Everyone staying in Germany for a longer period of time needs to do the Anmeldung (registration). I’d like to share a story of my Anmeldung process.

After arriving in Munich, I settled in a place near Harthaus station (English pronunciation: heart-house). I knew I have to go to the local administration office to register. So (logically) I looked up “City Hall” on google maps. And I walked from Harthaus to a place called “Stadthalle” in Germering.

The Stadthalle Germering is a modern and big building, with really nice interior design, but it was empty. Seeing no information on where to anmelden myself, I asked the information center for help.

Me: “Hi! Ich möchte anmeldung…” (A1 level German)
Staff: [confused face]
Me: “Anmeldung” (showing the notes in my hand)
Staff: “Ah! Du musst ins Rathaus gehen” (Rathaus English pronunciation: haht-house)
Me: “But I just came from Harthaus…”
Staff: “I’m sure you have to go to Rathaus”

The same conversation went on for 5 more minutes with me feeling completely lost. Eventually they forced the intruder (me) out by insistently pointing to the opposite direction of Harthaus.

Eventually I learned that Rathaus is the name of local administration office. Rathaus exist in every town, and I just happened to live in the town that sounds like Rathaus but do not have our own Rathaus.

Lin