Accommodation
Finding a place to live in Hamburg can be a time-consuming and difficult experience. Prices are among the highest in Germany. Please fix the dates of your stay early. We advise to arrive between Mondays and Fridays. Arriving on a weekend will entail a stay at a hotel until the beginning of the working week.
Before starting your search, we advise to consult the accommodation information at 
EURAXESS Germany, the German section of the European Services Network for international scientists. This website on housing in Germany may also be useful (pages operated by a private company, click 'Housing & Rentals').
How long do you wish to stay at MPI-M?
Rooms/apartments are mostly rented for a minimum period of 3 months. Most offers are unfurnished apartments. Rentals always start on the first day of a month. Furnished rooms in shared apartments are the most common form of furnished accommodation in Germany.
- If you stay more than 3 months, we advise to rent a furnished place for 4-12 weeks (refer to the paragraphs below). Once you arrive in Hamburg, we will be happy to assist you in finding a place for longer. If you prefer to give it a try and go for the more difficult search for accomodation for more than 3 months while you are still at home, please consult the information below, 'Accomodation for more than 3 months'. Please mind that the search for accommodation for more that 3 months is more time-consuming. You MUST start at least 3 months before you arrive in Hamburg.
If you stay between 3 and 12 weeks, please refer to the section 'Daily rentals and reantals up to 3 months' below. For short stays up to 3 weeks, you will most likely have to stay in a hotel, find a list of hotels here. There are no weekly rentals for apartments/rooms in Germany.
Legal facts you should know
To rent a room/apartment, you will have to conclude a rental contract. This will be binding for you once you signed it (i.e. if you have rented an apartment, you will have to pay for the apartment EVEN if you do not move into the apartment, for whichever reason this may be).
Never move into an apartment/room without signing a contract. Be suspicious if you are invited to do so by a potential landlord!
Be aware that you have to pay a deposit (Kaution) before moving in, bring it with you in cash when taking over the keys, unless you agree on a different procedure with your landlord. This is a security payment the landlord can retain incase you cause damage in the rented premises.
If nothing is damaged when you move out, the deposit is paid back in total. The maximum amount a landlord may take as a deposit is 3 times the amount of the net rent (monthly rental sum excluding all costs called in German 'Betriebskosten' such as heating, water, electricity, TV, telephone and other).
Furniture – equipment
In Germany, most rentals are unfurnished. Furnished accommodation is rare. Some rooms in shared apartments (called 'WG' in German) are also unfurnished, particularly in student's hostels. Always enquire first about the complete equipment available of the place you intend to rent.
Glossary
Here is a guide to German terms and phrases you may need when looking for accommodation. In addition, you will find a description of German housing details (by courtesy of IMPRS, MPI, Saarbrücken)IMPRS-MPI for Computer Science
Service from the International Office
The Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology will be pleased to help you find accommodation for your working visit to Hamburg. Our services are of two categories, Step a) and b):
For both steps we need the following details from you before we can start:
- Full family name and given name
- Nationality
- Names and nationality of persons accompanying you, if any
- Your birth date (and of persons accompanying you)
- Period of your stay at the Institute (or in Germany)
- Sum of money you want to spend, excluding electricity and water (approx. 15€ and 20 € per person and month respectively, depending on consumption)
- Are you male – female?
- Have you worked in Germany before – if YES, when and how long?
- Are you a smoker – non-smoker?
- Would you share an apartment with others (shared kitchen and bath)?
Step a) When receiving your request for accommodation, we first try to find available accommodation from our side by contacting a small pool of Hamburg-based private owners who rent properties including flats, houses, rooms in shared houses and rooms to our international guests. We will inform you on details as soon as there is vacant accommodation.
Step b) If there is no accommodation available from private owners, we kindly ask you to search for accommodation yourself. Please consult the various institutions and agencies (types A and B) providing housing listed below. You will get help from the International Office in case you have any queries at this stage. After you have found a place and decided to rent it, we will help speed up the process from our side as follows:
For both step a) and step b) we offer to receive your SIGNED version of the rent/lease contract, check it and forward it to the owner or agent in Hamburg. (Note: An apartment is held to be rented by you after both you and the landlord have signed the lease).
Accomodation for more than 3 months
There are two types of services/agents, offering accommodation, types A and B.
