Investing in Germany

I know this topic isn't relative to most of you but I figured that some of you might have some insights so here goes...

Does anybody know of any good investment firms in Germany that offer a wide selection of low price investment possibilities? I am talking here about Stock/Bond Index funds, No load Mutual funds, etc.

I have looked around and most of the German banks don't offer Index funds as they are not popular with Germans and mutual funds here usually carry high administration costs etc. I am thinking along the lines of Vanguard funds in the US (for those familiar with these). Vanguard Europe unfortunately requires an initial investment of $100k, which needless to say, I don't have lying around. I did look at investing through UK firms but it looks like most require British citizenship or at least residency. Germany just doesn't have an investing culture and therefore, there doesn't seem to be much on offer. Anybody have any suggestions other than having me send my extra cash to the U.S.? (I would like to avoid this because of exchange rate risk)

The only thing I can think of are U.S. funds that track European indexes and are therefore denominated in Euro. It just seems like such a hassle though with all the transfers. On the other hand 2,5% interest at DIBA is also not so exciting.

Any ideas?

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most of the UK firms have offshore ranges domiciled in lux or dublin where you can invest if you are not UK resident (invesco, schroders, etc) just look on their web sites

in the case of invesco (not that I am saying they are better or worse than others) I know that you can invest in their offshore range through the frankfurt office

Thanks for the tip. Luxemberg is probably a good idea. Might save some taxes while i'm at it too.