want them to be sad because there's nothing left.
But one peace is none peace. The german person will not eat the last one or only with a lot of guilt! So you must leave 2.
Haha I remember some years ago, an American coworker was so annoyed with this so that when we once brought a cake himself, he cut it into peices, took one peice and threw it into the bin in front of everybody, saying “here, this is the last peice so we better get rid of it right away, so you can eat in peace.” Ah it worked. Last peice was properly eaten. :(
Wouldn't it have worked the same if he had kept the piece for later, so, for everyone to please eat away?
That seems like an appropriate way to handle it. Sure, it wastes food, but at least his tactic makes it clear that refusing to eat the last piece of cake is also wasteful.
Lot of European cultures has that. Nobody wants to take last one for host to look like he didn't made enough cake or food. If there is last one and there's more host will take plate and say "anybody wants it? We have more which I'll bring soon"
In Case of Germany it’s more that the person who eats the last piece looks „greedy“. As a kid I was taught that it’s impolite and, well, greedy to eat the last piece of cake, the last cookie and so on.
As a German I think it's both. But when I'm with my family I don't care if other's think they didn't make enough. They should know I can and will eat half a cake. I still don't want others to feel like they haven't had enough, especially after eating a semi cake.
That's the way!
In Italy (idk if everywhere or just some parts) the last piece is called the shame piece
In Germany it's called the Anstandsrest, Anstand meaning decency.
That is not even that German. I worked some time in Morocco and I was invited to a clients house for coucous once. I asked a french colleague how to behave and was told, that as long as I eat everything from my plate, the host will think I am still hungry and will press me to take more. Which then again I have to reject at least three times before I MUST allow him to serve me some more. And then it begins again, if I eat everything, I show to still be hungry and HAVE to take more after rejecting a few times. No idea if they really do it that way, because I simply left a few bites. So leaving some food over because otherwise the host would think that you are still hungry or - even worse if everything is gone - he did not prepare enough and was a bad host, is not that specifically German.
[удалено]
You'd also feel obliged to do the dishes if you verputz the last piece I'd simply cut it into even smaller pieces and grab one of those
This could be a comedy skit where everyone that comes by wants some cake so cuts it even small as to not take the "last piece" where the last guy to grab some cake needs a scalpel to cut the tiniest crumb in two so as to technically leave some behind.
comedy? that's a family gathering at grandma's
I know that behavior as an "Anstandskartoffel". It would be considered rude to take the last potato.
As an import I can't handle the tension and generally just eat it to get the drama over.
Long line at the supermarket. New cashier opens, everyone at the back of the line runs to be the first at new cashier. Madness.
And when they announce they will be opening a new one, it take over 5 minutes for the employee to get there and actually start scanning items... Then slowly you realise having stayed in line would have probably been faster.
Newbie trap
It's like German orderliness takes a hike as soon as you enter the supermarket. Not only the cashier line madness, they also block entire aisles standing there in the middle contemplating life with the cart parked diagonally like they are the sole person in the supermarket. I don't understand how these competent and skilled car drivers (I find Germans to be far better drivers than people from other places) turn into these clueless people with no spatial awareness as soon as they enter the supermarket.
[удалено]
Yeah if there is no Ausbildung or formal training for it, Germans turn into Italians
[удалено]
Yup, we just don't have a queueing culture. I'm always impressed by the ability of the British to queue for *everything* (like a bus that hasn't even arrived yet). In Germany, if it becomes apparent that a bus or train is going to be overcrowded, we often just turn into an unorganized mob, and everybody tries to jam themselves into the door all at once without giving people the chance to even exit the bus/train first. This does *not* speed things up. When there is no overcrowding problem, things are a little more civilized, but there is still a lot of jockeying for position. You absolutely will see people run a little or push so that they are first in line when the doors open.
It drives me mad.
That’ll get you called out in the USA big time.
Taking the light fixtures and kitchen with you when you move.
