Erfurt Travel Forum

Hello,

I have a job offer to Erfurt. And I would like to have references about this city from people who has already been there and specially for someone who has lived there.
I would like to know about the level of life.
With a 1200 euros salary can you live a "comfortable" life.
And also about the type of city that it is. From the pictures it seems quite an historical city. I've also seen that is an student city, so I guess it may be a litte bit "multcultural".
How is the people there? Are they friendly to foreign people or are they too racist?
Well I just would like to have some information about the city as with this job offer I must stay there for at least a year and a half.

Thanks

One of my daughters is moving to Erfurt in a few weeks, so we went there,had a look at the some apartments,and spent some time there. I'm sure you'll get better replies from people living in Erfurt, but here's what we found out:
There is a beautiful old center of Erfurt, pedestrianized, lots of stores, good ice-cream (it was hot when we were there). Good public transport in the center.
Some suburbs seemed very quiet, so my daughter decided to live in the center. The rents are very cheap, compared to the Mannheim area here.
Can you live on 1200 Euro? I very much hope so, as my daughter will have a lot less.
About your other questions, multicultural, friendly people, racist..., I don't know. It is a university town and it is a state capital, and I don't recall reading in the news anything special about Erfurt concerning racism.AsI said, somebody else will surely tell you more.

A lot depends on whether that is net or gross salary, and what you consider to be comfortable living. Erfurt and the surrounding area is one of the cheapest places to live in Western Europe. It's also relatively one of the safest. There is some racism in former East Germany from what I've heard, but probably not worse than anywhere else in the EU. Living in a nice central apartment in Coburg, a little south of Erfurt in the more expensive West side of Germany, I was eating out most nights, buying lots of clothes and gadgets, and travelling about the country in nice hotels every other month, and still rarely spent more than 1000 euros a month.

It's going to be a lot different for me here in Frankfurt, but it's still much cheaper here than my home in England :).

There's a rough breakdown of costs to help international students here:

http://www.internationale-studierende.de/en/prepare_your_studies/financing/costs_of_living/

I live in the Rhoen, which is not far from this town. Erfurt is in the nearby Thuringian Forest area. If you are making 1200 Euro net (after taxes) you can live fairly comfortably. Erfurt isn't as multi-cultural as "western" German cities, but isn't known for racism either. I guess you would could imagine that it is fairly middle-of-the-road German, with a touch of former East-German nostaligia. If you are of European decent, I don't think you will have a problem making friends. Remember, the people under 30 years of age had a minimum of so-called "SED-conditioning", that is they grew up in "West Germany" or better-said Germany (period). Hardly anybody in Thuringia gives foreigners the run-around about "capitalists" anymore, these days. The only thing you will find unusual if you are under 30 is the shortage of single women in this state. 75% of the single women between the ages of 25-35 have left this state to find work elsewhere in Germany. LOL! That just means long drives to Hesse or Bavaria to find an available girlfriend if you are male.

No idea about cost of living. Hope you got some information from other people here. I speak German so it was no problem for me to converse with Erfurt people. They are a nice people from what I experienced. Also, there are alot of things to do in the city and nearby for weekend/single day trips! Enjoy.