Life in Karlsruhe and moving there

Hi all,

I've just moved from Scotland to Karlsruhe to work in the city's Natural History museum for the next couple of years.

I'm currently crashing in the guest house however i think its about time to start looking for a proper place to live. Was just wondering if people had any advice for the best places to look finding/renting a flat or any other general advice living in Karlsruhe.

Would also be nice to hear from anyone who is living in the area, i'm guessing thats not too many people, but its always good to meet up with some other english speakers. Sadly my germans sounding pretty poor right now.

Cheers

Heh, I have a feeling you need to ask more specifically and then I am pretty sure you're gonna get some answers -- I would actually assume that there are a few native English speakers (which I am not one of) in the area.

Hi,

If your still looking for somewhere to live I can recommend the agents I used http://www.move-in.info/ Tel. 07243 333 941. They're a small operation based in Ettlingen and provided excellent service. They also speak English which was important for me because I haven't progressed beyond restaurant German yet!

The expat community seems to be based around Flynn’s Inn:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=e...wloc=A&om=1

and Scruffys:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=e...=16&iwloc=A

and involve lots of drinking!

I second ibrookes' recommendation of the move-in relocation service - they provide a simply invaluable welcoming service!

Howdy...

I live near Karlsruhe - and finding a place to live will be tough because you are competing with many University Students.
There are diverse papers - such as the Spermüll ( pure small advertising - in Canada they call this paper "buy & sell)
or Amtsblatt (local weekly paper or booklet on Community happenings).
The best way to get a place (if you are not in a rush to move out from your friends) is through networking with colleagues and friends.
If you can hang out an advert (bulletin board - there is one in the REAL store and I think the DM marts have them too) with what you
are looking for and your phone number, maybe someone will call back.
There are also organizations that have appartments (also in Amtsblatt) such as Familieheim, ALBA, Baugemeinschaft, etc.
They have appartments to let, but you must become a member first and purchase something like a "stock". That is basically
your down payment and will be returned to you once you are no longer a member.
If you are very "open" - a Wohngemeinschaft - a group of people live together and share bath/kitchen but each has their own
bedroom. A lot of students do this to split the costs.

I hope that this helps.
AND good luck...

Cwoc, did you ever find a place? Try these websites too..
http://www.wg-gesucht.de/ or http://www.studenten-wg.de/wohnungsmarkt.html
Good luck!

Well, I don't live in Karlsruhe. But because some fucking nob forgot to mention that a meeting with a customer which usually happens in Munich is now in Karlsruhe, now I'm somewhere in the the middle of the schwarzwald with clothes for only two days. Instead of going back to Munich I now have to go to Karlsruhe and need to buy some stuff for surviving Thursday and Friday.

Where around the Karlsruhe Hbf can I buy clothes? How late are stores open? I shall be able to get a train from Freiburg to Karlsruhe at 6 pm, so I expect to arrive there at around 7. I'm hoping stores are open until 8. Is that the case?

Thanks for any info.

PS: sorry for the rant. Should look for the vent thread.

There is a large mall called the Ettlinger Tor you should find something there. It's open until 8pm every day (except Sunday of course!) and 10pm Thursdays.

How to get there

Mit der Bahn:

Vom Hauptbahnhof Karlsruhe mit dem Taxi oder mit der S-Bahn (S1/S11 - Neureut, 2 - Durlach oder S4 - Eppingen) bis Haltestelle Ettlinger Tor. Von dort aus siehe Anfahrtsplan.
Mit der S-Bahn:

Haltestelle Ettlinger Tor oder Marktplatz.

Top recommendation Nicole. Thanks a lot! The Ettliger Tor center is just a few minutes away from my hotel.
Made it just in time there.
Owe you a beer

Make it a large one eh Glad you found what you needed.

Hi all,

My partner and I are moving to Karlsruhe in the middle of May as i got a new job.

A few questions!

1. The best area to live? I will be working in the north east part of Karlsruhe.

2. My partner speaks english only, are there any english speaking jobs and where do we find them?

3. any other tips and hints would be much appreciated!

4. Oh yeah! Where is the best place to buy a car? I heard second hand bmws are cheap!???

thanks

Topics merged by admin

The questions are a bit too generic for any useful answers, but here you go:

1. It'd help to know details, such as life style, expectations, house/apartment etc. In the city proper, neighbourhoods in/close to the NE of KA are Rintheim (city-like living), Hagsfeld (pastoral), Waldstadt (heavily forested area sprinkled with tall apartment blocks, old bungalows and the odd mansion) and Oststadt (city-like). They're either within walking distance or with straightforward tram connections. Parts of Stutensee (Blankenloch, Buechig)(outside city limits) are also close by and well connected, if you prefer the more tranquil life out in the sticks. NW parts of the city are also nice to live in, but one would have to change trams to get to NE. By car this is not an issue.
There are also nice villages to the East, in a more hilly/forested area. maps.google.com and immobilienscout24.de are your friends.

2. All the English-speaking jobs are concentrated in the SW part of the city, and there's also an Office for English Jobs there. Kidding aside, it, again, depends on the field, qualifications etc. In IT there might be some. In Waldstadt there is a European School, but I think they're fully staffed for the year. If your partner is in pedagogy, it never hurts to ask, though.

3. ...I'm trying hard but can't think of anything. One tip would be to use the "search" functionality. :-)

4. Sorry to sound obvious, but probably the best place to buy a car would be a car dealership. There's more than 1 in the area, though, so you'll have to do some search: mobile.de, autoscout24.de, set your search criteria and restrict it to a small radius (kreis) around zip code (PLZ) 76133. BMW dealerships in the area are all part of the Ungeheuer holding (www.ungeheuer.net).
2nd hand BMWs being cheap: I don't know, it depends. As a rule of thumb, big-engined gas cars depreciate far quicker than smaller-engined diesel ones. Rough numbers:
E36: from 2k EU to 8-9k. /6 (Z3s) range from 8k through 15k.
E39: from 5k to 17k, figure 10k for post-facelift models
E46: from 9k to 18k; you can find a loaded 330i with a few miles for approx 15k.
E60: from 17k to ...; early high mileage models are easy to find. You can find a fully loaded 545i with reasonable mileage for low 20k. Diesels are expensive.
E9x: from low 20k to ...

For older models, E30s, E31s, E32s are nigh on impossible to find. E34s are scarce. I don't know jack about Xs, but they seem to hold their value much better than non-X models. Figure low 30k for a run-of-the-mill old gen X5.

Cheers.

All the English-speaking jobs are concentrated in the SW part of the city, and there's also an Office for English Jobs there

I'd like to know where exactly is the Office for English Jobs?

Hello everyone, I have read all the comments above mentioned. I will also be moving to Karlsruhe in the next few months. Just want to know from the expat point of view, the Americans already living there, where is the best area to live. My husband and I are a young couple (in our 30s) and are expecting our first baby. We would like to meet Americans living in Karlsruhe that could give us a General idea of what to expect. We currently live in Colmar, France which is 1.5 hours away. We are thinking of taking a trip to Karlsruhe this weekend to check out the scene, but have no idea where to go. Please help.

Thanks, m

I live in Weststadt which is very nice. (expensive though)I don't know about all the areas of Karlsruhe, but I've heard that the majority of the auslanders live in Sudstadt. If you starting a family, maybe you want to look at an area outside the city. Ettlingen is quite nice and an easy train ride to the city center. Hope it helps.