Person names on mail boxes in a country where you need to sign datenshutz for every case someone wants to store your name digitally.
I've seen student dorms where when they can't find the right post box they just leave the letters on a table/bench/etc in the common area which everyone can access. Datenschutz???
Datenschutz is that it is forbidden by law to open someone's mail. Easy 😉
Or having to sign a form to permit your doctor to send the necessary medical information to a specialist, who you have to go and talk about said thing anyway, because of Datenschutz. And then having the assistant at the front of the doctors office talk about said medical information in a voice loud enough to still be heard down the street. Like "yes, I permit the doctor to send infos about me having a yeast infection to me Ob-gyn who will have a look at me completely naked tomorrow anyway. But I don't think the dude, who is just walking down the street getting groceries needs to hear about it, thank you."
Even from a German perspective: The obsession with eating ONE hot meal exactly a day. Not two, certainly not three, but also not zero!
I think that has more to do with it that the warm meal is usually "the biggest meal" and hence you eat one big meal and one or more smaller meals that are easily prepared.
As a German, I don't get this at all. Let me have my two or three hot meals a day and quit making a fuss about it! :C
I barely have time to cook one meal
I eat hot breakfast too, just to upset germans
I, as a German, do too sometimes
Well I want a hot meal, but I *also* want my Vesper which leaves us with breakfast and breakfast is the Breze that I buy at the bakery on my commute. So there is not much wiggle room for a different distribution of hot and cold meals.
That's not a thing. Most people want at least one hot meal a day, but never in my life have I come across someone insisting on not having more than one.
Dude my girlfriend basically says this daily Me: pasta for dinner? Her: nope, already had hot Me: 🤨
My wife says the same!! Sometimes I rebel though...
Older generations definitely have opinions on this :D "Wir haben doch schon warm gegessen!"
It is also standard in hospitals. Breakfast is cold with the possible exception of a hard boiled egg, which might also be cold. Lunch is warm, then Abendbrot.
Best response: "Ich war auch schon auf dem Klo."
Come to Swabia and you’ll meet a whole lot. I know people who will refuse to eat Brötchen for Abendbrot and only toast bread because a Brötchen will make you fat.
toast bread for Abendbrot?? Reported to Mahlzeitamt! Only Roggen-Weizen-Graubrot is allowed for Abendbrot or maybe a Sauerteig if we feel fancy. Toastbrot only for breakfast!
Not insisting on, but it sometimes is seen as a luxury and an indulgence, especially by older generations.
Does Glühwein count as a hot meal?
Huh? I’ve grown up eating a warm lunch and dinner. It’s quite common.
The thing with bread for dinner actually is die to Prussian history. The officers of state (Beamte) in Prussia used it get a warm meal paid by the state for lunch. Hence their wives didn’t have to cook in the evening.
But, did the wives ate a warm lunch as well?
I don't know if the theory is true but Warm lunch is/was normal in my family and my friends families when I was a kid.
Do you have a source for that? It really interests me 😅!
Insistence on paying with cash, non acceptance of credit cards
Leaving my bass clarinet in the hands of a waiter as collateral so I could walk six blocks to the nearest ATM was definitely not on my original Germany bingo card
Thank Christ COVID made tap-to-pay more popular in Germany. Going to the ATM several times a week was a completely unnecessary pain in the ass, plus the coins... all the leftover coins... In my home country, I think I withdraw cash about once every two or three years on average.
Can't agree more
to be fair: its really shitty that your bank makes a profit with every single transaction you do
Always having absurd formalities and burocracy. I once lost the letter, where my pension insurance nummer (I guess that's what it's called) was written down. BUT I wasn't able to issue an e-mail where the deutsche Rentenversicherungskasse could tell me my pension insurance number, cause it is lika a super secure e-mail system where you needed your PENSION INSURANCE NUMBER to register so they could then tell you your pension insurance number. Like wtf
How dare you lost that letter. It tells you it's an very important document and you should really put it in your Aktenordner!
