by Dara Wissinger Pütz

The second difference is the lack of air conditioning. As an American and previous expat of living on the equator, I can only survive in the summers with an icy blast upon entering my home or a store to cool down my core body temperature. Europe and most definitely the Germans seem to not believe in such a system for regulating one’s body temperature in the rising heat of the summer months. The Germans believe quite strongly in fresh air and think air conditioning is only stale air which in turn causes illness. This aversion to air conditioning is long standing especially with the older population.

​It is quite rare to find an apartment, home or normal store with air conditioning in it. While there are other methods to cool down, the largest challenge is being cool enough to sleep at night. Most people will “install” a temporary air conditioning unit via window in their bedroom. Due to the special nature of windows here, it makes it very challenging to fully seal off the air flow tube from a portal air conditioning machine. This in turn does cool down the room but loses a lot of the air to the outside in the process. Even if a German home has one of these options it will only be utilized enough to cool down the sleeping space and then be turned off for the actual event of sleeping. The lack of air conditioning also proves a challenge for my third point.

Which is the lack of separate dryers. Air drying is the expectation and norm for drying clothes here in Germany and while I wholeheartedly support this, drying towels in high humidity is futile. Being the American I am, I insisted on a separate dryer (not the unsuccessful combination washer/dryer that is so common here) but to my surprise it functions a bit differently than the ones I am used to at home. The dryers here are not connected to a ventilation system in homes; instead, they have a small drawer on the top that collects all the water from the dry cycle. Once this drawer is full you must empty the water out to be able to use the dryer again. I still frequently forget to empty the water as often as I should, but I am super grateful to have the option of a dryer in my home.

The fourth difference, which is by far the best quality of homes here, is the windows! Our boring windows in America only slide up and down. Windows and (glass) doors here in Germany tilt out a quarter of the way from the top as well as opening all the way straight out for the entire size of the window. This allows for optimal air flow and is so easy to utilize.

Windows have multiple functions here to allow for the all-important German “lüften”. The concept of “lüften” is the important belief of all Germans to every day allow fresh air into a space. It does not matter the weather or temperature, but you must “lüften” for at least 10 minutes in every room of the house each day to prevent illness. The biggest danger of this practice is forgetting which window you have opened in the wintertime and freezing the home in the process!

Speaking of windows, the fifth difference is the lack of bug screens on windows. These are not included in the installation, and you can try and add them later at a much higher cost. I hope you can follow the thought progression of the previous difference, if we must open our windows every day and we have no bug screens…. Then yes there is a large problem with bugs in your home, especially in the summertime.

There are some affordable self-installation solutions but most of these only last a few years before needing to be replaced. The biggest challenge we have found with this is our lovely floor to ceiling windows are great for airflow but not great for window sizing as they are not a standard size. For one glass door alone, we were quoted €1,000 (including installation) for a bug screen. Safe to say for now we are living with bugs as our close summertime friends. Though, I will say I have adopted the “lüften” method, screens or no screens and I am never looking back!

Life abroad is full of surprises and everyday differences in our homes are no different. While some have taken more time than others to adjust to or understand, many are a welcome change and a joy to share about my expat journey. Many contrasts with homes in Germany compared to my experiences in Asia or America have been a breeze (literally!) to adjust to and I know I will be adopting some of these differences for wherever I move next!