General Information

The Federal Republic of Germany is situated in the centre of Europe. 82 million people live here, of whom 8.2 million are foreigners. Nearly half of the German people live in the 85 towns with a population of more than 100,000. A lively, multinational scene thrives in the population centres. Germany has nine neighbours: Denmark to the north, the Netherlands and Belgium to the northwest, France and Luxembourg to the west, Austria and Switzerland to the south, the Czech Republic and Poland to the east. Although regional dialects differ widely from each other, the nation is united by its common language: “High German”.

The German landscape is as varied as its dialects. In the north, chains of islands can be found with extensive sand dunes and marshlands. Dense mixed forests and medieval castles line the river valleys and mountains in central Germany, once praised by the German Romantic poets. Even the industrial landscape of the Ruhr area is dotted with open green spaces. The Alps with their crystal clear mountain lakes rise majestically in the south.

The backbone of the German economy is its car manufacturing, electronics and pharmaceuti- cal industries. Noteworthy is the applied concept of Germany’s social market economy. It pro- vides the citizens with public health insurance, pensions and a security net in case of injuries and accidents.

You may wonder for instance, whether your German will be good enough to get by. You will find that most Germans are very helpful. Most have at least some knowledge of English, since it is taught in all schools. Some also do speak French. In case you talk to Germans who have absolutely no knowledge of any foreign language, they will at least speak very slowly and in simple sentences to give you a chance to understand them.

Schwäbisch Hall – or simply “Hall” as its locals call it – is the second largest city in the Heil- bronn-Franken region and is embedded in a beautiful corner in South Germany.

With its picture-postcard scenery and winding lanes, Schwäbisch Hall is one of the most picturesque historical towns in Germany attracting national and international tourists.

Visit the beautiful medieval Christmas market, the open-air musicals and theaters performed during summer or simply enjoy yourself in one of the several beer gardens.

Schwäbisch Hall boasts of a very rich cultural heritage and there are more festivals celebrated than there are months in the year.

Known as the “Region of World Market Leaders (Region der Weltmarktführer)”, Schwäbisch Hall is surrounded by world market leaders and global players such as Audi, Optima, Würth, Recaro, Lidl or Ziehl-Abegg. Many businesses, industries and local community work closely with HHN in forms such as work placement and project work to create a sustainable, creative, ethical learning environment for its students.

Heilbronn, where the main campus of Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences is located, is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is surrounded by Heilbronn County and with approximately 120,000 residents, it is the 6th largest city in the federal state of Baden-Würt- temberg.

Heilbronn is the major economic centre of the Heilbronn-Franken region, which includes almost the entire Northeast of Baden-Württemberg. Well-known companies such as Unilever and Audi are located nearby. Heilbronn is also known for its wine industry.

You can travel through Germany by train, bus, car or airplane.

In Schwäbisch Hall, there are a lot of buses which drive you to nearly every place in the city. There is also a city train (Stadtbahn) in Heilbronn which takes you quickly and often to the towns around Heilbronn. There is a special offer for students called the “Semesterticket” – for 171 € you can use any public transportation in Heilbronn and Schwäbisch Hall region for the whole semester. More information on how to get this Semesterticket at Section 4.5.

If you want or need to travel longer distances, it would be wise to check out different possibi- lities. The trains of the Deutsche Bahn might not be the cheapest way of travelling. However there are cheap saver fares especially for young people under the age 27 that offer tickets on high speed trains for as little as 19€ one ways nation wide. There are low-cost/budget airlines like Ryanair, Eurowings and Air Berlin to get to other places. Further information can be found in the Appendix, Section 6.3 General Links.

There is also a wide offer for bus trips available, hosted by different companies. Those trips need to be booked in advance and they are a cheap possibility to visit different German and other European cities. Some long distant bus companies are:

https://www.deinbus.de/en/ or https://www.flixbus.com/

Another possibility of cheap transportation is the use of car sharing, e.g. a trip from Heilbronn to Munich may cost between 15 and 20 €:  https://www.blablacar.de

The nearest airport to Schwäbisch Hall is Stuttgart International Airport, located just about 80km or 1 hr and 40 mins away by train. The best connection from Stuttgart Airport is usually via Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental. You must change trains 1 time and it should cost about 14 €. However, most international flights will arrive at Frankfurt International Airport, which is a large airport located approximately 190 km from Schwäbisch Hall. In order to catch a train to Schwä- bisch Hall you must go to the Fernbahnhof station, located at the airport <Frankfurt(M) Flugha- fen Fernbahnhof Station>. Depending on the connection, you can mostly make the journey by just changing trains one time in Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (main station) and it takes you about 2,5 hours, costing between 50 € and 70 € depending on the time of the day.

For all domestic travel we recommend downloading the App “DB Navigator” or on the German Rail, Deutsche Bahn website: https://www.bahn.com. With this app you can search for itinera- ries and buy our ticket

Search for “Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental Bf” (Bf is an abbreviation for Bahnhof, which means train station) as your destination. Be careful to choose “Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental Bf” and not “Schwäbisch Hall Bf” if you want to travel to/from Stuttgart Airport or Frankfurt Airport since the connections will be a lot better to and from Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental Bf. From Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental train station, you take a bus to the city center. Bus No. 1 is usually the best and takes around 10 min. only to reach the city center.