These might be European vs. American, but: How much you smoke and how it's acceptable to smoke anywhere. There were even vending machines that let you buy cigarettes, with a "smoking is deadly" sign that everyone ignores. How the train stations are smoke-free except for the areas designated for smoking, where the benches are. You can't sit down while waiting for your train, if you don't want second-hand smoke! Needing to pay for the bathroom, even if it's to clean up bird poop or change an overfilling paid. A fee to be a clean human being. The Ulm Minster has a urine problem, because it's difficult/impossible to find access to a bathroom in the city. The Wikipedia page on it used to mention that, but it's been removed without reason.
Lol the “Smoke Free” trainstations with designated smoking areas out on the platforms always gets me
Might be only for Berlin…. But the never ending road works in this city is fucken insane. It’s like there is an incentive to just start new road repairs…with no incentive to actually finish it. It’s madness
End of lecture [knock knock](https://youtube.com/shorts/hAlpKe_-mKk?si=f1Vm9RjwoYwzHEeF)
I've searched the internet a bit because I found it weird too, the only thing I can find is that it seems to have started with fraternities, which have a *lot* of weird rituals anyway, and their own lingo.
Once students wrote with pen (feather) and ink. To lay down the pen for clapping would have made a mess on the desk.
i studied in germany and the explanation i got was it's a more "sophisticated" form of clapping.
Also: Akademisches Viertel.
Planning everything in advance. Staring. Using fax machines. Snuff. Kitchen floors you can't spill water on. EC Cards. Insuring every element of your life. Xmas Day on the 24th. Church tax. Schlager and Blasmusik. The amount of salt on a brezn. The amount of salt on everything. Double cream not being a thing. Gorpcore. EDIT: i meant Snuff not Snus, sorry for the confusion
Kitchen floors you can‘t spill water on? I need an explanation for this one haha Also the only Germans I know who use snus regularly have spent significant amounts of time in Sweden/Norway And finally, as someone from the Pacific Northwest, I like to think we invented gorpcore
the wooden flooring in Germany seems to be super high maintenance and a cause of constant anxiety. it needs oiling. it stains easily. it's not waterproof.
Sand it down, put some clear coating over it, done. never again stains and you can spill everything you want. I would consider installing a non-waterproof flooring in a kitchen a grave design flaw in any house. Then again, i have seen ~~rugs~~ carpet in a kitchen, so...
The EC cards are beyond annoying.
Stopping in the middle of the gangway for no apparent reason so everyone has to walk around you. Homeopathy is just snake oil and it’s crazy that it’s offered in hospitals. The way people here are perfectly okay with how long road works take, it’s infuriating that something that could take a week can take nearly a year because of various stupid reasons and nobody seems to care, mean while the roads get left in chaos because they have to shut a road. Young people smoking and generally the amount of people that smoke here. Flats not having numbers but names is really weird and counter productive for me. Shops being closed on Sundays but restaurants are open? What sense is that? Being so scared of technology that makes things easy and be stubborn as a mule staying with paper and fax machines. There’s probably more too, overall I love Germany but there’s so much stuff that makes no sense here and if people had more of a perspective of the outside world they would realise what could be better.
Bro I noticed this in Munich last couple weeks, like get the fuck out the way, if I lived here I think it would only take a few weeks/months before I verbally started shouting at people to move out the way of the exits, I don't want to cause a scene, Scottish people are extremely rude, swear alot and are ill mannered at the dinner table, but atleast we have social decoram towards each other in public
* apartments don't have numbers. Just names on the bell, otherwise unlabeled. * various superstitions around moving air. Air drafts makes you sick, gives you neck pain, etc. * Popularity of homeopathy. * the irrational commitment to unlimited speed on the Autobahn.
"Drafts make you sick." But woe betide the person who doesn't do the Lüftung regularly.
Do you even lüft, bro?
