Perry Groves

I am thinking about the possibilty of moving to Germany. I work as an electrical engineer. Any other people from the U.K. moved there? How does life compare?

spankysparkle

depends where in the UK you are, i guess!

we came over from London 3 years ago on hubby's work contract, and we just love it here. no comparison. Germany wins hands down!

it's clean, things work, europe is only a drive away, people are friendly and mostly helpful and there are festivals galore to attend and keep you busy, and plenty clubs (sport & social) to join to make friends. most germans speak at least some german (or at least here in Frakfurt), and there are many, many english speaking expats (again in and around Frankfurt) - not sure about other locations but i'll be surprised if it is not at least partially true for most cities.

i hope i'm not too biased... anyone else care to reply??

str

To be fair, most Frankfurters speak fairly good german although people from other areas in germany would disagree.

spankysparkle

i meant english!

notathome

Well we came to Munich planning to stay two years and have now been here 41 years. It is great, the standard of living is higher than in the UK. Not sure about your job possibilities though, do you have a job offer?

Perry Groves

no, I have worked in Koln before for 4 months on a secondment.

robhamilton

I hope you do not mind me contacting you but I have seen your post and was wondering if you were able to provide any assistance or advice on moving to Germany. I am an IT infrastructure and ERP professional who is looking to relocate. I am British so work permits are not a problem. I have recently started studying German and have some knowledge but initially I would need to work for a company where English is the business language. I have a wife and young daughter so I am required to find work in advance.

I would be extremely grateful for any assistance or advice you are able to provide.

Kind Regards
Rob

Katharine

I don't think I can be of much use, being retired. If you are looking via job websites IT professionals are less common in the former East Germany so you could look for opportunities in Leipzig, Dresden, Jena or Erfurt, all universitiy towns with ongoing expansion despite the economic crisis eg. especially solar industry. All IT people over here have some English and mostly work in IT English. I live in Mühlhausen, Thüringen, north of Erfurt and Eisenach where you might be wanted. Also Arnstadt. If you type the name of a city into Google and add Stellenangebote (ie job vacancies) you'll get useful addresses online. But I would start with the German Embassy in London website - living and working - finding work.

One point: there are plenty of full day kindergartens up to age 5-6 and schools, including international schools, are excellent.

Good luck!

Cooler_King

I have lived here for 2 years and the lustre of Germany wears off after a while. It has some really good points but also some very bad points.

Commuting The roads are much worse than in the UK. Possibly due to the sheer size of the network but either way, the Autobahn is without lighting or drainage and in wet conditions it is a deathtrap. See the 280 car pile up in Hannover for details. Roadworks are quite bad as well.

The AB has no speed limit for about 50% of it but you are not insured if you have an accident over 130kmh and most of the time the AB will veer suddenly into 2 lanes. The traffic accidents I have witnessed have been horrific.

Accomodation When you move out of a German property you take everything including the fixtures, fittings, lights even the kitchen sink. I swear. Unless you want to carry an entire house in a van you must rent furnished.

Insurance You have to have insurance for every eventuality as almost all indigenous Germans have this special legal insurance which allows them to sue people at the drop of a hat. The news last week showed a woman being taken to court for a £3.75 (euros) Ebay fee. Threats of litigation are rife.

Cost When Germany switched from the DuetschMark to the Euro the prices were not recalculated so everything literally doubled overnight. The cost of things here can be ridiculous. Without examples it is hard to describe but for instance. A particular flat screen TV was being sold on Amazon for £370. My local Saturn Electrical dealership had it on special offer for 1150 euros!

But I only post bad points because I know other people will give you the benefits and I want to keep this short. However, almost all of the Brits I know in Germany cannot wait to go back home. They just wish they could take some of the German lifestyle with them, such as recycling, parks and recreation among others.

notathome

I was a little surprised at your comments, Cooler-King. If there is one thing that I dread when going to the UK, it is the roads!! The M25 round London is sheer hell and the motorways so full particularly with lorries that its like a fairground. We have lived here 41 years and have yet to see an accident actually happen (hope that's not famous last words!). Yes they drive fast, but I have never seen anything in our insurance that says we are not insured over 130KMs.

We have moved 9 times, and 8 of those were rental properties. Never once did we have to take the kitchen with us. Sometimes there are pieces of furniture that you have to buy off the previous tenant, but not very often.

After converting to the Euro prices did go up, but we knew that would happen. I just wish the UK would also join the Euro.

repat2blighty

Hi all, I am afraid I must agree with cooler-king. I am an ex-service and have now returned to England and in the words of my Wife (She's German) and both my Son's (Born and Grew up in Germany) England is to widely underestimated!!!. I lived in Germany from 1987 until 2006 and although it was a bit of a culture shock when I returned home I soon got back in the Way of Life back here and none of us at all regret coming "back" to England. Of course we have heard the usuall " you must be mad" but since my return I really do believe in the old saying "the grass is greener". I had a good life in Germany so long as I was self employed or in employment. There was loads of that in the Late 80's to the end of the 90's. However Since the intro of the Euro Germany has not been the Same. Jobs are difficult to get (especially if you are over 35years old!!!. There is little or no Sexuall equality, little or no minimum wage protection, Tons of Load dumping, Corruption in many Local Authorities, higher Health Insurance, higher Living Costs, Not a great deal higher Pay rates regards Job for Job comparison England/Germany, Higher Deductions from Pay made up of Separate Health Insurance Deductions, Pension Deduction, Social Security Deductions and Income Tax. For example if you were to earn the average Monthly Salary of around 2700 euros before tax you could expect around 700 to 1000 euros depending on being Single, Married no kids, Married 2 kids, Married 3 kids etc etc etc. and the list goes on. Yeah Doctors, Dentists, Hospitals and Local Authority buildings are cleaner but you as the Tax Payer pay more in deductions from earnings. If you are self employed then it gets even worse. Believe me please give Germany second thoughts. The infrastructure is really no better than here, nor is the Medical treatment ok the doc gives you more medicines or a sick note quicker than here but yoy are paying for it!!!. WITH A REALLY CLOSE LOOK you are certainly not better off there as here in England. I left a lot of friends and my wifes family over there when I returned and I can assure you most of those wanted to come with us!!!!.

