By summerstudent Aman Kumar >
Berlin, Germany, as per my understanding is the most important city from the 20th century and I think many of you will agree with me and if you don’t—I will explain my “controversial?” claim in a bit. But first about me. I am Aman. A master’s student. From India. Currently on the way to becoming a Physicist (Most probably!! Let’s keep our fingers crossed and pray for me. I don’t believe in God but if you do, then I think it should work).
So, coming back to my claim. From the point of physics, Quantum Revolution happened here. On which our modern world works (talking about the device which you are using to read this. Hey! Don’t take a printout!?). From the point of view of history, Berlin has seen everything up close, the World Wars, the Cold War, the Great Depression, and so on. Now do you agree with my claim on the first line? (Still No? it’s fine I guess; thank God I am not trying to become a politician.)
So, being interested in physics, and history at the same time, I really wanted to visit Berlin, and it was a dream come true when I was selected for the summer internship here at HZB. So, you must be wondering why I took 2-3 paragraphs above to describe Berlin (Hey, don’t judge me!). It was because I wanted to understand why Berlin, and in general Germany, after everything it has been through still stands tall. Below I will share some of my experiences to understand why.
Also, sometimes side by side, I will share my experiences with usual German people and people in scientific Institutions like HZB, because I have noticed some key differences, don’t know why though.
Authentic and Unfiltered: No Pretense in Berlin
On the day when my flight landed at Berlin Airport, it was 1 am in the morning, and I was trying to get to my hotel. I went to the S-Bahn station, trying to understand the ticket system, where to go and all. And since I was in a different country, my SIM card was not working either. So, while I was trying to figure out things, a person came to me, I assume he was a railway employee. He was asking me something in German (Still don’t know what!!). After some time, we both got to know that I don’t know German.
After some time, he came with another railway employee, this person was speaking in English (Thank God!!). He was asking me where you want to go but as I was taking out my phone to check the location of my hotel, he shouted at me “Look at me while I am talking to you”. I was shocked. I replied with “I don’t know let me check” (It’s difficult to remember German places when you don’t speak German). When I looked up after checking from phone, he already went from there disappointed.
Never in my life had someone who tried to help me, shouted at me, and then walked away rudely, all in a span of 1 minute. Without even helping me. So, from there I got to know German people are direct. They don’t like to beat around the bush; they get straight to the point; they don’t care about how they appear to someone. People from scientific institutions are different, they are usually nice and not rude even when you irritate them too much with your silly questions 🙂
Punctuality and Prioritizing Work-Life Balance
So, everything is closed on Sundays here. If you are hungry on Sundays and have nothing to eat with you, then may God help you. Even if you are an atheist. It’s very difficult to find a shop open on Sundays.
Other than that, offices close at 4-5 pm sharp in the afternoon, and this aspect caused many problems for me. When I came here on a Sunday, I was supposed to stay at Studentendorf in Wannsee. But they said I can’t shift on weekends, and I can only shift into my room between 12-4 pm on working days. Due to this rule, I needed to book a hotel for me on Sunday, and the next day I was roaming around with my two big bags all around Berlin (Okay, one was a little small but you still get the point).
I feel these customs and rules are there to help with the work life balance of people, and it is nice too. But sometimes they are so strict with the rules, it causes a lot of problems. People in scientific institutions don’t follow a strict timetable, they are flexible. In some cases, you may need to work on weekends too. I have worked on beamtime at BESSY II at night on the weekends too (It was a fun experience, and I am not complaining at all.)
They are into Trains!
Berlin is heaven for a train enthusiast like me. I have never seen a train network so dense at any place. Usually at any place they have at least 2, maybe 3 types of public transport. I can’t even count the different modes of transport they have here, and it is still confusing to be honest even after one and a half months. But I have enjoyed every one of them, be it the S-Bahn, U-Bahn, Trams, Regional Trains, ICE, even buses. It feels like ferries are only in existence because trains can’t directly run on water here.
German culture is very closely associated with trains, so much so, if you want to eat anything on Sunday’s, you can come at a railway station. You will find food here, because everything is open at the railway stations. This is what I usually do to survive on Sundays.
Btw, what are we supposed to do when the pay to use washrooms on the station is closed at night? (Seriously??)
Finally
So, when you merge above mentioned aspects of German people, it is not difficult to understand why even after so many problems, they always rise above the problems. They don’t waste time beating around the bush. They solve the problem head-on (Even though that guy at the train station did not help, but German people are usually helpful, I have many more instances of them being very helpful, but if I add them here, my already long blog will be longer sadly ). They also are punctual and give preference to work life balance, which is a key ingredient for the development of any country. On top of everything, they also have an excellent mode of transportation like trains, which is needed for any country to rise economically.
Also, one tip, don’t eat at McD in Germany ;(
On the author: Aman Kumar is a final year master’s student pursuing an Integrated MSc Course in Physics from the National Institute of Technology, Surat, India. He is currently a summer student at HZB in the group of Prof. Dr. Felix Büttner, under the supervision of Dr. Steffen Wittrock and Dr. Kai Litzius. He is working on the project “Non-collinear spin textures in rare earth doped Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG)”