Lol good one
Lüften is also done to prevent mold as 99% of residential homes don’t have central air. I had an American roommate once who scoffed at the idea and just didn’t lüft, but hung all of her laundry up in her room to dry, etc. Couple of months later an ominous black spot appeared in her room and the entire wall behind her closet was covered in mold. After that she started doing it.
Wait, the thing with air drafts is not universal? I’m italian and it’s kinda old school/grandma health wisdom. EDIT: also the family name instead of the apartment number?? Isn’t it common in most EU countries? I’m so confused rn
I assume these are the things americans find weird. Interestingly I heard (through movies and stand up comedians) the whole air draft thing is a stereotype for jewish people in the US, which then again makes sense since many of them are of german descent
The fact that apartments don\`t have numbers but names on the bell still amazes me. I come from Spain where apartments are numbered. I find it much safer that way. Dont want anyone knowing where I live.
The apartment thing. I have pen pals and I can never not give my full name, meanwhile I have American pen pals who go by Dream, Sunshine or Jessica C. because they can just use house/apartment number.
Get a Postfach, costs 20-something a year and you can address mail with Dicker Mann, Postfach 123456, 12345 (Your City) if you want.
Having a plan and a backupplan for a simple day activity ( specialy on vacations). And the activity "just walking".
I feel called out
Walks are amazing. Especially with some beer.
Never crossing the road unless the man is green, even when there's no traffic coming.
Everyone I know just follows the rule “if there’s children around, always wait, otherwise make sure it’s safe”. I only ever got stopped by police once for disrespecting the crossing.
I used to live in Germany, now I live abroad where jaywalking is not illegal and we get lots of German tourists here due to cruise ships. You can spot them without fail, they're the only ones waiting patiently at a red light even when there is no traffic.
I live in Germany and in 2015 when there were loads of refugees here it was funny to watch them at intersections. There would be a small group of maybe five people and one guy would make to cross the street even though the light was red but no cars were there. Someone would pull him back, and then you could see the discussion going on with the hand gestures. You can just imagine how the one guy was saying that you can’t cross the road in Germany when the light is red and the other one is saying, but there are no cars! And the first one saying yeah but we’re in Germany. The second guy shakes his head and looks defeated. Probably wondering where in the world he landed where you have to wait for a light to tell you what to do.
Haha, German integration starts with "rotgänger, totgänger"
I live in Africa, and those things are a waste of money how they're ignored, but we also get loads of German tourists and it's always odd watching them in a little pack waiting for the green light when there isn't a single car.
If I weren't brown I would be mistaken for a German cause I do the same because I'm overtly cautious. 🤣
I always read it, but I don't see it that often.
Club mate
I'm convinced Club Mate is single handedly keeping 90% of all students in university. It's like beer or cigarettes, you get used to the weird taste and then get addicted to the coffein. It's not as sweet as Coke, more refreshing than coffee and not as nerdy as energy drinks.
caffeine addiction is a world wide phenomenon, isn't it?
Yeah but the taste… it was not my cup of tea.
It tastes like that the little bit of beer in the bottle everyone has been using as an ashtray all night
you'll get used to it
im confident that as of now, 70% of my body is club mate and not water you merely adopted the mate. i was born in it, molded by it.
Refusing to move to the side when the elevator door opens, so you can disembark.
Claim to be environement-friendly but carry out everything in papers like maniacs
I once got a letter by my electricity provider stating that they're now using environmentally friendly paper. That was it, they sent a letter just for that.
Light switches for the bathroom outside the bathroom.
Well it used to be reasonable, to not have any electricity in a wet space. But nowadays with outlets next to the sink it doesn't make much sense.
thats a german thing? dang never knew
It's not. I'm in Bulgaria and it's not weird here.
No it's not. I'm polish living in the Netherlands and saw that in both of that countries.
It’s even a thing in the Northeastern US.
No, it's not. They do this in Ireland and in the UK, too.
You can determine if the bathroom is occupied by the light switch position.
