How to get back bottle deposits (Pfand)

Hello! How do you get back that "pfand", the bottle deposition? Other countries have vending machines for that sort of stuff, but here I've seen no such thing.
Soon I'll have a months salary invested in bottles! (Might be good, considering the instability of the financial market lately eheheh)

Go to a supermarket.

Oh lookee, someone seems to have already had a thread on the subject. Odd given that it's such an obscure question.

Read all about it: The mystery of Pfand.

All the big supermarkets (Extra, Real, Edeka, Kaisers) that I've been to have a machien for returnign bottles and crates. The Galleria Kaufhof at Alex has one as well, it's on the side of the ground floor, near the food hall, but in a separate bit - a little like where the loos are if that makes any sense (!)

Also smaller supermarkets will take them back as well, we have a Spar near us that does, but it's probably best to try and do it when they are not too busy.

If you really can't find anywhere, try the Edeka at Hackesher Markt or Friedrichstrasse, they both have machines at the back of the shop, near to the bread area.

Hoe that helps, sc

You can give back all the bottles at every supermarket. Sometimes they don't have machines, but every supermarket hast to take it! But that's just for the plastic bottles. So check if there's this http://fhh.hamburg.de/stadt/Aktuell/bezirk...erty=inline.jpg symbol on the bottle. All the glass bottles and the ones which don't have one, you should take to a bigger supermarket, because some don't take the bottles if they don's sell the them.

that is often the case with Lidl & Penny, etc. even shops at the train stations, which is annoying.

Thanks for all the nice replies. Don't know if I got any smarter but I'll bring a bag of bottles to a supermarket and try. :)

Dont do that. They are making fun of you. Everyone will laugh at you while you are trying to stick those bottles into the ice machine.

Hahahaha!

It sounds like the rules have changed since then, though.

Based on experience, the deposit seems to be 8 cents on glass bottles (beer, not wine), 15 cents on hard plastic bottles which look like they're probably refilled and 25 cents on softer one-use plastic bottles.

Note that there are people (presumably homeless) who collect bottles scattered around the city and bring them back to the supermarkets for deposits. So if you're out and about and don't want to lug your empty bottle around to return it for the deposit, one option is to leave it somewhere a Flaschensammler can easily get to it. E.g., next to a trash can but close enough that it won't get kicked over and smashed. That seems nicer than making them root through a trash or recycling bin to dig it out.