Feierabend

It's not entirely bureaucratic uselessness for once. Basically, it's to do with crediting you for periods of time when you may not have been contributing from the age of 17, because of being at school, studying, raising kids, caring for somebody or whatever. It may be to your advantage to find the info to the best of your abilty. (Depending on mutual social security arrangements as Englechen said.) https://www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de/cae/servlet/contentblob/232688/publicationFile/52920/rente_jeder_monat_zaehlt.pdf see page 19.

  Lemmings come to mind. Each waving a weeny Union Jack.

I remember being very puzzled the first time I watched a Swiss programme and it had subtitles - I "understood" as much of it as I did normal German!

At last a real solution to one serious issue: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0604ph7   (The clip is only 2 mins long. I expect I'm the last person in these Brexit times to know this series!)  

Bring on Basil for a new series - Fawlty Brexit!

You should be so lucky. That is the fixed interest period for the rate quoted. After that you renegotiate. You are quoted a high interest rate because you're not putting in Eigenkapital. Since you are earning well, don't understand the language and seemingly clueless, I think you'd be well advised to book a session with an English speaking advisor. (speaking as a clueless person who often learned the hard way .)

Oh, interesting, I've never seen that on any butcher's counter. Was it sold fresh as a lump of fat, or in a packet like Atora? That has various dry ingredients added to, I suppose, make it easy to work. I've never actually asked a butcher, as one way or another I've managed to manage the supply!

The only food "necessity" I can't get here now is suet for our yummy dumplings. And convenient jars of mince for Christmas, (but that's not difficult to make.) Even Pimms has made its way into the local Rewe!

White is the colour of mourning, sadness etc. in many cultures. Oh, the implicit racism ...   Probably the ruling eejits who imposed the law have the paint monopoly and ran out of black paint.

I'm sure a letter from the Neukölln Finanzamt will be winging it's way to you! Just to set your mind at rest, you have been told the truth and it isn't a huge amount. Roughly it's based on a notional value of each property, the Einheitswert, (which is far less than the real value), multiplied by a set factor, I think 3.5%, multiplied by the percentage laid down by the local authority which you can find out by googling Grundsteuer Neukölln. Or google Grundsteuer  berechnen if you understand German. I expect someone more competent than I will turn up to explain properly! We bought a flat in Berlin recently and have a house elsewhere and in neither case is it huge.

Maybe it's because they would open themselves up to Maklers pestering for business? The Maklers around here seem to have precious little on their books, their websites are just full of fantasy not-yet-built properties from developers. Their bricks and mortar offices have just a few yellowing photos in their windows. 

Whilst I understand your anger, I don't see the point of losing friendships over the issue. What good does that do anyone?   I, and thousands of others, had no vote at all. 

Yes, my mum used to get the prove you are still alive forms every once in a while, and used the local bank manager who signed it for free.  Not unreasonable really, one not infrequently hears about rellies or partners of a deceased claiming their benefits for years, and not from abroad either.

I do things at the weekend.  

Or you could spend 3 days in the Harz Mountains e.g. using Wernigerode or Quedlinburg as a base. Picturesque, wild,  historic, half-timbered houses and crooked streets galore, probably snow ...