Hausnotruf is a system offered my organisations such as the German Red Cross (DRK).

People who do not want to move into an old people’s home, but still want the peace of mind of being able call for help in an emergency use the system.  The have a red button on a necklace that they can press in an emergency, which contacts a base station which in turn dials an emergency call centre.  They then send out someone who has a key to the flat or house to help.

Some systems also offer a an option, whereby the user has to press a button on the base station eg. every 24 hours.  If they do not, they receive a call or help is sent out.  This can be useful if they are not able to press their button.

For more details on the Red Cross system, visit www.drk.de.

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GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communications and is the the mobile phone standard common in many parts of the world.  It has been the main standard in Germany since the middle of the 1990s.

The two GSM frequencies in Germany are known as D-Netz and E-Netz.

The standard also covers features such as SMS (Kurznachrichten), which started out as a by-product and is now one of the most popular ways of using a mobile phone.

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Many people coming to Germany to live are unaware of the fact that most cars here have two sets of tyres.  The reason for this is the large difference in temperature and therefore road conditions between the summer and winter months.

The winter tyres are made of a rubber mixture that does not because so hard in freezing temperatures, which gives them more grip on cold roads.  The tread has so-called “lamella” shape, which allows it to run better on snow.  Since many side roads do not get gritted or cleared of snow, this can be an important factor.  Cars that are primarily driven on roads in the Alps may even have spiked tyres or snow chains.

The summer tyres are made of a different mixture, that does not become so soft when it gets hot.  This allows them a better grip on hot tarmac in the summer, even when it is wet.

It is important to be aware of this difference, as driving with the wrong kind of tyre can have a negative influence on any insurance claims after an accident.

So every year in April and October I take my car to the garage to have the tyres changed.  They do not simply change the rubber tyre, but the whole wheel.  At the same time they balance them out and also make sure that the tyres with the most tread on them get put on the corners that are most likely to wear during the season.

Left: winter - Right: summer

The ‘old’ tyres are then put into storage and I am used with a certificate called a Reifenpass with their storage location on and the amount of tread in millimetres left on each tyre.

The whole process can take anything from about 15 minutes up to (as it did yesterday) a whole hour.

For those who do not use their cars so much, there is an alternative called “Ganzjahresreifen” – tyres for the whole year, that are a comprimise between the other two.