Judith's language learning blog

(This is personal but also contains tons of advice for those of you who might move to Berlin)

I grew up in a small town and I never thought that I could like a big city. The noise, the hectic, miles upon miles of concrete… I’m a fan of quiet and beauty and I have enough stress that I don’t need others radiating theirs onto me. Planning the future, I never saw myself winding up in a big city.

Well, then I met Chuck and Chuck, having lived in NYC, can’t be happy in a small town. We were still debating whether to move to Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Köln [Cologne] or another city when we got a job offer for the both of us in Berlin, and after a short visit the decision was made. The job turned out badly after 6 months, but I never regret having come here, I’d go as far as to say that it was the best decision of my life.

Berlin is an awesome city, as anyone who visited us can tell you – 75% of our guests spontaneously decide to try to move to Berlin. The climate is very pleasant, there are lots of things to do, lots of historic sites and lots of art and beauty. Berliners are an open people, sometimes said to be too frank, but welcoming people of all nationalities, all religions and all sexual orientations. The mayor of Berlin is openly homosexual and coined two famous phrases: “I’m gay… and that’s all right, too” (the latter now title of his autobiography) and “Berlin – poor but sexy”. He has a point. Berlin is comparatively poor as European metropoles go due to absorbing commie East Berlin, and Berliners are unwilling to be impressed by Armani suits or fancy cars… but the city is sexy. Not glamorous or posh, but unique, with its own character, and always innovating. It’s a mecca for IT start-ups and artists. Nowhere else is it so cheap to put something out there and see how it fares in a world city, among tourists, expats and locals.

Berlin rents are grotesque – it’s cheaper to live in the center city of Berlin than it is to live in the center city of Wroclaw, Poland; and in Munich or Düsseldorf you’ll easily pay several times as much. Yet Berlin is and always has been international in a way that you won’t easily find in Europe. After 1945, the city was divided between the USA, the UK, France and the USSR, with many soldiers and civilians from those countries taking up residence here. Nowadays however, you can literally find any nationality in Berlin (and we’re about to celebrate that fact with the Karneval der Kulturen). Within 10 minutes walking distance of my apartment I can literally reach about 10 different Indian restaurants, 10 Vietnamese restaurants, 9 Japanese restaurants, 5 Turkish ones, 4 Thai ones, a few Middle Eastern ones, and even a Cuban and a Singaporean restaurant! (Also German ones of course.) Also, getting foreign groceries or books in a foreign language is absolutely no problem.

This is one of the reasons we chose to live in the Scheunenviertel in Berlin-Mitte. There’s also the convenience of being able to reach almost everything on foot, including the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie and Alexanderplatz. Other things, such as Berlin’s English-language cinema or the main train station, are just a few light-rail stops away. I don’t need to take the light-rail to reach the river Spree, which I love to walk along:
(took the photo myself)

The climate is mostly pleasant, with little precipitation all year round, not too hot in summer (you may miss air conditioning one or two of the days) and generally not going far beyond the freezing point in winter.

How to move here

Now for the actual point of my post. Recently several people asked me for advice on how to find an apartment here, so I want to summarize this for everyone.

The best place to find apartments for rent (including a smaller selection of furnished apartments for holidays) is ImmobilienScout24.de. If you’re specifically looking for a short-term thing, you may also find something at Zwischenmiete.de, or look for uncomplicated deals on the black boards of Berlin’s three major universities. Those aren’t online, but you could try posting a message on
this forum dedicated to Berlin’s university students. All of these sites are in German.

If your German is not good enough yet, GermanPod101 published a bunch of lessons specifically about saying what you need in an apartment, reading apartment ads, talking to landlords and understanding rental contracts.

Some things in general to look out for:
- Every landlord will have you pay a “Kaution” (deposit), that’s normal and you’ll get the money back when you move out.
- A “Provision” (referral fee) however is something you won’t get back, and in Berlin it’s easy to avoid the apartments that charge this
- In your position, I would definitely look for the three letters EBK (= “Einbauküche”, built-in kitchen), because otherwise you only get a stove and a sink and you have to spend a lot of money on cabinets and fridge.

With the reunification a lot of East Germans fled to the West as soon as they could, so a lot of apartments and houses are vacant in the East, sometimes up to a third of a city. East Berlin didn’t suffer from this as much as East Germany did, but still one good thing to come out of it is that there’s never a housing shortage in Berlin. This development is probably also the cause of low rents here.

Both East and West Berlin had an excellent public transport system, so public transport in Berlin will get you everywhere at all hours of the day or night; driving is not recommended because of congestion in the center and the old streets, which are too narrow to support many lanes. Berlin is a very spread-out city though, due to the lack of skyscrapers, so distances can be large. If you think you’ll be going out a lot, I’d choose an apartment that’s within 2 kilometers from either Kurfürstendamm or Unter den Linden (the two focal points) – but obviously not on those streets, because they’re expensive.

In terms of boroughs, Neukölln is the only unsafe one, in any of the others you should be fine walking around alone at night; Berlin is generally a very safe place – except on May 1st (Labor Day in Europe) for the annual battle between leftists and police in Kreuzberg. The borough Kreuzberg is popular with anarchists, leftists, those of an alternative lifestyle and Turkish immigrants, but it has gentrified enough not to be unsafe. The borough Prenzlauer Berg is sometimes recommended because of its nightlife, but on the other hand it’s like a catwalk during the day and women may not be comfortable if they don’t dress like that; the other boroughs are more relaxed.

My boyfriend and I live in the Scheunenviertel in the borough “Mitte”, which is the oldest part of Berlin and the center city of former East Berlin but very close to West Berlin; there’s a line on the street marking where the Wall used to be about 300 metres from here. In this part every fifth house is an art gallery (I’m not exaggerating!). We’re very happy here.

Anyway, if you’re moving to Berlin, or even just visiting, I’m happy for you and I hope you’ll enjoy your stay!