The app is available in English Language.

If your home country has a Social Security Treaty with Germany which includes an insurance clause, your present insurance is enough. You have to present the proof of insurance to the local AOK insurance. EU students are asked to bring the EHIC. The AOK will then free you from paying insurance and enable you to visit German doctors.

Students from non-EU countries are required to provide their own health insurance (insurance policy must carry “unlimited coverage”) or have the right to statutory insurance at the lowest monthly rate, which is currently approximately 90 €.

If you become ill, please try to keep close to this description.

1. Phone a doctor (generalist), say what is wrong and make an appointment.

1. Keep the appointment and give your health insurance card to the secretary.
2. The generalist will examine you and in some cases send you to a specialised doctor.
3. If you get a prescription, you will have to go to a pharmacy. There you have to pay 5 – 10 € for the medicine, if your prescription is on a pink paper. If your prescription is on green paper, you need to pay the full price for the medicine.
4. In most cases, you will get a bill from the doctor. Please ask him for further instructions: sometimes you are asked to pay it immediately, other times you are asked to contact your health insurance back home. They will tell you, if you have to pay the bill by yourself or if they will do it for you.

Please note that medicine can only be bought in pharmacies. Even medicine against heada- ches is not available in supermarkets. You will only find vitamins and herbal remedies there.

In general you have a free choice of doctors. First you contact a general practitioner and if further examination is required, you will receive a referral to a medical specialist by the general practitioner.

The “Kassenärztlichen Vereinigung BW” (Statutory Health Insurance Physicians BW) offers a search machine to find an English speaking doctor, listed also according the specialist field (only available in German): www.arztsuche-bw.de

Then click on „Zur Erweiterten Suche“ (see also picture) and select Englisch or another lan- guage under the field „Fremdsprachen“.You can select the results from the search machine and save it as a pdf file.

After having found an appropriate general practitioner make an appointment by a telephone call or in case of emergency go straight to the doctor`s surgery (with waiting time). If you need help with this, you can contact us in the International Office of Heilbronn University.

In case of a major medical emergency during the weekends or bank holidays, you should go to the emergency room “Notaufnahme” at the local hospital Diakonie Klinikum Schwäbisch Hall / Notaufnahme, see further Information: https://www.dasdiak-klinikum.de.

In case of minor medical matters during the weekends or bank holidays, please go to the “Not- fallpraxis”. If you need help finding your way please ask at the information desk.

If there exists danger to life dial 112, this number is free of charge from fixed lines and cell phones in Europe.

At the doctors you show your EHIC (European Health Insurance Card).

For those of you who made a new contract with a German health insurance: You will receive your insurance card approximately 2 weeks after conclusion of contract. If you need a doctor during this period, please show the sheet “Versicherungsbescheinigung” at the doctor’s.

If the EHIC is issued by a German health insurance company, the doctor will bring to account the expenses directly with the health insurance company (there is nothing to do for you).

If your EHIC is issued in your home country, the doctor will probably issue a bill, which you have to pay. In this case you can forward the bill to your health insurance company in your home country for reimbursement.

If you need medicine, the general practitioner or the medical specialist will write a prescription. This prescription can only be shown at a pharmacy, in German: Apotheke.

There you have to pay about 5 € per medicine, if it was listed on a pink colored prescription, or you have to pay the total amount for the medicine, if it is written on a green prescription.

If you need to get medicine after the regular opening hours of the pharmacy (After 8pm during the night from Monday to Saturday or Sunday the whole day), you have to look for a pharmacy which has “Notdienst” – “emergency shift”, they can be found at this search engine: https://www.aponet.de/service/notdienstapotheke-finden

Please be aware, that in case of getting medicine during this “emergency shift” they will charge an additional 5 €.

Germany is said to be the country with the most public holidays. On these days shops are usually closed and of course there are no lectures.

Sometimes there are so-called bridge days if the holiday is close to a weekend. Yet some holidays are only regional holidays.

In general, shops in Germany have different opening hours, depending on their size. Smaller shops are mostly opened from 9am to 6pm during the week and on Saturdays. Bigger shops and food discounters (such as Lidl and Aldi) are open from 7 or 8am to 9pm from Monday to Saturday. Because the law concerning the opening hours has recently been loosened, more and more big shops and discounters such as Kaufland and Rewe open their shops until 10pm. Shops are not open on Sundays, but in urgent cases, you can buy some basic stuff at the gas stations.

Bars and restaurants usually close at 12am during the week and at 2am in the weekends.

If you urgently need something from a pharmacy after regular opening hours or on Sundays/ Bank Holidays, there is always an emergency service. You can look up which pharmacy is responsible: http://lak-bw.notdienst-portal.de/

Please consider that there may be an additional fee to pay for purchases during the emergency service hours.