How is Tubingen ?

Question

Can anyone tell me how is like living in Tubingen ? How much money does a family need per month ? How are the schools ? Are there many international people ? How does it compare with life in the USA ?

Answer 1

I didn't go there for the 'tubingen',,,, honk, snort!!

Answer 2

Tuebingen is a lovely old college town in Southern Germany - near Stuttgart.

Schools: This state has the best school in the nation

Rent: to rent or even buy a home is pretty expensive, the state is one of the richest in the nation

international: Due its college Tuebingen is a pretty international small city.

Compare life with US.. hmmm this area is rather conservative by German standards. The people have got a strange accent  but the local pasta is great. Also the local wine is wonderful.

Answer 3

There's one thing you need to know about the southern German school system:

Up to the age of 10, pupils spend 4 years in primary school. after that, they are divided into a three tier system:

Gymnasium (Grammar School), for the top 40 or 50%.

Realschule, for the less academically gifted

Hauptschule, for the rest.

The basic idea used to be that only a handful of students planning on an academic or professional career should go to Grammar School, those looking for business or administrative work would go to the Realschule, and those looking to be labourers, farmers or builders, etc. would go to the Hauptschule; so each would receive the education they want and need.

The reality today is far different from that ideal: Hauptschule has become the educational equivalent of an inner-city slum. It is full of children of migrant workers who don't understand enough German to actually learn anything, and full of German kids from "problem families", many with anti-social upbringing and background. Crime and violence are high in these schools, and teachers spend all their time and energy trying to keep the kids under control; there is hardly any time left to teach them - which bothers no-one, since politicians, parents and teachers have long since given up hope on these kids. They are not educated in the Hauptschule, they are simply stored there for a couple of years until they are realeased back into the wild.....

As a consequence, students who would in the past have formed perfectly acceptable Hauptschul-material are now pushed by their parents into the Realschule, which in turn leads parents of tradional Realschul-students to push them up into the Gymnasium.

That's why the Gymnasium, which was intended as a school for the few, has ended up being the school where 40 or even 50% of students get their education. Which is why today not only universities (as in the past), but also more and more "ordinary" employers demand a Gymnasium exam (Abitur) as a minimum for employing/training someone.

So, unless you can find an English language private school in Stuttgart, your kinds will have to start learning German as early as possible, in order to be not lost in the system; note that, unlike in countries like Finland or Canada, the German school system does NOT give children whose first language is not German any extra help. All extra curricular lessons that your children might require will have to be organised and paid for by you.

Germany is, apart from certain city centres and certain run-down suburbian ghettos, much safer than most of the US; we don't allow any lunatic to stock up on weapons as much as he likes.

Buying food and bath realted articles in German supermarkets used to be cheaper than in the US - but with the falling Dollar, I don't know how the math works out right now. Services are in general more expensive.

The costs for renting appartments in Germany vary widely from region to region; Tübingen and Stuttgart, just like Heidelberg, Munich or Frankfurt are amongst the most expensive areas.

Rents in Germany are usually monthly, and are calculated on a square metre basis; the prices for new apartments in fashionable central areas is 10 - 12 Euros per square metre per month, i.e. for a 80 m² apartment (barely enough for 4 people) you would pay from 800 Euros upwards. This would be called "Kaltmiete" ("cold rent") and does NOT include heating, electricity, water, garbage collection, administrative fee, TV licence, telephone, etc., etc. Some of these costs would be included in the so-called "Nebenkosten" or NK ("additional costs") which have to be paid in addition to the Kaltmiete, and which, depending on the size of the apartment, can run anywhere from 60 to 260 Euros per month. The Nebenkosten do not include electricty, or telephone/internet, or the obligatory general German TV licence (around 15 Euros per month); all that still goes extra.

There are factors which make an appartment slightly cheaper: being on or beneath street level (appartments in the basement are often eupemistically referred to as being situated in the "Tiefparterre", or "Gartenstockwerk / Gartengeschoß"); being in an unfashionable/run-down area; being in dire need of some serious DIY, etc.

Of course, real estate in really rural areas may be cheaper, but in many cases the really low prices are not really going to be found anywhere where you are closer than 40 minutes by car from the city centre.

Other costs you should know about: if you employ an agency to help you find an apartment/house suitable for you to rent, they will charge you a fee ranging from the sum of one month's Kaltmiete two the sum of the Kaltmiete of two months.

In addition, you'll be required to give the owner the sum equivalent to two (sometimes three) Kaltmieten as an additional deposit ("Kaution") as soon as you sign the contract. This deposit does not only cover actual damage to the property, but also wear&tear - so, if you move out, and the owner judges that some work has to be done on the carpets, etc., he is entitled to pay that out of your deposit.

Lastly, if you want to move out, there's a three-months-notice policy (unless you have explicitly agreed on something different in your contract). So, if you tell the owner (preferably in writing in a registered letter) at the end of March that you want to move out, you are required to pay rent until the end of June, unless the owner finds another tenant sooner than that. If you find a new tenant yourself, the owner is NOT obliged to accept them (not even if you produce a dozen possible candidates; don't let anyone tell you anything else). If you are desperate to get out, because you already have a job/an apartment elsewhere, the owner sometimes will try to blackmail you into waving any entitlement to the deposit or parts thereof, for accepting the new tenant in exchange [so that you will loose the 2 or 3 Kaltmieten deposit, but will not have to pay the 3 months Kaltmieten + Nebenkosten, as you would be obliged to otherwise].

Answer 4

A lot of people love this small little town. It is the town of Hoelderlin. But they do have a strong accent and they are conservative. It is not so expensive - if you like culture e.g. you get a lot of culture even not paying for this.

I think that a bigger town has much more international guests. But you can often listen to international people. International people are visiting tuebingen, but they do not really live there.

To get a flat without a makler you have to look in the newspaper like "Schwäbisches Tagblatt" http://www.tagblatt.de/ or you find a flat with the help of the Internet. http://www.wg-gesucht.de - a flat with a makler you can find here: http://www.immobilienscout24.de

I do not think, that it really compares with life in the USA. Open people are often discriminated.

The school-system - I think, if your children are going to the gymnasium, you needn´t be so frightend. It becomes also normal, that the children get a higher education. You needn´t have to pay for this. Paedagogik is sometimes important - teacher have to be friendly to the children. Under the level of Gymnasium you should be carefully. But if your children do their examination, the examination has an international standard.

There are private possibilities to learn german before starting school, even near by tuebingen. http://www.hermann-hesse-kolleg.de/ - I think they are specially open for americans -

What are you planing to do in Tuebingen - are you a professor, are you a docent? You talk about earning 4000 Euros a month, thats a lot of money, it listens like beeing a professor - the teacher for your children earns something between 1200 and 2000 Euros...

I left after living there for years - it is better to live in Munich, Hamburg or Berlin.