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How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

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Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#871

Post by dragonwriter »

hobs wrote: post #866
BytesAndGears wrote: post #834

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I had to do this when I moved to Europe with my non-married fiancee. Some states can give you a statement saying "This person never has gotten married in our state ", but they cannot pull the records of every state. In fact, the state that I was living in could not even do that -- only individual counties could pull records saying "This person did not have a wedding within this county". There are no central recor…

Well, if they want a federal document that makes sense, and yeah I don't think the fed issues that, we're too stratified so there's no such thing as a federal marriage license afaik.

I think the real issue is that what they want is a document that the person is not married. A state document might work if states required and tracked documentation for out-of-state marriages of residents, and could confirm that the person was a resident who would be subject to that requirement and was not, per records, married, whereas what the documents offer is documentation that an event did not occur within the state, not the absence of the condition of being married.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#872

Post by [deleted] »

nicbou wrote: post #114

I document German bureaucracy for a living,[0] and everything is like that. Every life event - immigrating, getting a job, getting married, having a child, buying a car - is mired in slow, paper-based bureaucracy. It is a constant, significant impediment to life in the country. Just last week, I was telling people that the best way to get married in Germany is to get married in Denmark. I cannot overstate how terribl…

[deleted]

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#873

Post by wildzzz »

SeanLuke wrote: post #735

For those of you griping about German bureaucracy I urge you to come to Italy to learn just how good you have it. My wife is Italian and wanted to get married in her small home town. In order for her to get married to an American in her home town required paperwork that bordered on the Kafkaesque. We had to show up at the Italian embassy in Washington DC (fortunately we live there!) with proof and witnesses that I wa…

We got married in DC. It was probably the easiest way someone can get married outside of a common law marriage in Montana (you just live as a couple and say you're married). DC requires no witnesses, no vows, and you self-officiate. We went to the courthouse, waited about 15 minutes for a clerk, and got the application after about 10 minutes of the clerk typing into the computer. For some reason, you aren't allowed to sign application in the courthouse so we walked down the street to National Portrait Gallery, signed it in the cafe, and dropped it in the mailbox when we got home. It was ridiculously easy and took longer to get to the courthouse than it took to get married. We had a real ceremony a few days later for family and friends. It actually took some convincing of our relatives that yes we were actually married and no, no one actually witnessed it.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#874

Post by andrepd »

johnzim wrote: post #851
SeanLuke wrote: post #735

For those of you griping about German bureaucracy I urge you to come to Italy to learn just how good you have it. My wife is Italian and wanted to get married in her small home town. In order for her to get married to an American in her home town required paperwork that bordered on the Kafkaesque. We had to show up at the Italian embassy in Washington DC (fortunately we live there!) with proof and witnesses that I wa…

I lived this as an Italian trying to do the same for an American wife. I had already steeled myself for the experience but it was still mind-numbing, until the appearance of one glorious stroke of luck. The official in our consulate had incurred some minor peccadillo in the filling out of a form - their stamp was in the wrong part of the document, and because of that, their counterpart in Roma had officiously refused…

Just consult a report like this one https://www.transparency.org/en/gcb detailing the percentage of people who said they had to pull favours / personal connections to access public services... You can only begin to imagine how incredibly damaging it is to everything, from economic efficiency to the perpetuation of the culture of caciquism.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#875

Post by bojan »

omginternets wrote: post #867
miracle2k wrote: post #764

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually somewhat similar in Germany. You need a Ehefähigkeitszeugnis , essentially that document proving that you are not married yet. You would have needed to get this from the US. Because most countries don't have that sort of document (including the US), you then instead need to apply to your local Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) for an exemption. All the way, any foreign government documents need…

How does one prove one isn’t married? Is it a sworn statement, or is there something else?

At both my European countries you can request an official document confirming your unmarried status at the city hall, and more recently, online.

Obviously, all the bureaucracies that require such a document also have a mechanism to issue it.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#876

Post by intended »

Aerroon wrote: post #804
intended wrote: post #705

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on what data ? I checked and I can't see these claims being supported. I could be wrong but and may have misunderstood something.

How well the countries are doing? Nominal GDP/capita has been relatively stagnant in most of western Europe: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?location...

Why are we using nominal GDP/C? You should use real GDP/C

This is the Gini coefficient for those countries: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI?locations=F...

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#877

Post by genericacct »

SeanLuke wrote: post #735

For those of you griping about German bureaucracy I urge you to come to Italy to learn just how good you have it. My wife is Italian and wanted to get married in her small home town. In order for her to get married to an American in her home town required paperwork that bordered on the Kafkaesque. We had to show up at the Italian embassy in Washington DC (fortunately we live there!) with proof and witnesses that I wa…

FYI, currently in italy the time to get your passport renewed (not even issued, renewed) is around 8 months and you have to book an appointment in order to do so

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#878

Post by psychlops »

londons_explore wrote: post #847
psychlops wrote: post #833

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would support the counterparty requiring a translation, but doesn't explain why the bureaucracy would need it.

because the bureaucracy also cares that the contract is valid. There are probably all kinds of tricks you could pull by being married for a bit, then declaring the marriage false all along, but not going through the official divorce process.

A contract is between parties. The governments role is to arbitrate in the case of disputes not to help craft the original document and ensure understanding.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#879

Post by G3rn0ti »

kilpikaarna wrote: post #845
usr1106 wrote: post #669

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finland has been a very poor country after WW II until the 1970s (compared to Sweden who had no war or Germany who lost the war). An economy best compared to Portugal or Greece. The was a first overheating boom in the end of the 1980s, until a heavy recession took over in the 1990s. The next boom was Nokia driven in the 2000s until the global banking crisis. Since Nokia has fallen (well, it still exists but with a di…

This is basically it, with the addition that Finland is no lomger in control of its own money. From the war up until adopting the Euro, Finland would devalue its currency a little over once a decade to keep commodity exports going. The EMU is a mechanism effectively set up to extract wealth from the european periphery, for the benefit of Germany (and maybe to a lesser extent Framce). Finland is very much on the losin…

> The EMU is a mechanism effectively set up to extract wealth from the european periphery, for the benefit of Germany (and maybe to a lesser extent Framce). Finland is very much on the losing side, along with Greece, Portugal etc.

Nonsense. „Devaluating the national currency“ is a euphemism for extracting wealth from the citizens without them realizing getting poor. The stability criteria are there to protect you from a government destroying your money.

I don’t get why so many Europeans think the Euro is hurting them economically while in reality it was holding them back (especially in Greece and Italy, their national currency was practically worthless). However, it takes time for member state governments to get used to an independent central bank.

Best regards and hot kisses from Germany.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#880

Post by rockyj »

whalesalad wrote: post #170
nicbou wrote: post #114

I document German bureaucracy for a living,[0] and everything is like that. Every life event - immigrating, getting a job, getting married, having a child, buying a car - is mired in slow, paper-based bureaucracy. It is a constant, significant impediment to life in the country. Just last week, I was telling people that the best way to get married in Germany is to get married in Denmark. I cannot overstate how terribl…

What are the redeeming qualities of Germany?

Erm.. You do realize that in almost all indexes that matter, Germany is in the top 5% e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_D...

You hear people complaining a lot since they like to and we live with crazy priorities like "time to launch a company in days" but in the real world if we had a choice of where you are born Germany will be high on the list.

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