Post offices
Post offices (
Postämter ) are
normally open Monday to
Friday 8am to 6pm and
Saturday 8am to noon. A
restricted range of
services is available
beyond these hours at
offices in or beside
main train stations in
large cities. Outbound
mail should reach the UK
within a few days, North
America in one to two
weeks and Australia over
two weeks.
Poste restante
services are available
at the main post office
( Hauptpost ) in
any given town: collect
it from the counter
marked Postlagernde
Sendungen (always
remember to take your
passport). It's worth
asking anyone writing to
you to use this
designation as well as,
or instead of, poste
restante. Incredible as
it may seem in view of
the country's reputation
for super-efficiency,
many German post offices
don't understand the
international term and
are likely to return a
letter to the sender
marked "address unknown".
Bear in mind also that
mail is usually only
held for a couple of
weeks. If you want your
mail to be registered
, ask for it to be sent
einschreiben .
Fax services are
available at large post
offices, usually at more
favourable rates than in
copy shops or hotels.
Telephones
Telephoning is simple
and most kiosks are
equipped with basic
instructions in several
languages, including
English. You can call
abroad from all but
those clearly marked "National".
Calling rates ,
other than to some long-haul
international
destinations, vary
according to the time of
day. Within Germany, the
first cheap period
begins at 6pm, the next
at 9pm, the last at 2am;
within the EU, rates are
reduced between 6pm and
8am. Some boxes are
equipped with a ringing
symbol to indicate that
you can be called back
on that phone. When
using the major
international codes,
remember to omit the
initial zero from the
subscriber's number.
For local calls
, you currently need to
insert a minimum of
DM0.20, which will last
for a minimum of 90
seconds at the peak
daytime rate. In the
Guide , local codes
are included with each
telephone number.
At the time of
writing, coins of
DM0.10, DM1 and DM5 are
accepted; only wholly
unused ones are returned.
However, a large
percentage of pay phones
in Germany accept
phone cards only.
These cost DM12/¬6 or
DM50/¬25 from post
offices or newsagents,
and are well worth
buying, especially if
you're intending to call
home. Another option is
to use the direct
phone service
facility of the main
post office: a phone
booth will be allocated
to you from the counter
marked Fremdgespräche
, which is also where
you pay once you've
finished.
Email and the
Internet
The Germans have
enthusiastically
embraced the Internet as
the recent proliferation
of Web sites testifies.
However, the institution
of the cybercafé
- which in so many other
countries has been the
principal means by which
travellers maintain
contact with home - has
failed to secure much of
a foothold. Such cafés
do exist, especially in
the larger cities, and
are listed in the
Rough Guide , but
their continued
existence cannot be
taken for granted, as
many others have already
come and gone.
Department stores ,
curiously enough, are
the most reliable places
to obtain Internet
access: the Karstadt
chain, which has
branches throughout the
country, is particularly
good in this respect,
usually charging around
DM5/¬2.50 for thirty
minutes. A small but
increasing number of
hotels in all price
categories are wired up
to the Net, and some of
these allow guests to
surf and send emails
free of charge.
Media
Germany is well supplied
with British
newspapers : in the
larger cities it's
relatively easy to pick
up most of the London-printed
editions on the same
day, with the
Financial Times
having a particularly
wide distribution. Some
US papers ,
especially the
International Herald
Tribune and USA
Today , are also
readily obtainable.
With a few exceptions,
German newspapers
tend to be highly
regionalized, mixing
local and international
news. Only the liberal
Frankfurter Rundschau
and Munich's
Süddeutsche Zeitung
are distributed much
outside their own areas.
Berlin produces two
reputable organs: the
Tagespiegel , a good
left-wing read, and the
Greenish/alternative
Tageszeitung ,
universally known as the
Taz . Of the
national daily papers,
the two bestsellers come
from the presses of the
late, unlamented Axel
Springer: Die Welt
is a right-wing
heavyweight, and the
tabloid Bild a
reactionary, sleazy and
sensationalist rag. The
Frankfurter
Allgemeine is again
conservative, appealing
particularly to the
business community, but
follows a politically
independent line.
Germany has more
magazines than any
other country in Europe.
The leftish weekly news
and current affairs
magazine Der Spiegel
is the most in-depth
magazine for political
analysis and
investigative journalism.
Unless your German is
fluent, though, it's a
heavy and often
difficult read. Further
to the right, Die
Zeit is a wider-ranging
(and to learners of the
language, easier-to-read)
alternative; Focus
is another influential
weekly with a
conservative slant.
Stern is the most
popular current affairs
magazine, though its
prestige took a tumble
following its
publication of the
forged Hitler diaries
and, more than a decade
later, has still not
entirely recovered.
German television
does not show the
country at its best,
though it has an
undeniably varied
output. Some of the more
serious discussion
programmes have a
presentation style that
is still reminiscent of
the 1960s and early
1970s and might as well
be broadcast on radio.
Yet there are also
plenty of derivatives of
the banal game and chat
shows characteristic of
present-day American and
British daytime TV,
while in the late
evenings pornography
that leaves nothing to
the imagination is often
broadcast. There are two
main national channels,
ARD and ZDF
, plus regional stations
run by individual Länder
and a number of
commercial channels. The
Austrian, Swiss, Dutch,
Danish and Polish
networks can be picked
up in the areas they
border. Many houses and
hotels are equipped with
satellite or
cable TV ; in such
cases, you'll have
access to a choice of
British and American
channels: CNN is
particularly ubiquitous.
The only English-speaking
radio channels are
the BBC World Service
(90.2FM), the British
Forces station BFBS
(98.8FM) and the dire
American Armed Forces
radio station AFN
(87.6FM), which combines
American music charts
with military news.
These should continue
broadcasting for at
least as long as the
troops remain.
