Bürgeramt

When one moves to Berlin, one of the first things you need to do is present yourself to the bürgeramt and register yourself. This is where we did it, in the above building (you can't read it, but it's called the Rathous Mitte). An HR person at Wooga made us an appointment there and told us it was on Tuesday. We showed up on Tuesday, and after waiting 40 minutes in a tiny room and getting chastised in German, we found out that the HR person had confused his days - our appointment was actually today.

In the end, the appointment was not a big deal. We waited about ten minutes, then presented a form, our passports, and our marriage certificate to a nice lady who spoke to us slowly in German (David understood nearly all of it, and I caught a little bit). She entered us into a computer, and soon we will get our tax IDs in the mail. Done! Well, at least until we move into more permanent housing.

According to David (via his co-workers), when Angela Merkel visited Wooga a few years ago, at some point she asked the CEO how the government could help his company succeed. I guess most companies talk about tax breaks, but the Wooga CEO asked instead for English speaking agents at the bürgeramt to help out his new foreign employees. I guess that request has not yet been granted....