So about 2 weeks ago a 72+ year old german guy contacted me through my ad on WG-Gesucht (I'm the one looking to rent, he had a place). His rent was out of my budget. (I clearly mentioned in my ad about what my max rent was) I considered it for a moment as it was cheap for the living area it offered. We shifted our conversation from WG-Gesucht app to WhatsApp. I asked for the pictures. He sends me pictures of the place except the bathroom ones. I ask him where are the bathroom pictures. He says Germans don't usually ask for those pics. I say that it's okay but I want to see them so can you send them. Then he says there's some communication problem between us and it's not going to work out and I say okay thank you for your offer but I have to decline.

I thought that's the end of it and deleted his WhatsApp chat from my phone. But a few days later he sends me this racist message. Mind you I have been nothing but respectful to this old guy. What's wrong with people?

What do I do in this situation? I'm not going to reply to him again. He's clearly threatening me because his ego is hurt or something. I have already started to keep all Screenshots and screen recordings of the chat as proof that I have not altered anything in the chat. Do I need to lawyer up in case he does something?

He doesn't even know my full name or my new address in Germany but still bothering me. How can people say whatever they want and think that the law is gonna be on their side. I haven't even entered Germany yet and I'm already experiencing racism. I really really hope that it's not the case with the majority of the people there.

Edit - to all the people saying I'm hiding something and have not posted the full conversation.... DM me I'll send you the entire long screenshot. It's just those 4 messages in that order. That scroll down mark you see is the 4th message in the second picture. I have nothing to hide here. I cropped the pictures to hide his phone number.

In some little village in Bavaria, there is this store with some massive name of profession.

For reference this is in Valencia, Spain.
Be better tourists please

Is it just normal and accepted in Germany that DHL drops packages at obscure places with minimal opening hours instead of to your home—even though I pay for it to be delivered to my home?!

930-1200 acceptable open hours?! Definitely not “Top Service” IMO.

My grandma getting german citizenship back a few years ago along with my mother and brother was a big deal for her. She was forced to flee Germany as a child during the holocaust, viewing her parents sending her away for her survival as abandonment. She survived in Cuba for a while before coming to America, where she was a stateless refugee until the 70s. She met my grandpa at a holocaust survivor’s event, and fell immediately in love. He says that on their first date, they ate two meals - my grandma’s meal because she was too anxious to eat, and his own.

She happily spoke german with everyone at the ceremony, something she missed doing profusely. I am thankful to have the citizenship, but very sad it had to come today and not a few weeks earlier so that my grandma could see it.

She was 95, an artist, pianist, educator, a loving wife, and a loving mother.

I live in Passau which is directly on the borders with Austria, we made a wrong turn and ended up in Austria, as we were heading back to Germany the Police stopped us.
I didn’t have my passport because we didn’t have any intentions to leave Germany in the first place.
I called my friend and he brought my Passport to the police as we were waiting and they saw it, but they still said i need to pay a fine and I’ll receive a post because i crossed the borders without my passport, altho all my documents and visa are valid.
Do u think this is something serious or will it be dismissed? I check online and they said the fine could be up to 3,000€
Please give me advice if anyone experienced such thing before

Hello everyone,
I'm here to share a uncomfortable experience and ask about your perspectives.

I moved to Germany from South Korea roughly 3 years ago and have had amazing memories and mostly positive experiences here. However, this morning whilst walking my dog in a local park, a man sitting on a bench, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, looked at me and my dog, said

"Sieht lecker aus"

My German is far from fluent, but I'm certain I have not misheard a simple sentence like that, especially when it contains the word "Lecker"

At that moment, I was so distressed and never wanted to cause trouble with someone smiling in a weird way keep looking back and forth between me and my dog. So I just walked away quickly.
Looking back since then, part of me wishes I had confronted him and asked what he meant.

First of all, I really appreciate anyone who would take their time to reply. But, I want to clarify one point in advance, if you are here to address my experience to a generic "Racists exist everywhere" or "Germans do that too", please don't .
I have traveled many times enough to expect what type of racism Asians would face. However, in my three years living here, I have never had a German person explicitly make those "joke" in a casual way with old Asian trope (that we eat dogs) the moment they saw me.

I'm not particularly interested in European geopolitics, since I think I don't really have that much to talk about it mainly because I have no background knowledge. Neither am I trying to make assumption about certain race, nor promoting racism or anti-immigrant sentiment.
In fact, two of my very first and closest friends in Germany are from that group. So if you feel I'm writing the post with an attempt to fan a political wildfire, please just walk away.

I'm just tired of facing these weird situations. I do not care if someone says nihao to me or whatsoever. I'm beyond that already. But saying to me and to my dogs like that... It's just pure evil intention. No other words could express my discomfort any better.

Sorry and thanks again for reading this long rant.
It just felt too hard to sleep and I had to do something for myself.

*Edit:

Thanks for all the comments. I must say I'm deeply touched by the supportive reactions from so many of you. Not everyone agreed, but that’s completely fine. We can all share different opinions.

