Insurance Options in Germany

When I arrived in Germany I was only worried about having the required health insurance to meet the visa requirements, but, once I spoke with some friends and did some research I learned that Germany is extremely insurance happy. 

I conducted research to determine which insurance I needed to have for my own peace of mind and I am going to share what I learned in this article. Insurance is, of course, one of those things you don’t worry about having until something happens and you realize how helpful it really could have been in the situation, so it can seem not important or not a priority to obtain- please, leave this thinking in the past.  

Here in Germany I have seen/heard multiple horror stories of events happening that cost someone 1,000 EUR or more out of pocket to cover the costs, things that I truly have never considered or imagined before, so believe me, it is important. 

The first type of insurance I will discuss is called “Haftpflichtversicherung” and this is insurance for personal liability. I am talking about this one first because this is the second insurance you really really should have apart from health insurance. 

This type of insurance covers you from all the little oddities of life that can happen to you on a daily basis; for example: you have a lovely balcony in your apartment where you place different planters, some perched precariously on the edges (you tied them down but things happen eh?) and one particularly blustery day, the wind blows one of these planters down and it lands on someone or on someone’s car, causing damage-without this insurance you would be liable for all the costs that result from this random, freak occurrence. 

Now I know this seems like such a random event that you are probably thinking, “TresC come on! This isn’t going to happen-it’s so rare and random!” Let me assure you it isn’t as random or rare as you might think-in the year that I have lived in Berlin and walked down multiple sidewalks in many different neighborhoods I have actually witnessed this exact scenario happening on four (4!!!) different occasions.

I have seen planters/pots blown off balconies and window ledges, on one really cold winter morning as I walked past a building I heard the sound of breaking glass and couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until all of a sudden three feet in front of me and my dogs, shards of sharp window glass came crashing to the sidewalk! I was so shocked and scared I actually screamed out loud and jumped back a good foot or two- worse timing in this instance could have made a potentially dangerous situation for me and my dogs. Seconds after the glass hit the ground I heard “Scheiß!” from the now open window above me- the cold morning had caused the window glass to spontaneously shatter and fall out of the frame. Random huh?! 

Moral of the story: random, freaky stuff happens all the time and this insurance is really cheap. GET IT.

For more details about the private liability insurance, visit this website.

The second type of insurance I will talk about is called, “Hausratversicherung” and this kind insures everything in your flat like your furniture etc from damage (fire, water, and theft). 

This type of insurance also offers (some of them do) coverage for the windows in your flat for the costs from broken windows etc. 

If the Hausratversicherung you have doesn’t offer broken window/glass coverage, then the third type of insurance will- this is called, “Glasversicherung” and is a good idea to have. 

Again, I never considered this a big issue or concern until experiencing some pretty intense windstorms here in Berlin that actually caused a lot of damage to buildings, trees and cars parked in the streets.  

Now these are the insurances I researched for myself here in Berlin; there are more, like car insurance, life insurance, accident insurance, etc but I didn’t research those because I am not driving here and I didn’t feel that I needed them.  

The only other insurance I looked into and purchased was insurance for my pets- the first type of insurance I got for my dogs is called, “Hundehaftpflicht.” 

This is liability insurance for your dogs- in case of any damage your dogs might cause (to other dogs, to people, or to the rental unit you are in), this insurance will cover you and it is immediately active upon paying for it. 

This is truly a required insurance here for dog owners because if anything happens you are covered for the liability of it. It’s cheap- I think I paid 122€ for the year coverage for my two dogs. 

The other pet insurance I looked into and researched but didn’t end up purchasing was pet health insurance. The reason I didn’t end up getting this insurance is solely that both of my dogs are senior dogs now and didn’t qualify for any of the insurance options out there. But I had dog health insurance back in America to help offset the costs of accidents and preventive care and really enjoyed having it, so I do recommend this type of insurance for pet owners.

The website I used to do research and price comparisons for these different insurance types is www.Check24.de. This website is great! You can compare prices on everything from cars, car insurance to liability insurances, to home Internet packages and multiple other things. I used it for all of the above, so I highly recommend it, plus it’s really easy to use and does a great job showing you all the different options for you. I hope this helps!




Your first priority when coming to Germany, however, should be health insurance.

When looking for health insurance, make sure the insurer is an independent insurance broker (in German: unabhängiger Versicherungsmakler) and not an employee from an insurance company. For my specific case, I spoke with a local insurance broker who directed me to plans that would be accepted for the freelance visa within my budget and I chose one; it was accepted for the freelance visa.