repat2blighty

Hi all, I am afraid I must agree with cooler-king. I am an ex-service and have now returned to England and in the words of my Wife (She's German) and both my Son's (Born and Grew up in Germany) England is to widely underestimated!!!. I lived in Germany from 1987 until 2006 and although it was a bit of a culture shock when I returned home I soon got back in the Way of Life back here and none of us at all regret coming "back" to England. Of course we have heard the usuall " you must be mad" but since my return I really do believe in the old saying "the grass is greener". I had a good life in Germany so long as I was self employed or in employment. There was loads of that in the Late 80's to the end of the 90's. However Since the intro of the Euro Germany has not been the Same. Jobs are difficult to get (especially if you are over 35years old!!!. There is little or no Sexuall equality, little or no minimum wage protection, Tons of Load dumping, Corruption in many Local Authorities, higher Health Insurance, higher Living Costs, Not a great deal higher Pay rates regards Job for Job comparison England/Germany, Higher Deductions from Pay made up of Separate Health Insurance Deductions, Pension Deduction, Social Security Deductions and Income Tax. For example if you were to earn the average Monthly Salary of around 2700 euros before tax you could expect around 700 to 1000 euros depending on being Single, Married no kids, Married 2 kids, Married 3 kids etc etc etc. and the list goes on. Yeah Doctors, Dentists, Hospitals and Local Authority buildings are cleaner but you as the Tax Payer pay more in deductions from earnings. If you are self employed then it gets even worse. Believe me please give Germany second thoughts. The infrastructure is really no better than here, nor is the Medical treatment ok the doc gives you more medicines or a sick note quicker than here but yoy are paying for it!!!. WITH A REALLY CLOSE LOOK you are certainly not better off there as here in England. I left a lot of friends and my wifes family over there when I returned and I can assure you most of those wanted to come with us!!!!.

Ray51

[QUOTE=repat2blighty;8245118] Yeah Doctors, Dentists, Hospitals and Local Authority buildings are cleaner but you as the Tax Payer pay more in deductions from earnings. If you are self employed then it gets even worse. Believe me please give Germany second thoughts. The infrastructure is really no better than here, nor is the Medical treatment ok the doc gives you more medicines or a sick note quicker than here but yoy are paying for it!!!. QUOTE]

Aamazing !!! Are you saying that you would rather not pay for the
( as confirmed by you , above ) cleaner , faster and better medical services , whilst preferring the filthy , backward , inefficent NHS ( still hugely-and-wastefully over-paid for , by the GB tax-payers ) instead ?????????????????????????

notathome

Repat2Blighty.You seemed to have lived in a different Germany to us. We have been here 41 years. My mother died in Wales 2 years ago, because she had waited 6 weeks for someone to call round to measure her blood pressure. She was house bound. She died in my arms.

You might pay more in Germany for health care but unless you live in a town in the UK its no comparison to here.
Take a look at the standard of building for a start. Our relatives say we would be mad to return, our life style is so much higher.
I don't want to run down the UK, its where I was born, but comments like yours and the previous writer make me.

Katharine

I suppose it's a question of what's important to you. So far the points made in this illuminating discussion have been transport, health and cost oriented. That probably misses the leisure aspect, and, speaking as a woman, the opportunities for wives and children. In Thüringen, where I live, each town publishes a list of concerts, theatre performances, sporting events, clubs of all varieties, local festivals, of which there are many, museums and galleries and so on. I used to find in the UK that most things were centred on a few big cities. Here I can walk to nearly everything and the quality is high. For me best of all is the endless beautiful countryside and forests you can walk in, and, of course, the winter sport facilities. My grandchildren get plenty of chances to learn skiing in the Thüringer Wald at Oberhof, site of Winter Olympics.

As for deductions from your salary, yes they look high, especially health insurance. BUT: health care is very much better in my experience than in the UK unless you could afford private insurance. If you rent you benefit only indirectly from the local tax (Grundsteuer) which is very low. As a house owner I pay exactly 125 € a year for my three-bedroom house. Compare that with Council Tax! In England I would have been paying £1350 in Band D. The income tax here is higher because it partly goes to pay for things like education, police, roads etc. that are paid out of Council Tax in England. It might pay you to consider buying a home rather than renting, once you have a regular income and can get a bank mortgage. Interest rates are low, recently I was quoted 4.5% on average. If you buy an old house you can get generous grants to restore it. Check out prices by Googling "Immobilien Thueringen". I have described my experience online at intouchde.org.uk which you could look at for more detail. And, by the way, we don't get paralysed by snow!