CUlture
Germany
Will Brown
Life in Berlin
2
Famed for it's place in the heart of Europe, what is life in Berlin really like?
Anyone who has studied German at GCSE or A-Level is likely to know the thrills of talking about some of the key aspects of the lives of our Saxon cousins. With all the recent talk of the German election, you may have been hearing about how certain facets of Germany; why the country is in such a strong economic position, and how they seem to be leading the way on environmental issues. Any football fans, while not being in awe of Jürgen Klopp’s glasses, will be ruing the fact that they have to pay hundreds for a season ticket in England, given that the cheapest season ticket at Bayern Munich went for just £67 in 2012. I gained a first-hand insight in to life in Germany this summer, as I spent two months in Berlin teaching English. Unfortunately, according to German author Rainer Erlinger, Berlin is not the place in which to really experience German stereotypes, but I feel I got some good exposure…
Firstly, many of us Brits seem to think of the Germans as hard-working and efficient, and my experiences have done nothing to dispel this. It’s fantastic. During my two months, I got the train to and from work about 30 times. It was never late. My train to the main station came every 1st, 5th and 9th minute (ie 11:01, 11:05, 11:09, 11:11 etc). I didn’t ever plan getting to the station at a certain time, because trains were so regular that I felt genuinely frustrated if I had to wait more than about six minutes for one. It was almost a relief to come back to England and have absolutely no expectations of the national transport system of a country.
Erlinger says ‘Most Germans view Berliners as the Latin Americans of Germany’, and that’s definitely not due to their tans and attractive women playing beach volleyball. He doesn’t reckon that Berliners are that hard working, but I would have to disagree (or rather, I’m probably just in for a shock when I go elsewhere). My housemates were seemingly always at work, and, the only night I went to a nightclub over there, I came back at about 5:30 AM, on a packed train taking people to work. My colleagues at the summer camp I worked at were off to other jobs in the afternoon…I dread to think how hard the other Germans work if Berliners are lazy.
As I alluded to in the first sentence, German speaking exams bring up some gripping topics…such as the environment. Never before have I been somewhere where it is more difficult to sort rubbish than to fly with Ryanair cheaply. Here’s a run through of the bins which were outside the flats: blue – paper. Yellow – plastic. Dark green – glass (but there are two glass bins, one is for white glass, the other for other coloured glass). Black – everything else. My roommate informed me that there used to be a brown bin as a compost bin, and an orange one for electronics, but they both vanished. Clearly even the Germans thought it was a bit much.
I was incredibly impressed by the recycling systems in Germany; it has been reported that, in 2010, Germany recycled 62% of its rubbish (in comparison to 39% in Great Britain). This high rate stems from the fact that people are rewarded for recycling; if you take bottles back to a recycling centre, you get money for it. I found it to be quite a sight, and also very impressive – when going to watch a football match, there were people lined up along the route from the train station to the ground with shopping
trolleys, collecting empty beer bottles. In the ground itself, if you buy a drink (including soft drinks), you pay a one euro Pfand (deposit), which you get back if you return your plastic cup. So simple, so easy, so tidy.
And so, to the football. German ticket prices are not a myth simply designed to make you hate the fact that you pay £20 to watch League Two football (you probably hate that anyway). I paid 10.50 Euros to watch second tier football, which is probably cheaper than most English clubs. The atmosphere was fantastic, too – admittedly, I’m a Coventry fan, so it doesn’t take much for me to be impressed, but I’d recommend these videos of Union Berlin fans, who were my local team: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l28_zKpei_E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l_TXgIPK7I
Anyone who watched Andrew Marr’s recent superb documentary, ‘The Making of Angela Merkel’ is likely to have been impressed by the Chancellor’s beer-drinking abilities. If you go over there and ask for a ‘stein’, chances are you’ll be given a litre of beer. If that’s not enough, you can ask for a two litre glass of beer…it’s a wonder they ever get anything done. Oh wait…