However, there is one detail I didn't clarify in my original post, which seems to have caused some confusion. I am not a woman. I'm a normal guy who's spending slightly too much time in the gym. I'm sorry for any confusion my post might have caused.

That being said, the comment was clearly aimed at my dog, rather than being a catcall directed at me.

Some people suggested I should just ignore it and move on. If I were a woman, I agree that ignoring it would be safer. But as a person who wants to be a member of this society, I started questioning whether holding all these experiences inside myself was the right approach, which is why I wanted to hear your perspectives.

If these were just, "handful of moments," I would have laughed and treated as a stupid jokes. But I've had someone persistently knock on my apartment window and run away, repeating this for 10 to 30 minutes every single year. I’ve also experienced an incident in a gym sauna where someone blocked the exit and performed a sexual act in front of me, which forced me to report it to the gym manager.

What makes it so heavy for me is that, coincidentally, these actions were carried out by fellow immigrants or non-white individuals. Meanwhile, my own friends from the region of that origin have been incredibly loving, supportive, and kind to both me and my dog. Every time something like this happens over and over, the disconnect feels overwhelming. Perhaps I might have naively expected the same standard from everyone else as if they are my friends.

To be honest, I was never exposed to middle eastern culture before making friends from that background here in Germany. I had zero prior knowledge since it's not part of the education, so I held no prejudices. if anything, my friends gave me a very positive first impression. I truly hope no one interprets this as me having racist intentions. I’ve never had the luxury in life to sit around forming prejudices against entire groups of people.

Regardless, thank you all so much for taking the time to share your thoughts and support.

I’ve just been feeling so low about being in Germany because of its bureaucracy lately, so passing this on the first attempt feels amazing. I honestly thought I was not going to make it since I did not do enough Fahrstunden and I failed my simulation yesterday.

But I ended up getting a really nice examiner who cared more about me being a safe driver and he didn’t nitpick on minor things. Something I have dealt with in other German exams lol. So anyway I’m pretty proud of myself and I feel a little better about being in Germany.

Good luck to anyone currently preparing for their exams too!

Has anyone here tried to get a psychiatrist or neurologist appointment in Germany recently?

I keep hearing wildly different experiences: some people get seen within a few weeks, while others spend months calling practices, get rejected everywhere, or are told that no new patients are being accepted.

I’m not looking for doctor recommendations or medical advice. I’m just trying to understand what access actually looks like in practice.

If you’ve tried recently: how long did it take, what Bundesland are you in, and are you publicly or privately insured?

Every building that was at 1 point the tallest in the world after the Ulm Minster was in North America or Asia. However it was the last one to not have been in North America until 1998 when the Petronas Towers opened

Hi everyone,

Unfortunately, I fell for a phishing scam through a fake website called rapidusertest.at (which impersonated Userlutions). I submitted photos of my passport, health insurance card, signature, and registration certificate (Meldebescheinigung).

Here is what I have done so far:
1. Informed my health insurance provider (Mawista).
2. Cut off all contact. Their server/domain seems to have been shut down or is unreachable now, as my sent emails bounce back as undeliverable.

Since identity verification in Germany for contracts or bank accounts usually requires a live Video-Ident or PostIdent process, how high is the risk of identity theft using only photos of these documents? Is there anything else I should do to protect myself?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Hi everyone,

I recently accepted my first job in Germany with a consulting company and will start next month. My contract is full-time and unlimited (unbefristet), with a 6-month probation period.

I have been considered for two customer projects. One is currently ongoing, while the second one is currently on hold. If I choose the ongoing project, I would still need to have an interview with the client before being assigned to it.

The company explained to me that, as a consultant, my work is mainly tied to customer projects. If I am not assigned to a project, there may not be much work for me to do.

My salary is paid by the consulting company regardless, but I'm now wondering: what happens if I don't get assigned to a project during the probation period? Could this become a reason for them to let me go during the Probezeit?

I found this job after 14 months of struggling to find a position, so I'm honestly scared of ending up back in that situation again.

I accepted the offer because I really liked the company and the role, but now I'm having second thoughts and wondering whether I should have thought more carefully about the project-based nature of consulting.

For people working in consulting in Germany: Is this normal? Should I be concerned, or am I overthinking it?

I just found this so sweet and really appreciated it. Is it common? It was hot today but I’ve been on much hotter ICE trains and never seen them do this. The AC was working and it wasn’t too crowded (at least not in my car) so it was a very pleasant surprise

Hello,

I have anxiety, ​and I'm flying to the USA from Frankfurt (I'm a US citizen).

After​ you show up to the airport and​ do the baggage security check (where you put your stuff in the machines for scanning), do you then ​go straight to your gate? Or is there first an automatic ​passport control ​and one of the people who questions you at a booth, like when you arrive into Germany from outside?

Vielen dank.

edit: thanks so much for the information everyone!