Type A services that do NOT charge agent fees
Some of the services only have German websites. However, you can send an email in English language. If you do not get a reply, contact the IO.
offers are open to persons of all ages and to persons not enrolled at the university.
ICGS hostel, good to very good standard housing, 7 minutes walking distance from MPI-M.Contact: Mrs. Karolin Sievers, phone: +49-40-244244-97, mobile: +49-176 128 380 10, email (please use both):
sievers@icgs.de and
For Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish nationals, there is the possibility to contact the national churches in Hamburg:
Once you have arrived in Hamburg, you can go there and find occasional accommodation offers.
Europa - Kolleg
Small self-contained rooms to be rented only for full months. The rent is approx. 370€, ask the exact price directly atMissionary Academy at the University of Hamburg at the outskirts, in a pleasant quarter. Single rooms cost 260€ per month. Bathroom and kitchen are shared. Daily and weekly rentals are possible.
Type B services charging fees to the tenant
Important to know: You only have to pay the agent fees after you found accommodation from their offers AND have singed a rental contract.
Incase, for example, you search, find something and want to rent, and then - for any reason whatsoever – you do not finally sign a rental contract (because you do not want the apartment, or you do not come to Germany), you will have to pay NO fee to an agent.
Three agents are specialized in providing furnished accomodation. +++Note that 19% VAT is added to the percentages of commission fees listed there.
English language webpage. All staff members speak English. This agent offers a 15% reduction on their commission fees to all guests of the Max Planck Institute. To get the reduction, please mention in your enquiry that you are a guest of the Max Planck Institute. The commission fees are listed
Send your enquiry online to
English language webpage. The commission fees are
Contact Mrs. Dragunic, phone: +40-40-2207178, fax: +40-40-2273631
email:
Other, widely used sites (in German only) are:
Immobilienscout24 andAt Immobilienscout24 (German language site) select 'Suchen', then 'Mieten', then 'Wohnen auf Zeit'. In a new window, select 'Hamburg' and click 'Weiter' and select 'wohnung', use calendar to use a starting date, then at 'Pauschalmiete' enter , say 400 - 900 Euros. At 'Zeitraum', select 'Monat'.
NOTE. The offers you find here are from agents, private persons or companies owning property. They include unfurnished and furnished rooms and flats. The conditions of these offers vary a lot. If in doubt, ask the IO about the conditions of individual offers. Search for ‘Mieten’, ‘Wohnung‘ or ‘Zimmer’ using the glossary above.
Accommodation for less than 3 months
There are two types of services/agents, offering accommodation, types A and B.
Type A services that do NOT charge agent fees
Deutsches Seemannsheim Hamburg, a kind of backpacker hotel, and the youth hostel 'Auf dem Stintfang' are both situated in the district of Altona, at 20 minutes distance to the Max Planck Institute.
Here are addresses in Hamburg, where you may stay on a daily basis up to a few weeks. They are mostly cheaper than hotel rooms.
More daily furnished rentals in Hamburg are listed at the website of the theNote: All addresses here are unverified offers. MPI-M has no knowledge of the quality and standard of the offers.
Type B services charging fees to the tenant
Please note that the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology accepts no responsibility for the quality of accommodation offered here nor does it support any of the websites mentioned here. We consider them to be a useful source of information for your search. Kindly note that your accommodation arrangements are your personal responsibility.
Distance to the Max Planck Institute
To find out how long the travel with Hamburg public transport (HVV) from your future accommodation to the institute will be, Find here your personal itinerary. Enter a street address of an apartment you are interested in (under -Start-selelct 'Address') and see how long it takes, e.g. the Max Planck Institute, when you enter 'Schlump' for your Destination, selecting 'Station'.By clicking at the HVV logo, you reach the homepage and find a map of underground lines here HVV transport network lines which you can download as pdf (Select 'Timetables, Lines § Routes', then 'line and route network plans' then 'U/S/A/R-Plan' or 'Bus services...').
The metropolitan underground lines (yellow) U3 and (red) U2 and the buses No. 4, 115, 5 all have stops near the Max Planck Institute.
*NOTE:
Before startingyour search for accommodation, we advise to consult the information of the sites below, offering gerneral and housing information about Germany.