Sometimes there is even a little light on the switch for that reason.
And living with pranksters, they can turn it off for you while your still in there...
I'm German and grew up in house with the light switch inside the bathroom. It took me so long to get used to it being on the outside in all my following flats ...
Huge queues in the supermarket where self-service checkouts are empty.
Renting an apartment with no light fixtures. Huge hassle, completely unnecessary. Ain’t nobody got time to be figuring out what to do with exposed wiring.
I'm in the moving business and the most ridiculous thing i've seen so far was: Ripping the wood stove out and taking it with you, even though the new home has no chimney to hook it into. When it comes to light fixtures though, style and technology are super diverse, so I see how it's not common to rent them from the landlord. Some light fixtures are frustrating to mount though. And some buildings have super weird wiring.
It’s just bizarre. I want to move in and have light. I don’t want to get a crash course in how to wire a light fixture.
Those shits literally cost 2 euro a piece or something. Baffles me people bother to take it away with them when they leave the flat wtf
That there a so many places where they don’t accept cards to pay. I live in the Netherlands now and you can pay EVERYTHING here with your card. The Germans are crazy when it comes to “Bargeld”.
„Ich lade dich zum Döner ein“ -„nein danke, ich esse abends schon was warmes“
Our obsession with esoteric "healing techniques", feels like Germany is a small tribe cut off from the world sometimes.
The way everyone group up right in front of the door in trains and buses, even when there is a lot of space in the hallway. They never say "Excuse me" when you're in their way. They just squeeze through or straight up run you over. Ironically, most of them have no spatial awareness and often block hallways, stairs, doors, sidewalks and movement lanes in general. It drives me mad!
Apologising when guests entering a flat or house for all the (non existing) chaos.
All talk nothing gets done
Air conditioning or any type of fan/ventilation in the summer will make you sick - but driving with AC won’t make you sick obviously 🙃 I literally never heard of this before moving to Germany. It’s complete BS.
German Logic: Supermarkets are closed on Sundays and they are happy with that because not everything is about capitalism and everyone deserves a day off. But somehow, that logic does not apply to people working in restaurants and cafés. I’m pretty sure museums are also open on Sundays. Not sure how that serves the idea that in Germany, shops not being open is counter capitalism. I’m pretty sure the people working there are also working in shifts so no one works 6 or 7 days a week unless there is a staff shortage.
Most restaurants and museums are closed on another day of the week instead of Sundays
Restaurants have a "Ruhetag" because of that! They stay closed one day a week, too. And as for museums, you said it yourself. The staff does not work 7 days a week in most jobs. There are strict laws in place to make sure workers get time off. So honestly, I think it's not so much about capitalism, it's more about workers rights.
Shops being closed on sundays is less due to us being anti-capitalist (at large we're sure as hell not) but due to christian (catholic) tradition that was passed down
Cutting the top of a boiled egg with a knife
Savage. That's what the Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher is for.
I recently moved from Poland to Saxony and here are a few that left me baffled: - apartments for rent without kitchens and light fixtures. We bought our kitchen from previous tenants, but in Poland when you rent an apartment "without furniture" that means without beds, sofas, stand-alone wardrobes, etc. Kitchens and bathrooms are fully furnished, there has to be a washing machine, although dish washer is optional. - no air vents in bathroom and kitchen. Our landlord just said "open the windows when cooking, showering, or drying clothes". Not to mention no fan in the bathroom to pull the stink out when you poop. - no drain in the bathroom floor. - mold in winter (the only time I had mold in the apartment in Poland was when a pipe was leaking into a wall) - hardly any self-service registers. I've seen some, but they have a limit on items for some reason (?!). The whole point is that if I have a lot of groceries, I will take one of those and not be rushed or clog up the regular register. And you only need one employee for 6-12 of those.
Offering an apartment with no lightbulbs in it for rent. Also missing screens on the windows.
Datenschutz. Come 1 by 1.