Is their bureaucracy not a hassle?
Yes!
It's also rife with people who enjoy being in positions of 'power' (if you could call it that).
True story. As a foreigner I need to renew my registration to stay here every few years. Last time, I go to the office, fill out the paperwork, hand it in, and the woman behind the desk looks at it, looks at me, and says
"This is not correct".. I'm pretty sure I know my personal details so I ask her what's wrong and she tells me I've written my height as 182cm tall when I am obviously shorter than that.
I tell her I've been 182cm tall since I was 19 years old. She tells me to my face that I am lying. She's done this job for many years and she knows when 'people' lie about things (for 'people', read "foreigners"). I'm getting angry and tell her she's welcome to measure me, up against the wall, like I'm a child.
She sniffs and tells me she won't accept my renewal application until I tell the truth. Meanwhile, her colleague who has been watching this take place with a smile on her face says
"I'll measure him!". I don't know if they had beef with each other or not, but I go
"great", take my shoes off, stand against the wall and she gets her ruler and measures me TWICE from the floor to the top of my head.
"He's 182cm exactly" she announces. I resist the urge to scream
"Yeah, bitch!" at the other woman who just snatches the papers from the counter, ignores us both while she types furiously into her computer and then tells me to pick up my new card from a room down the hallway.
Later that evening I pull the card out of my wallet, have a look and on the back, I notice that my height has been recorded at
181cm. This means I'll always be 1cm shorter in Germany from now on.
This type of shit happens often in bureaucracy here. Don't even get me started on my dealings with the tax department.
