Life
In The Wild East
Adventures And Opportunities
In The Former East Germany ~
by Patricia Linderman
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Berlin Wall fell fifteen years ago this year, taking with it the “death
strip” of barbed wire, land mines and watchtowers separating East and West
Germany.
Today, the
former East Germany’s five “new states” are fully integrated into the West
and preparing for European Union expansion to the east. Like the rest of
Germany, these areas offer quaint villages, Renaissance market squares,
great (and inexpensive) beer, enticing bakeries and a healthy lifestyle
full of opportunities for walking, biking and hiking.
Yet unlike
the former West Germany, the East is still relatively undiscovered by Americans.
It’s a place where Germans really speak German (and don’t constantly try
to “practice their English”), there are no American military bases, and
busloads of English-speaking tourists are refreshingly rare.
This small
but fascinating segment of Central Europe has witnessed some of the highest
and lowest points of human history and culture: Johann Sebastian Bach composed
some of his greatest masterpieces in Leipzig. Martin Luther hid from his
persecutors in Eisenach’s Wartburg Castle. Europe’s first porcelain was
produced at Meissen, where fine china is still manufactured today. Weimar,
home to literary giants Goethe and Schiller, gave its name to the Weimar
Republic – and witnessed unspeakable crimes at the nearby Buchenwald concentration
camp. Dresden proudly displays the artistic treasures of the Kingdom of
Saxony, while still bearing the scars of its 1945 firebombing. |
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And here,
too, one of the most stubborn and successful communist states was brought
down in a peaceful revolution of citizens chanting “We Are the People.”
If you find
all of this intriguing, I encourage you to consider spending some time
in “the Wild East,” or what we might call “Germany, Level Two (For Advanced
Expatriates).”
My family and
I lived in Leipzig from 1998 to 2002, and I have put together some of my
own observations and those of other Americans living in the “new states,”
in the hope that they might be helpful to any readers considering a move
to this part of Germany.
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Culture
And Living Conditions
The East is
… quaint cobblestoned streets with sidewalk cafés … leftover blocks
of blackened, abandoned buildings … shiny new BMWs … boxy little Trabant
cars with lawn-mower engines … nostalgic communist kitsch … bratwurst stands
in the park … opera houses and classical concerts … graffiti … children
walking to school … noisy, dusty renovation work … traditional Christmas
markets with handmade wooden toys … efficient networks of old-fashioned
streetcars … elderly people carrying small baskets of groceries home to
their apartments.
“Eastern Germany
has so many virtually undiscovered corners,” comments longtime American
expatriate (and English-speaking helpline volunteer) Karintha Hemenway.
“My husband and I love exploring the old towns with restored half-timbered
houses, hiking in the mountains of Saxony and Thuringia, or relaxing at
a restored or new ‘spa’-type thermal bath. And because of all the subsidies
pumped into the East, the tourist infrastructure is very good and underused.”
Prices and
wages are still slightly lower in eastern Germany compared to the West,
leaving most costs roughly comparable to those in the United States. Hemenway
describes Berlin as “one of the most affordable big cities in Europe” and
praises the excellent public transportation system as well as the vibrant
and relatively safe city center.
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Lucy Jacobs,
a former president of the Berlin International Women’s Club, agrees: “Berlin
is an affordable city to live in, as are the major eastern cities, such
as Leipzig, Magdeburg and Rostock. You can have a nice apartment
in a good part of town and not pay a fortune for it. The quality
of life here is in all aspects very good.”
Cities like
Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin are also ideal bases from which to explore
the rest of Europe. Prague is three hours from Dresden by train. From Leipzig,
my family and I could climb into comfortable (and affordable) sleeping
compartments and wake up in Vienna, Budapest, Amsterdam – or with one extra
stop, Paris or Rome. From some eastern towns, you can literally walk across
the border into Poland.
Winters are
quite dark due to the relatively high latitude, and the temperature seems
to hover around the freezing point, with plenty of sleet and cold rain.
Fortunately, German travel agencies offer some of the world’s best prices
on vacation packages to sunny places like Turkey, North Africa and the
Spanish islands.
| Interpersonal
relations in the German culture – in both East and West – might be described
as “slow to warm up.” During my first six months in the country, neighbors,
shopkeepers and other local people seemed brusque and unfriendly. However,
once they got used to seeing me and learned my name, I was personally greeted
with a friendly smile – and chocolate for my kids – and when it was time
for me to leave the country, they showed heartfelt regret at my departure.
Dow Chemical
employee Frank Kothbauer and his wife Colleen ran into this phenomenon
when they moved to the smaller city of Merseburg, intent on fully immersing
their family in the local culture: “We sent our children to German schools,
and I imagined myself quickly learning German over coffee with the neighbors
and exploring the region with new German friends,” notes Colleen. “But
it took several months before people even started saying hello.”
