8 Comments
User's avatar
Rinus van Alebeek's avatar
Andrew Bulkeley's avatar

It's rare and unique and now that we're losing RAW Gelände it's one of the few things that can differentiate the city from anywhere else. It would be a shame.

Maurice Frank's avatar

If only we had decent urban planners and architects. I think it would be possible to build there without annihilation of its character.

Stephen's avatar

_Blockwartmentalität_ runs deep in this country. It’s none of their business to refuse you a rental, _and yet they will get involved_. As with most things here, people don’t know the rules but think they do and then all the headbutting ensues.

As for the digitalization issue: Germans probably think the problem is digital technology rather than their endemic incompetence which emerges from complicated bureaucratic processes.

Maurice Frank's avatar

Refusing to rent me a car hurts their bottom line too so it makes no sense. Not surprised that their American competition was happy to give me a car.

Daniel Lazar's avatar

About the drivers license reissue: read the fine print (or, in my case, just learn how to read). I arrived to trade my old license in for a fancypants new one only to find that I didn’t have to do so for another two years. I just went ahead and got a new one because, well, I was already there.

Maurice Frank's avatar

Did you ever receive a letter about it?

Daniel Lazar's avatar

Ja. I did. But I misread the part in the letter that said I have two years to complete this bureaucratic task. Like, I read that part. But I simply didn’t register that someone would give me a two year heads up that I need a new license.

I think it was that part of my brain that still takes this bureaucracy seriously. Still, after all these years 🤷🏼‍♂️