Greetings
Tach
takh
The everyday clipped greeting. 'Grüß Gott' is southern and marks you instantly as a visitor from Bavaria or Austria — here it is 'Hallo' or 'Tach'.
Social
Nu
noo
Saxon for yes, and one of the first words you will actually need. Used constantly, often doubled as 'nu nu' for emphatic agreement.
Food
Gose
GOH-zuh
Leipzig's own sour wheat beer, brewed with salt and coriander. It nearly died out twice in the twentieth century and is now made again in the city that named it.
Leipziger Allerlei
LYPE-tsi-ger AL-ler-lye
A spring vegetable dish that in its proper local form includes crayfish and morels — nothing like the tinned mixed veg the name means everywhere else in Germany.
Culture
Wir sind das Volk
veer zint dass FOLK
'We are the people' — chanted on the Monday demonstrations that began at the Nikolaikirche in 1989 and brought down the GDR. In Leipzig it is history, not a slogan.
Neuseenland
NOY-zayn-lant
'New lake district' — the flooded open-cast lignite pits south and north of the city, now swimming lakes reachable by tram and bicycle.
Daily life
Anmeldung
AN-mel-doong
Registering your address at a Bürgeramt within two weeks of moving in. It produces the certificate the tax office, your bank, your insurer and the immigration office all require.
Kaltmiete / Warmmiete
KALT-mee-teh / VARM-mee-teh
Cold versus warm rent. Listings show the cold figure; the warm one adds heating, water, rubbish and building costs and is what actually leaves your account.
Nebenkostenabrechnung
NAY-ben-kos-ten-ab-rekh-noong
The annual reconciliation of service charges against real consumption, arriving up to a year in arrears. In old stock with new heating bills it is the item that ruins budgets.
Schufa
SHOO-fah
The credit reference agency. Landlords and phone providers both ask for a Schufa-Auskunft, and a newcomer arrives with an empty file rather than a bad one.
Emergency
112 / 110
—
112 for ambulance and fire, 110 for police. 112 works across the EU from any phone.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.