Tips on moving to Mannheim

Hi

I might be moving to Mannheim from London with my French boyfriend this summer and wondered if anyone had any advice on the following:

Where is best to live in Mannheim i.e. what areas? (I have never been there so am clueless)
How should I look for a flat? What kind of price do you pay for a 2 bed fllat?
Is it ok to commute to Frankfurt for work from there?

I lived in Munich for a couple of years so speak German but have never been to this area before and my boyfriend doesn't speak German.

Would be really pleased to hear from anyone who lives there too!

Thanks

it's about an hour drive; however, there is an excellent ICE (fast train) connection to get you to FFM in about 30 minutes, 40 with a bit slower intercity train. driving can be nerve-wracking, but people do it. i commute to walldorf (a tad south of Heidelberg) everyday, so about an hour by foot, train & bus each way.

if you've lived in munich, you might be sad about living in mannheim. i did the move, but for me i spend most of my time at work, so what do i really have that i didn't in munich (except my boyfriend)? what i enjoy the most about mannheim is that, from where i live, i can walk everywhere. i live in the Schwetzingervorstadt, so I'm a 10 min walk to the train station & rhein and neckar rivers & downtown (Quadrats). i think if you avoid Jungbusch, you'll be okay. lots of cheap housing there (students & such), but there are lots of good apartments in the inner city (Quadrats). if you look at a map of Mannheim, you'll know what i mean. also, i think the Neckarstadt Ost/Wohlgelegen is a nice area.

depending on where you live, you'll pay around 6-8€ for a warm apartment per square meter. our apartment is a great location, but a bit old. still we pay as much as i did for my studio in munich & we have 2 bedrooms! aarrgghh.

Thanks for the tips! My fiance has been over for an interview and just waiting to hear - with any luck we'll know next week if we're moving!

Hi,
I'm am German (31) and I have been living in Mannheim for almost seven years now and I think it is a great place to live.
There are some parts of Mannheim that are really nice (depending on what you like - central or suburban).

If you are really moving to Mannheim, just let me know so I'll tell you more about where to live best and maybe I can help you finding a flat.

Hi Judy

Thanks for that! We're still waiting to hear about whether we're moving but should know any day. I'll let you know if we're coming - it would be good to get an insight. Thanks

I'm also looking for an apartment in mannheim, preferably in The Quadrate...It's a beautiful area with old buildings, lots of stores and little bits of parks, and easy to navigate. The streets have no name (a la the U2 song) But are blocks with letters and numbers, ie, K3, S7...

hope this helps, If you guys do move there...

I've stayed in Mannheim for 3-4 months and I really loved the city. The good thing about it is that you can go to most of the places by foot. There are a lot of foreign students studying at the business college and therefore you will get to meet a lot of English speaking people. I happened to notice a lot of Americans there.
Regarding going to Frankfurt for work, it is better you find out how much it will cost you.

Hello Everyone,
I was wondering if anyone has knowledge about how to find out prices and places to rent in Mannhein, I am in the US Army, and I will be moving with my family (hopefully), and I would like to livre offpost. Thanks

Percy

they should help you do this. otherwise as a non-German speaker, you will have difficulties. i just got my new flat via a real estate agent, but i speak german.

As far as I know the US Army helps you with finding off-post housing.
Here you go: http://home.mannheim.army.mil/sites/direct...web/Housing.htm

the army won't allow you to live off post anymore except in extremely rare circumstances (i.e. dual military assigned to two different posts so you need to live somewhere in the middle of the two). we got here at the end of april and applied for an exception to policy...we're now on post because there was no way around it. definitely try for it...but don't get your hopes up.

and why have they changed the rules? because iraq is costing the government so much money they can't afford to pay off-post housing when housing on post is virtually empty. i'm waiting for them to lift this new policy (they will eventually) and then we're moving off post...

good luck!!

we've been looking for a new apartment in MA for a year now without any luck. our biggest problem is that we want a place that will take a dog. with ALL the people with dogs in mannheim, you'd think more places would allow them but almost no one does. where do they all live?!

anyway, at this point, we're half considering buying a place. does anyone know if we'd run into the same kind of problem even if we wanted to buy an apartment? are there house rules forbidding them?

any suggestions on the matter? ideas?

i think if you buy a flat in a place where others also own their flats too, you might indeed run into problems. it could be the other tenants would have to consider whether or not they want a dog in the house - barking, running, yelping, etc. you'll just have to play it by ear, hire a real estate agent and tell them, you need a place that takes dogs. period.

good luck.

that's what i was afraid of. well, there has to be places out there. maybe we won't get so frustrated if we hire a real estate agent. and believe me, it's frustrating. especially when we call people who advertise in the mannheimer morgen - people can be so rude! at least with immoblienscout, they list if they allow pets or not a lot of the time. thanks for the advice!

I found an apartment in Mannheim via placing an ad in the local spermuell via online (www.spermuell.de). I had tried the normal route , just checking for available listings in the local papers for a month and came up with nada. Within 2 days of placing the ad, I recieved a number calls (yes some strange ones) from landlords who had vacancies but never listed them in the papers. Finally decided on an apartment in the Quadrat for 300Euro less then what I was paying in Heidelberg and nearly a third bigger in space! .. and I'm loving it in Mannheim!

