While the website of Germany's "Federal Office for Migration and Refugees" is of some value, it also has content gems you would not necessarily expect.
Like this one on the banks and insurance page: "Banks and insurance companies are part of life in Germany."
Who would have expected banks and insurance companies to be part of life in this country?
What is missing from the website is a far more pressing subject, which is how to find a good plumber. The yellow pages or their internet equivalent give you lists, so you can start there.
But even in a country that prides itself on a great vocational training system and great craftsmen, picking one from a list is a crap shoot.
Talk to your colleagues at work, or slip in a question when you get acquainted to the neighbors. Make your own list from that, and write it down.
The day of need will come, either on a really cold winter day when the central heating breaks down, or in the form a clogged or broken bathroom pipe or sink.
German emphasis on very small business which still heavily regulated despite the EU loosening some of the high entry barriers comes at the price of not easily finding a good plumber, electrician, or mechanic.
It strikes me as similar to finding a good coffee in small town America in the absence of a chain like Peets or, lo and behold, Starbucks.
Good luck with the search for a plumber. Don't put that off.
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