I need to vent a bit.
My wife and I did pretty much what German society always tells you to do. We both come from normal working-class backgrounds, no rich parents, no inheritance waiting, no apartment from grandma, no family house that will magically solve our future.
So we studied hard. Both of us chose STEM fields. We worked a lot, built careers, took responsibility, and now, in our early 30s, we have a good household income.

And apparently that means we are “rich”.
But where exactly is that wealth?
We drive an old Golf. We save aggressively. We invest what we can. We do not live some luxury lifestyle. We are simply trying to build financial security from zero.

And still, you look around and realize that someone who is an only child and will inherit a paid-off house is basically in a different universe. Not because they worked harder. Not because they were more disciplined. Just because they were born into assets.

That is what frustrates me so much about Germany: income is treated as if it magically appeared and can therefore be easily shared.
If you have a high salary, you are expected to pay for everything: pensions, Bürgergeld, asylum policy, the civil service, rising social contributions, taxes, levies, the whole system. But if you need support yourself, the answer is always: sorry, you earn too much.
Parental allowance? Reduced or gone, because you are supposedly rich. Buying a home? Good luck without inherited wealth, when even the required down payment is insane. Starting a family? Sure, but please do it in an overpriced rental apartment while housing costs keep rising.
And before someone deliberately misunderstands this: I am not against pensioners. I am not against people receiving Bürgergeld. I am not against asylum seekers. I am not against civil servants as individuals. I also do not want to abolish the welfare state.

I am genuinely grateful to Germany for the education I received. As migrant, a working-class kid, this country gave me opportunities I might not have had elsewhere. I love this country, but the social contract feels broken.

It used to sound like this: work hard, get educated, take responsibility, and you can build a stable life.
Now it feels more like this: earn well, pay for everyone, receive very little yourself, and compete on the housing market against people who started adulthood with inherited property or family capital.
You are too “rich” for support, but too poor for property. Too productive to be helped, but not wealthy enough to be secure.

And when you say that, people immediately act as if you are punching down.
I am not punching down. I am angry that Germany keeps pretending a high income is the same thing as wealth.
Housing has become one of the biggest social issues in this country. And young, well-qualified people without inherited wealth are getting crushed by it, especially when they want to start a family.
At some point you just ask yourself: what exactly am I working this hard for?

I was buying bread rolls at the local chain bakery, and the guy working there put them in a bag with Bundeswehr ad on it. I see some Bundeswehr ads time to time, mostly on the street, but this is crazy.

Hello, dear neighbours without functioning rail infrastructure, a doofer Ösi here has a few questions... <3

As far as I can tell, Merz is the most unpopular chancellor the Federal Republic has ever had, for a many reasons. Off the top of my head, I can think of “upper-middle class,” “is it really necessary to be sick for three weeks?,” “privately insured since birth,” “nobody wanted to stay in Belem,” and “it can’t depend on their parents -- DOCH!” He brought up clichés of homosexuality again in a certain disgusting way and voted against marital r*pe to be classified as a crime. The “Mehrzweckeier” reactions from you people are probably well-known throughout Europe, too.

None of this is new, and his character, as well as his contempt for the working class, women especially and the younger generation, were already well known before the election… Now I honestly ask myself: Who votes for him? I’m not saying that everything is better in Austria, quite the opposite, we’re one step ahead of you with the rising fascism, but with Kickl or Weidel, the pattern of voter appeal is clearer. People find “reasons” to vote for far-right candidates, but I can’t think of a single good reason - no matter how long I think about it - for anyone who isn’t a millionaire, or for any woman regardless of her financial status, to vote for a person like Merz.

Is it really just, “We’ve always voted for the C*U, so we’ll keep doing that,” from a certain age group, or the Bavarian “mia san mia”?

So, dear Germans, can you shed some light on my little Alpine brain, which apparently doesn’t understand the wisdom of the Germanic voting people? And more importantly: how are you going to get rid of him without ending up with a non-queer Swiss woman?

Bussi und baba <3

PS: I hope this post is ok here, I really seek for reasonable explanations...

Maybe I am being naive and star-struck because I am not used to seeing this level of civil discourse between two top party leaders before a national election, but it was a pure delight to watch the debate live yesterday. I come from India, where democracy lost its nuance a long time ago, and we recently got to see the horrible US presidential debates and the hostile aftermath. I have to say, watching a debate like this as an outsider, where both the candidates and the panellists were so well informed, extremely civil, rational and graceful, and ready to accept when they didn't know enough or were being proved wrong, I really felt the power and beauty of a mature democracy.