Good luck on your search! If you need any help, drop me a line.

thanks for the suggestion, djgitana! it certainly sounds encouraging! especially since we'd able to advertise that we want a place that takes a dog so (hopefully) only people willing to take one would bother to contact us. i'm definitely checking into it. thanks again!

I'm moving to Mannheim with my dog later this year. Is this really a problem? I wouldn't ind living in the outskirts if it means my dog will have a good place to call home. Any advice? I have a friend who currently resides in Mannheim and she is looking for a share/share for us in the area so I'm not entirely without resources.

Melissa

Hello! I am moving to Mannheim with my boyfriend in January/February of this year. I was wondering if any english speaking people will be there then? I also would love to learn about life in mannheim. Any information would be great! THanks!!

Hi Mary-Beth

By


I take it you mean in 2009.

I think there should be still quiet a few of us about in Mannheim.

What kinda things do you want to know about life in Mannheim?

I'm an American who's been living here since the end of April so my experience is somewhat limited compared to many on the forums but I'll fill you in on what I know/believe at the moment.

I currently live with my GF in Rheinau which is a nice lil neighborhood. We live near the Karlsplatz so the houses/apartments seem nice from what I've seen and having all the main street stores as well as a running/bike trail only a 5 minute walk away is nice. A 10 minute bike ride will get you pretty much everywhere you need to go from this area: The lake, Shopping Center (I jokingly refer to them as S'Malls for their size ), Gyms, Electronic Stores like Media Markt, etc. The Trolley will get you to the Mannheim HbF in 15 minutes or you can bike there in the same amount of time once you know your way through the streets.

I also commute to Frankfurt and I have to say that DB is horrible from what I've experienced so far. Their trains are constantly late and we're not talking the 5 minutes variety, their schedules they gave out were outdated for me, and I've made 70 Euro back from them in rebates and Bistro coupons just by complaining about their behavior both in the train car and the Bord Bistro Restaurant staff for arguing with me over silly thing like food prices which are clearly stated on their menu in both english as well as german. In their defense, they (especially the Bistro) seem a lot better in the past month as far as treating their passengers and my work schedule is "call-in" so my experiences are based on travelling many random train times throughout the week. Your mileage may vary...

Hmm, what else?

If you're into bottled still water, I'd recommend Lidl's in the green bottle or Staatl Fachingen as a great table water with dinner.

Olympia has great greek food. Love Vappiano's in the city for good noodles and their atmosphere makes it great to hang out with friends.

There's a fest like every 3 days in the surrounding area. "Look! An old man pooping in the park! We should celebrate! POOP IN THE PARK FEST NEXT WEEK"! LOL

For Gym's in the area, I'd recommend the McFit over the Pfiztenmeier but that really depends on what you'd want from a gym. I want to get in, do my workout/hit the elliptical, go home. The Pfitz offers more amenities which you'll love if you want to take classes but you pay a buttload for those amenities and it's not worth it for me plus McFit is 24hrs.

A few food stores in Mannheim sell American/English food products like Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, Orville Popcorn, but I imagine you can get all that stuff on the base. Damn You!

For a massage? I recommend this guy named Steve from massagebystephen.de! *whistles innocently*

I've been living in Mannheim since April (American, not related to the military) and I'm not impressed. I lived in the north of Germany for about a year and a half and MA had more sunshine and more summer festivals but it's just not pretty and the shopping is somehow boring. I also love Vapiano but that's a chain and most major cities have one, the water tower is nice but it is the only pretty thing in Mannheim, the Univeristy is in the old ccastle and also rather nice but it's a university. Con't get me wrong, it is not a terrible place but if I had to pick again (and I didn't just start a new job in downtown Mannheim) I would live in Heidelberg, even if it meant we had a smaller apartment for the same price, the city is much prettier(more old buildings and a castle on a hill and the river is nicer) and the people are different, more students and more international tourists in the summer. Anyway, feel free to PM me if you'd like to chat about Mannheim happenings...I'm waiting for the Christmas market (26 November)

From December 1940 till the end of World War II, Mannheim saw over 150 air raids. The biggest was on September 5 and 6, 1943. A large part of the city was destroyed. In 1944, raids destroyed Mannheim Palace, leaving only one room undamaged out of over 500. On March 2, 1945 the RAF launched a 300 bomber attack, causing a devastating firestorm. 25,181 tons of bombs fell throughout the war.

We briefly looked into moving to Mannheim, but decided to live in the small town in which my girlfriend works to save the hour on the train each day. Our town is beautiful, but damn boring, and we often wish we would have moved to Mannheim. It's such a great connection hub to everything in the region. Heidelberg is 15 minutes, and you can shoot to Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Mainz, Frankfurt, etc., in no time. There seem to be a ton of English-speakers there, so meeting people shouldn't be difficult. And of course there's always the pub quiz at Murphy's. Or just Murphy's in general. You can't not meet people there.