There are some major cultural differences between German work culture and U.S. work culture, and many of them have been covered here on The German Way already (follow the link for the complete list!) From attitudes toward working mothers, or attitudes toward working women in general, to vacation time (ahh, 6 weeks is so civilized) and the Betriebsrat, newcomers to Germany have much to which they must adjust. One little secret I’d like to share with you today, however, isn’t one that gets mentioned in any expat guidebook: Germans like to hire employees who already have jobs. read more…
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Free College Degrees in Germany
No Tuition Fees at German Universities
Updated for 2020
Get ’em while they’re hot. If you’re a German-related news junkie like we all are at the German Way, you might have seen your Facebook or Twitter feeds filled with headlines like these a few years ago: “Free Tuition in Germany for All American Students.”
While it is true, Americans along with all other non-Germans, can study in Germany tuition free, this wasn’t actually new news. A sudden lifting of tuition for American students had not just occurred; it’s just that Lower Saxony, the last German federal state charging tuition, had dropped their fees, making for attention-grabbing headlines.
While the American presidential candidates are only still arguing about free public university education in 2020, the Germans and other Europeans have been offering that for decades. German students don’t ever face the heavy college-related debt that is so common in the United States.
| Baden-Württemberg’s Non-EU Tuition Since 2017 the state of Baden-Württemberg has been charging tuition fees for non-EU foreign students. So far it is the only German state to do so. (German and other EU students still pay no tuition.) The 1500-euro fee per semester is still far below the tuition costs at most public universities in the US. But for North Americans wanting to attend university in Heidelberg, Freiburg, or Karlsruhe (all in Baden-Württemberg), the fees would apply. More… |
If you are now wondering what the catch is, since there’s no free lunch, especially in a land that isn’t known for giving out smiles for free, you might be disappointed. There isn’t any real catch or hidden deal of indentured servitude, but an American considering taking up Germany on its offer of a free bachelor’s degree should weigh the differences in outcome and expectations before making a decision. The German university system is very different from the US system, in many ways that go far beyond free tuition.
The library at Heidelberg University was built in 1905. The Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg was founded in 1386, making it Germany’s oldest and one of the oldest universities in Europe. PHOTO: TBE/iStock/Thinkstock
Who Pays?
First of all, despite Germany’s bad rap for unfriendliness, it has a solid and leading social welfare system for which I remain thankful. With three children, I appreciate that my hefty taxes (second highest amongst OECD countries) give me heavily subsidized, high quality music lessons, pocket money for each child every month, and free healthcare and medicine for my children. My own healthcare is also not too shabby nor is it pricey. It is no surprise then that students enjoy their own special benefits in addition to tuition-free education, including free to greatly reduced public transportation, reduced to no entry fees in local museums and libraries, and access to subsidized food. read more…
Racing in the Right (or Wrong) Direction
This post came about because I happened to see a photograph of a German horse race, similar to the photo below. It reminded me that horses usually gallop around a German race track in a clockwise direction, while in the United States they run counterclockwise. It made me curious about this custom and how the direction of a race can vary from sport to sport or from country to country, or even from place to place in a country. For instance, NASCAR races in America always go counterclockwise around the speedway, but Formula One races in Europe and elsewhere almost always run clockwise.
Are these horses racing the wrong way? The Hoppegarten Race Track (Rennbahn), Berlin.
PHOTO: Winfried Veil, Flickr
Tag der Deutschen Einheit: a view of Berlin 24 years on
As I sat looking out over the tourist boats on the Spree, drinking up the soft autumn sunshine, I had a flickering insight that this moment encapsulated much of modern Berlin. How fitting, I thought, for the occasion, and returned my mind to the conversation. This was last Friday (3rd October) – Tag der Deutschen Einheit – and 24 years since reunification. As the history of this national holiday has been written about in excellent detail elsewhere on this blog and website, I shall stay in the present. So what was striking about this relatively commonplace scene for a Hauptstadt dweller? read more…
Prenatal Courses in Germany
Prenatal Courses in Berlin. Photo: Erin Porter
Do I look a little tired here? That’s because I am. Last week was baby week. After 35 weeks of pregnancy, we were cramming hospital registration, one of our last doctor visits (plus ultrasound) and 2 long nights of prenatal courses into just a few days.
My dad politely asked if we weren’t a bit behind as he remembered taking courses before breaching the 9 month mark. He gave me an out, saying maybe this was just a difference in countries’ standards or that they took their courses 30 years ago. Erm – nope. We were just late.
After being all gung-ho to get started on classes, find a Hebamme (midwife) and generally be prepared early in the pregnancy, life had simply caught up with us. All the decisions that come after the relatively breezy, “Sure, we are ready to have a kid!” and just after the “OMG. We are having a kid!” have been daunting. Trying not to make a false move, we now find ourselves in the position of being the typical Americans in German, half-cocked, only partially ready and surrounded by people who know better.
Don’t Mention the War. Read About It.
One facet of German culture that continues to impress me is how they have dealt with their WWII history. German authors have written extensively about it from the “inside” of German perspective, although I have yet to delve into their works. As an outsider, it is easier for me to identify with stories written by English-speaking authors, and there are a number of novels I have read that give insight into life as a German during those difficult times. We are all familiar with the Diary of Anne Frank, and many movies and TV series have made this horrific period of history painfully real. Literature remains one of the most powerful ways to represent the multitude of stories of that age, and as a self-confessed bookworm, I have collected many books set in the time period.
By no means exhaustive, nor in order of greatness, here are a number of my recommendations: read more…
All Day School (Ganztagsschule)
Here in Eppelheim (near Heidelberg), there has been a lot of controversy about the new Ganztagsschule that started this school year. There had been talk of it for ages, but it finally came to fruition for this school year. However, many, many people are unhappy with the way it was implemented and with the results of that.
Last year sometime there was a survey of all parents asking who would be interested in sending their kids to all-day school. Apparently 51 parents said they would be interested in the school, but the survey was unverbindlich (non-binding). The next thing we heard, they were closing the Hort and no one had a choice any more. We always knew that the first graders would have to do Ganztagsschule, but the 2nd – 4th graders were supposed to have a choice in the matter. Now, for working parents, there is no choice. There has been an uproar since, especially because they changed the pricing scales for the so-called Randzeiten (7-8am and 4-5pm, plus Fridays from 12 noon and during school holidays). Because the state is no longer subsidizing the care, and is instead putting money into the all-day school, many people are paying a lot more for a lot less. The costs worked out well for us because they based them on the number of kids under 18 in the household. But I can imagine that single parents or parents of only one child will really be forking it over for the child care. What a mess! read more…
From Bundesland to Bundesland
I received a reminder in my inbox today from my co-blogger Hyde calling to my attention that I had missed my Monday deadline to post here on the German Way blog. This was another casualty of my most recent move. In case you haven’t been keeping up with my personal expat saga, my family and I just moved to Essen in North Rhine Westphalia having left the small Swabian city, Aalen, where we had lived a total of seven years as a family.
For long-time readers of this blog, if it seems like we are always moving that’s because we have indeed been moving cities, in some cases countries, every two years since 2010. Since our repatriation from the United States back to Germany in 2012, I have moved house every year since then. Glancing at my Facebook account, I said to my husband, “I seriously post a picture of a moving truck every fricking year.” read more…
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