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LIVING IN GERMANY

Living in Germany: Exploring with the €49 ticket, lake swimming and Verein culture

From the most scenic spots to explore with the €49 ticket to Germans' love of 'Vereine', we look at the highlights of life in the Bundesrepublik this week.

Published: 2 May 2023 17:26 CEST
Tegernsee in Bavaria
The Tegernsee in Bavaria, one of the many scenic places reachable with the new €49 ticket. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Matthias Balk

It’s been a long time coming – but the new public transport offer kicks off in Germany on May 1st. And many people are already planning trips to take  of the ticket, which allows users to travel on regional public transport all over Germany for €49 per month.

Although the ticket isn’t valid on long-distance transport, like ICE trains, people will be able to travel across the country on regional trains. We put together some journeys to show how the ticket can be used. For instance, people can take the RE5 from Rostock in the north to Elsterwerda in southern Brandenburg to get a taste of the countryside (and bring in Berlin). 

Or there’s the option of taking a tour of the southern state of Bavaria. People can use their ticket to hop on the Alex-Länderbahn (RE2) from Hof, on the banks of the Saale all the way down to the Bavarian capital of Munich. In this journey there’s a chance to stop at the university town of Regensburg.

Meanwhile, from Munich travellers can hop on another regional train to explore the rural surroundings including lakes like Tegernsee and Ammersee. Check out our explainer for more information on trips you can take with the Deutschlandticket. 

Tweet of the week

We can’t resist a tongue-in-cheek dig at German bureaucracy. And who knows, maybe it is saving marriages…

https://twitter.com/drewportnoy/status/1651178933155504129?s=20

Where is this?

Alpsee in Schwangau

Photo: DPA/ Karl-Josef Hildenbrand

The weather in Germany hasn’t really taken off into prolonged warmer temperatures just yet. But that hasn’t stopped swimmers from taking a dip in the many stunning lakes the country has to offer. In this photo, three women are shown braving very cold water to take an early morning dip in the Alpsee near Schwangau, Bavaria. It’s one way to wake yourself up for the day! 

Did you know?

Perhaps you’ve spotted signs for various types of clubs when out and about in Germany, whether they involve sport or board games. But did you know how popular Vereine or associations are?

According to figures from 2022 there are more than 615,700 registered clubs in Germany, with around 50 million members throughout the country. The largest number of associations is in North Rhine-Westphalia (122,222), followed by Bavaria (92,927) and Baden-Württemberg (86,903), and the fewest clubs are in Bremen (3,367), Saarland (10,530) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (12,068).

Many of these clubs involve an activity like volleyball or running, while others are set up to volunteer or raise funds, such as for schools or community facilities. Some of the more quirky clubs include the Street Bunny Crew, which sees people dress up in bunny outfits and ride around on motorcycles.

There’s also the Schwuhplattler, which involves people meeting up to do the traditional Bavarian Schuhplatteln dance. The name is a play on words between the German word for gay (Schwul) and the name of the dance. Those in this club often don Lederhosen and dance at Germany’s LGBTQ celebrations with the aim of promoting tolerance towards the gay scene. 

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BERLIN

Anmeldung: Berlin to re-launch online housing registration in October

Finding an appointment at the Bürgeramt to register an address has long been an unwanted chore for new arrivals in Berlin - but from October, this gruelling ritual will be a thing of the past.

Published: 19 September 2024 13:51 CEST
Anmeldung: Berlin to re-launch online housing registration in October

Every foreigner who’s lived in the German capital has experienced the stress of trying to find an appointment at the Bürgeramt, or citizens’ office. 

In order to register an address – a process known as the Anmeldung in German – residents generally have to scour a list of available appointments, sometimes waiting weeks for a spot or travelling to a far-flung part of the city to complete the process. 

From mid-October, however, the city has announced that people will be able to register and deregister their place of residence online. The Local has contacted officials to ask for the specific date in October that this is happening and will update this story when we receive the information. 

According to the Senate, the move will free up around 500,000 appointments that would ordinarily have been taken by the hundreds of thousands who move into and around the city each year.

Berlin had briefly offered online registrations during the Covid-19 pandemic, but removed the service once social restrictions were lifted. 

How will the new system work?

The online registration system is apparently based on Hamburg’s system, which was developed under the so-called ‘one-for-all’ (EfA) principle. This means that other states around Germany can adopt the same software as part of their digitalisation efforts.

People who want to register address will need to fill in an online form, provide proof of their new residence and also identify themselves using their electronic ID, which will either be an electronic residence permit or a German or EU ID card. 

READ ALSO: What is Germany’s electronic ID card and how do you use it?

After the process has been completed, a sticker for the ID card will be sent out via post.

Aufenthaltstitel

A German residence permit or ‘Aufenthaltstitel’ with an electronic ID function. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Daniel Karmann

This can then be used to update the information on a residents’ eID card and access the registration confirmation digitally.

Those who don’t have access to a validated electronic ID will need to either activate their eID function at the immigration office or Bürgeramt or register their address in person.  

In 2024, the service will only be available for single residents, but online registration for families is also in the pipeline.

Is Berlin making progress with digitalisation?

It certainly seems like it. This latest move is part of a larger push to complete digitalise Berlin’s creaking services and move to a faster, more efficient online system.

At the start of the year, the capital centralised its naturalisation office in the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA) and moved all citizenship applications online. 

Since then, citizenship applications have been completed around ten times faster than previously – though tens of thousands of applicants are still waiting for a response on their paper applications.

More recently, the LEA also announced that it had moved to a new appointment-booking system designed to end the predatory practice of appointment touting, or selling appointments for a fee.

Under the new system, many residents permits – including EU Blue Cards – can be directly applied for online, with in-person appointments reserved for collecting the new (or renewed) permit.

READ ALSO: What to know about the new appointments system at Berlin immigration office

Meanwhile, those who can’t apply online yet can access appointments by filling in the contact form, with the LEA hoping that this will deter people from booking appointments with the intention to sell them on. 

In another move to speed up bureaucracy, Berlin also opened a new Bürgeramt in the district of Spandau this September, with the governing CDU announcing on X that more new offices would follow in the near future. 

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