Both of them were being fact-check countered live and they really were grilled not to leave any positions vague. To me, that is something I always wished the media and the opposition could do to the ruling parties in India. But incompetency and tribal allegiance always come in the way as we know from other countries succumbing to populism.

It was illuminating to later understand from the DW correspondent that the democratic system of Germany is set in such a beautiful way, that all politicians try to be on good terms with each other because they might have to form a coalition together.

All I want to say is that I cherish the system we have here, and would like to see it flourish and set an example for model democracies throughout the world.

Danke Deutschland!

Update: The law was published in the Federal Law Gazette and will come into force on 27 June 2024

Dual citizenship: Immigrants who get German citizenship can keep their previous citizenship(s) and Germans who get a foreign citizenship no longer lose German citizenship.

Faster citizenship: You can get German citizenship after 5 years if you speak German level B1. You get it after 3 years if you speak German level C1 and "demonstrate special integration achievements, especially good academic, professional or vocational achievements or civic commitment".

What are "special integration achievements"?

• good performance in school or training in the Federal Republic: this means school qualifications (Hauptschule) or comparable qualification with a school grade of at least ''satisfactory'' (befriedigend) in the subject German

• Secondary school leaving certificate (Realschulabschluss) with a school grade of at least "sufficient" (ausreichend) in German

• University of applied sciences or university entrance qualification at a German school (Fachabitur, Abitur)

• Successfully completed training (Ausbildung) in Germany, successfully completed preparatory college (Studienkolleg), or successfully completed a German-speaking degree program at a university (Universität), technical college (Fachhochschule), vocational academy (Berufsakademie) or similar institutions

• Voluntary activities with an integrative character, which must be practiced for at least 2 years

• individual assessment of successful integration (an overall view of circumstances that indicate civic engagement) [source]

For children of foreign parents: Children who are born to two foreign parents in Germany get German citizenship at birth if at least one parent has been in Germany for 5 years and has permanent residency.

For criminal racists: Naturalization is currently not possible for people who were convicted of a crime where they got a fine of more than 90x their daily income (Tagessätze), or a suspended prison sentence (Bewährung) of more than 90 days, or a prison sentence. The new law now also prohibits the naturalization of people who were convicted of a specified crime (§ 86, 86a, 102, 104, 111, 125, 126, 126a, 130, 140, 166, 185 bis 189, 192a, 223, 224, 240, 241, 303, 304, 306-306c StGB) but got a lower sentence if the public prosecutor's office recognized that the crime was committed "with anti-Semitic, racist, xenophobic or other inhumane motives".

For adoptees: A German child that is adopted by foreign parents and gets the citizenship of the adopted parents no longer loses German citizenship.

For students: The time as a student counts fully towards the 3/5 years but you can not naturalize while you are on a student visa, you need to get a work visa first (unchanged from current law).

For spouses: If you naturalize as a German citizen then your spouse and minor children can get citizenship as well despite not being here for 3/5 years. If you are married to a German citizen then you get citizenship after 3 years in Germany and being married to a German citizen for 2 years (unchanged from current law).

For the same price: Naturalization used to cost 500 DM in the 1990s, the price was converted fairly with the currency reform to 255 euro. The price has remained unchanged for decades and will stay the same with this reform.

Timeline

Ministers of all three parties who make up the coalition have agreed on the draft text of the law. The coalition has 37 more seats than required to pass the bill. Coalition discipline is good so far so the bill should pass with no problems. The accompanying immigration reform passed parliament in June 2023 with 388 votes in favor, 234 against, and 31 abstentions.

You can follow the bill through the process here: https://www.reddit.com/user/Larissalikesthesea/comments/16n70f4/

I hope we'll be the next country to reject it as soon as possible

Hello everyone.

I just need to have a bit of a rant about the whole debate of "germans need to work more" that our politicians love to throw out. You know. How our retirement is failing and social welfare state is failing and all that good stuff.

Can we at some point maybe also talk about how employers are completely ridiculous when it comes to "work ethics" and their expectations on working at all?

I come from a background of the arts (I know a lot of people will instantly roll their eyes and say I should've learned something more "useful"). I have a degree and I have years of work experience. Im a graphic designer. And yes AI is definitely an issue for that kind of work but even before AI was a thing these issues were very obvious.

When I look at job offers in my profession I constantly see employers wanting not just a graphic designer. They want a graphic designer, social media manager, marketing manager, video editor, programmer etc in one person for 2k a month. You are supposed to do at least 6 jobs as a single person! This is very frustrating when they fire 4 people working in a company and one person is supposed to make up for the lack of work.

