Berlin - Post Report Question and Answers

What is the relative size of the expatriate community? How would you describe overall morale among expatriates?

If you live in one of the consolidated Embassy neighborhoods in the suburbs, that community is (or can be) very tight. Otherwise the divided nature of the community (between the Chancery downtown and the annex in the suburbs), taken in tandem with the sheer size of the city, tends to cut against a super tight Embassy community. Expect a little closer-knit than London but much less close-knit than, say, Accra or Belgrade. - Aug 2023


Huge. In the hipper areas there are tons of expats, but those are far from US Mission housing. - May 2018


Morale is OK. Berlin is really spread out, and the US embassy families live all over, so not much sense of community. It's an easy city to navigate on your own, so that's what most people tend to do - go it alone. Definitely no "bunker mentality" bonding here. Making friends can be very difficult - Feb 2018


Morale overall is OK. As any post, it has its share of problems, but in general it's a good place to be. - Jan 2018


Big community but also non-existent. Post is what you make of it. - Jul 2015


Fairly large. Biggest groups (not in order of size mind you) are English speakers (Americans, Brits, etc.), Turkish speakers (about 10% of the population) and Russian speakers. - Aug 2013


Huge. - Dec 2011


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