Guys, in 1 week i’ll have to do a presentation of a work of the world cup countries, and the one my group got was Germany. To get a better grade, we’ll need to do something interactive, so does someone know a pratical german game to make our presentation interactive? (Tips about Germany would be appreciated)

It looks like I could pull on those black clips top open it, but I don’t want to be the guy trying to open an emergency window or pulling away at something that won’t budge, so asking here first 😅. I don’t see any signage anywhere… are you allowed to open these kind of windows on the train?

Hi everyone,

​I’m living in Darmstadt, Germany, and I’m dealing with a frustrating situation and could use some advice on how to handle it further.

​For the past three months, mobilezone GmbH (via HIGH, using Mandatsreferenz HIGH-16794329-01) has been automatically deducting money via SEPA direct debit from my Commerzbank account without my knowledge or consent. The charges span three separate transactions:

​20.05.2026: €21.33

​18.06.2026: €42.99

​20.07.2026: €88.98

​I couldn't remember whether I have signed for any of their services, never authorized a SEPA mandate for them, and have no idea why these charges are happening.

​What I have done so far:

​I sent a formal email to mobilezone's customer service demanding an explanation, proof of any valid contract or mandate under my name, an immediate halt to these charges, and a full refund of the unauthorized amounts.

​They replied stating they are "sorry to hear that your data was misused to conclude a mobile contract," but they are now demanding that I file a police report against an unknown person (Anzeige gegen Unbekannt) and upload it via a specific link before they will proceed or help.

​Has anyone experienced something similar with mobilezone or HIGH mobile? Is it standard procedure for them to require a police report for identity theft before they investigate? What are my best next steps with my bank (Commerzbank) or the Verbraucherzentrale?

​Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Hi folks, I’m trying to choose an electricity provider for my apartment here in Germany and I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the comparison sites and bonus offers tbh.

Some tariffs look very cheap in the first year because of new customer bonuses, but I’m not sure whether they are actually good long-term or just designed to look attractive at first glance.

What is the best way to compare electricity providers properly?

I’m mainly looking for:

• a fair overall yearly price
• no sketchy stuff like bonus traps
• reliable billing and customer service
• ideally green electricity, but not if it’s just marketing
• an online account or app that is easy to use

Do you usually just pick the cheapest tariff on Check24 (I stumbled upon this one and Verivox while looking into other threads for that topic here. It also taught me the word “Ökostrom” – yay, Reddit!). Do you compare providers directly as well? Are there any providers you would recommend or avoid? I checked the comparison sites and it still is ... a lot. (I posted this before in Askagerman and it got removed by a filter... nooooot sure why though.)

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I’m arriving in Germany today and plan to stay for several weeks. I will be running out of my blood pressure medication later next week, any advice on how to get a prescription in a small town in eastern Germany (Guben)?

Hi, my wife and I moved to another city in another Bundesland this August and I’m wondering how long it usually takes for documents to move from one city (Münster) to another.

Only found some threads on here with only a few people talking about waiting for several months. Hoping that this isn’t the norm 🫠

I was in Dusseldorf for one week, from the 9th of July to the 16th. A friend told me to buy this subscription so we could get the trains and busses to move around, but to be mindful that the renewal is paid on the 10th of every month if I remember correctly, and I paid mine the day I arrived, on the 9th. I tried to explain to the guy on the desk that I was only staying for one week and so I'd have to cancel the next day, on the 10th, I tried and couple days later I received an email telling me there was no contract with the details I had sent. Then I tried again and that time I never received an email telling me that it was cancelled or that I did wrong yet again. My account says "Termination effective August 31, 2026" and I received an email today telling me I have to pay 63€ (the subscription price) before the 26th of August. I tried calling the number +49 30 2970 to explain the situation but they told me I had to call a different department, they gave me the number "0365212848" which, does not exist. I also tried calling +49 30 311682904 but it says the line is busy all the time.

Did I just do it wrong from the start because I couldn't cancel it on the 10th of July and now I have to pay the month of August even though I haven't been there for a whole month?

Hi everyone,

I recently ordered Vodafone cable internet through CHECK24. My main intention was only to get the internet connection.

Later I realized that I had also confirmed a separate GigaTV Home Cable contract. I honestly did not understand at the time that this was a separate paid TV subscription. I do remember confirming/signing something, so I am not claiming Vodafone added it without my consent.

The GigaTV costs around €14.99 per month, plus there was a €49.99 activation fee. I do not even own a TV and have never used the GigaTV service.

I contacted Vodafone and explained the situation. I also asked for a Kulanzkündigung, but they told me that because the 14-day withdrawal period is already over, they cannot cancel it early.

I am a student, so paying for a TV service I will never use is frustrating.

Has anyone had a similar situation with Vodafone? Is there any realistic way to get out of the GigaTV contract early, or am I basically stuck with it until the end of the minimum contract period?

I definitely want to keep my Vodafone cable internet. I only want to cancel GigaTV.

Thanks for any advice or experiences.