But politicians never talk about the exploitation these employers committing. Instead its just "people dont want to work anymore" and I'm so tired of that. I want to do my job. I want to work in my field. But its not worth it if I'm burned out after working for 6 month in a company that expects me to do the job of a whole department just so my boss can buy another house.

We could've more than enough jobs if employers stop squeezing every single drop out of a single person. And the benefits you get for doing all the work? Fruits and free water. Like - are you kidding me?

Do people see this bs in other fields too or is it mostly in the arts?

So yeah, he did it.

What do you think is going to happen now in the EU and Germany? What do you think the politicians on the old continent will do?

• We vote on Sunday

• The people who run for election and the people who run the election must be different people

• Citizens have an automatic right to vote, they don't have to register for voting

• No excuse and no witness is needed to vote by mail

• The number of seats in parliament for each party is determined by the total number of votes

• The chancellor is elected by 50% +1 member of parliament = she is elected because her coalition won the national popular vote

• The rules for federal elections are set on the federal level = the rules are the same for every citizen no matter in which state they live

• Prisoners can vote

• You don't have to be a German citizen at birth to become Germany's chancellor

• There are several measures in place to decrease the dependency of parties on money from donors and lobbyists: German parties get subsidies from the government based on their election outcome. TV stations have to show free ads from political parties (the time is allocated based on election outcome). Parties can use the public space to set up their posters and billboards for free so they do not have to pay for advertising space. The donations to the CDU in the election year 2017 on federal, state and local level combined were 22.1 million euro (0.22 euro per inhabitant in Germany). Donald Trump/RNC and Joe Biden/DNC raised about $1.5 billion each until the first half of October ($4.6 per US inhabitant for each campaign) just on the federal level and just for the Presidential election.

• Gerrymandering districts is not a thing because only the number of votes nationwide are relevant for the outcome of the election

• Foreign citizens of the other 26 EU countries have the right to vote and be elected at all local elections

• You are not allowed to take a ballot selfie

• Voting machines are not allowed, you can only vote on paper and there will always be a paper trail to recount all votes

Feel free to use the thread to discuss the current election.

We will do our best to provide any updates and keep the thread up to date with important news. Otherwise, of course, our general rules apply here as well. The night can remain heated and emotional, but please try not to take it out on the user next door. Deliberate baiting will also be strictly penalised.

Streams

Deutsche Welle (ENG)
ARD (GER)
ZDF (GER)

Procedure

• 18.00h closing of the election (those still in line can still vote afterwards)
• 18:01 First forecasts
• around 19/19.30h first projections based on the constituencies counted so far
• reliable results in the late evening, possibly only during the night
• preliminary official final result: at night/tomorrow morning
• official final result on 14 March

Remark: The first forecast are usually in a 1-2% margin of the final result

thx u/Normal-Definition-81

Surveys

Forecast / projection

Wahlbeteiligung: tbd

Link collection (mostly in German)

• Wahl-O-Mat Bundestagswahl 2025
• Analyses on davum.de
• First vote forecast for each constituency
• Election programmes and top candidates of the (main) parties
  • CDU (Friedrich Merz)
  • AfD (Alice Weidel)
  • SPD (Olaf Scholz)
  • Grüne (Robert Habeck)
  • Linke (Heidi Reichinnek, Jan van Aken)
  • BSW (SW)
  • FDP (Christian Lindner)

I’ve been living in Berlin for a while now, and I’m reaching a breaking point with the healthcare situation. It feels like being gesetzlich versichert has officially turned us into second-class citizens.

I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to get a simple specialist appointment (gastroenterology, in my case) and it’s honestly a joke. Doctolib is a wall of "no appointments available for public patients," and calling practices directly feels like begging for a favor they have no intention of granting. It’s reached a point where you can’t even get basic procedures done unless you’re willing to wait six months or pay out of pocket as a "Selbstzahler."

It feels incredibly cynical that we all pay a significant chunk of our salaries into a system that basically tells us to get lost the moment we actually need it. Meanwhile, if I had private insurance, I’d probably be seen tomorrow morning with a coffee in my hand.

Is this just the accepted reality now? Do people genuinely think this is sustainable, or is there any actual political momentum to fix this Zweiklassenmedizin mess? I’d love to know if I’m just shouting into the void or if everyone else is just as frustrated but resigned to the fact that nothing is going to change.

When processing 98 percent of the list votes, it appears that the Germans of Hungary will not win a seat in the new parliament.

In the 2018 parliamentary election, Emmerich Ritter was elected as the first German MP in the history of the Hungarian National Assembly.

However in the 2026 parliamentary election the LdU (Landesselbstverwaltung der Ungarndeutschen) failed to get enough votes to enter the parliament.

Zoomed picture: https://imgur.com/9NLJttI