Germany                      Deutsche Post                  17 June 2024


   The longer you live in Germany and the more you integrate into the
   local community, the quicker you understand why everyone here is
   literally obsessed with letters.  Before moving to Germany, I was
   often warned about the local bureaucracy, to which I just shrugged it
   off - seen it all before.  Back in Russia, I would send heaps of
   written correspondence to the local govs to solve problems, as well
   as during court cases, like after elections.  These are just a couple
   of examples; in reality, I encountered paperwork much more frequently
   in Russia.  Though perhaps less often than most people, because our
   bureaucracy was considered one of the seven deadly sins.

   I want to continue the thought from the beginning of previous
   paragraph here.  Bureaucracy in Germany is closely tied to the fact
   that the postal system works well here.  It works really well.
   You're unlikely to hear from a German that they've had a situation
   where the post lost their letter.  This is extremely rare here.
   Letters from one part of Germany to another arrive in astonishing
   times: one or two days.  Moreover, all this can be tracked in an app.
   When a letter arrives at the sorting centre, it is photographed
   automatically during sorting, enters the system, and the user can see
   which letters are on their way to their mailbox.

   An unexpected benefit of Germany's developed bureaucratic system can
   be found by people who don't yet speak German as well as, say,
   English or their native language and have to use a translator.  Yes,
   many issues can be resolved through postal correspondence, almost
   without resorting to other communication methods.  For example, I
   found my flat by contacting a housing co-op via email, we arranged a
   viewing through email, and all the other correspondence was also
   handled there.  Sometimes, of course, letters came in paper form, but
   that didn't stop me from replying via email.

   Yes, there's this funny thing here when you write an email to some
   office, and they reply in a paper envelope.  The thing is, an email
   cannot definitively establish the sender's identity upon receipt and
   guarantee that the letter reaches the intended recipient.  At least
   from a legal standpoint, an email means nothing here and obligates no
   one, whereas a regular, paper letter has legal force.

   This is tied to one important feature of the local postal service.
   For a letter to reach its recipient, the latter's name must be
   displayed on their mailbox.  Otherwise, the postman won't put the
   letter in the mailbox as they won't know where to place it,
   especially if it's an apartment building.  Of course, you can opt for
   a Postfach Extra, but that's another story.  Placing someone else's
   name on your mailbox is not allowed: it should only have the names of
   those who live in the house or flat.  Thanks to this, the letter
   (almost) guaranteedly reaches only the intended recipient, and the
   sender can be sure that the recipient goes by the name they have the
   right to use.

   Another convenient feature of the postal service is that when you
   move, you can temporarily forward your mail from your old address to
   your new one.  That's what I did, and in just a few days, I received
   my first forwarded letter at my mailbox at the new address.  This
   service costs about 30 € for six months.  It's enough time to update
   your address everywhere and receive the remaining letters that might
   have been mistakenly sent to the old address.

   Thanks to the Germans' particularly careful attitude towards postal
   services, I notice another important feature.  If an email address is
   listed on a website, in most cases, you will get a response.  Tested
   many times.  Sometimes, you even get a prompt reply: there were
   occasions when they replied within a couple of hours.

   Today, by the way, I sent about ten letters to various offices.
   Quite a fun task, really.  It happens rarely with me, usually when
   I'm too lazy to respond to a letter on the day I receive it.  In the
   near future, I'll feel like Harry Potter again, with owls seriously
   spamming my mailbox.





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