Friendships
follow the same pattern; they are comparatively slow to develop, but strong
and lasting once they are formed. Since we left Leipzig a year and a half
ago, four German friends have come to stay with us, and several others
telephone regularly, including one who calls on each family member’s birthday. |
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Unfortunately,
a xenophobic undercurrent exists among some social groups in eastern Germany,
especially in economically-depressed neighborhoods and towns. There is
a widespread suspicion (as a teacher we knew was shocked to hear from her
fifth-grade students), that “foreigners” have “taken jobs away from Germans,”
although the foreign population of the new states aside from Berlin is
only some 2%, compared to 10% in former West Germany.
Berlin itself,
with a foreign population of 13.1% in 2002, is a highly cosmopolitan place,
where people of any nationality, religion, style of dress -- or degree
of body piercing -- can feel at home.
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Work
And Residency
Unemployment
rates of about 20% in the East, combined with the German insistence on
proper qualifications (even restaurant waiters undergo lengthy training),
make it hard to find a steady job. On top of this, unlike EU citizens,
Americans cannot be hired in Germany without a work permit (Arbeitserlaubnis).
As Lucy Jacobs notes: “It is unfortunately difficult for Americans to get
work permits for salaried positions (as Angestellte in German), unless
they have been transferred here from another company. Current German
law will only grant a work permit to an American if a German or someone
from the European Union cannot do the job. The process usually takes
between 8-12 weeks, and most companies are not willing to wait and sponsor
the costs of the process.”
Eleanore Fox
of the U.S. Consulate in Leipzig cautions Americans against coming to Germany
as tourists and then trying to apply for a work permit. “This is a way
to get into serious trouble with the authorities, and I know of at least
a few cases where people have come to grief by trying to bend the rules,
for instance applying for a student visa rather than a proper work visa,”
she comments.
However, there
are a few hidden opportunities. Self-employed or freelance workers do not
need a work permit, and according to Jacobs, the Americans she knows who
work as self-employed consultants have usually had no trouble obtaining
permission to do business in Germany. This would also include “virtual
workers” such as the technical writer I met recently who was planning a
move to Europe, since he could complete his projects wherever his laptop
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A special
“green card” program has also recently been launched to attract highly-qualified
information technology specialists to Germany. Furthermore, as Jacobs notes:
“With increasing globalization, more and more international companies are
locating in Berlin and East Germany. Looking to the near future,
with the opening up of the East Bloc countries, Berlin will be a major
hub for business between the East and West. I do believe that this
expansion will offer employment opportunities to expats from all over the
world.”
Teaching English
is another option, especially if you have experience and credentials in
the field. The pay is not stellar as in some Asian countries, but it is
possible to earn a modest living. Hemenway knows several Americans teaching
English in eastern Germany’s smaller cities, “because native speakers are
rarer there.” If this option interests you, Fox recommends contacting language
schools in advance in the area where you hope to live, in order to get
the formal employment process started.
There are quite
a few international schools in eastern Germany offering opportunities for
teachers of all kinds, without the prior requirement of a German work permit:
Berlin International
School (www.berlin-international-school.de),
Berlin Brandenburg
International School (www.bbis.de),
The John F.
Kennedy School (www.jfks.de)
The State
International School of Berlin (www.sisberlin.de),
Erasmus International
School in Potsdam (www.erasmus-is.de),
Dresden International
School (www.dresden-is.de),
Leipzig International
School (www.intschool-leipzig.de),
and
Thuringia
International School of Weimar (www.this-weimar.de).
University
study presents another possibility for adventurous Americans. There are
three good universities in Berlin alone, and the Free University (Freie
Universität) of Berlin has some master’s programs in English. Study
at public universities is nearly free of charge, making it an attractive
option for American students who are willing to learn the language.
Simple residency
permits for Americans who do not plan to work on the economy and are able
to support themselves (such as retirees) involve the typical layers of
German paperwork but are usually no problem.
Hemenway advises
that Americans needing assistance with German residency permits or other
paperwork can contact the helpline where she has served as a volunteer:
Helpline International Helppoint, at +49 (0)30 44 01 06 07. “If they don't
know something, they can at least set you on the path for the information,”
she adds.
Of course,
if you are contemplating a move to Germany, your first steps should include
contacting the nearest German embassy or consulate to discuss your options.
“It will save any rude awakenings and help prepare for the transition,”
as Jacobs notes.
Consul Eleanore
Fox advises: “My primary recommendation for Americans thinking about this
part of the world would be either to study some German before arriving
or to be sure to make time for it once they're here -- otherwise, integration
into the larger community is really an issue.” She also offers the suggestion,
“only a little tongue-in-cheek,” that all would-be emigrants watch the
recent German movie Goodbye Lenin, “just to have at least some idea of
the changes people in this part of the world have been through.”
Resources
www.expatica.com
www.howtogermany.com
www.agbc.de
American-German Business Club, with a Saxony chapter based in Leipzig
Statistical
information was obtained from www.statistikportal.de
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Patricia
Linderman is co-author, with Melissa Hess, of The Expert Expatriate: Your
Guide to Successful Relocation Abroad (Nicholas Brealey Intercultural,
2002). For more information, see www.expatguide.info
. She is also Editor-in-Chief of Tales from a Small Planet, www.talesmag.com. |
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