Hey,
It's Srijith from 0049 :)
Welcome to The Blick! Each week I round up the stories, events, and opportunities that matter most if you’re living in Germany or planning a move here for work or studies.
Germany moved the clocks forward, raised wages for hundreds of thousands of workers, and heads into Easter weekend. Meanwhile, a key credit score reform is now live, and a new border tracking system is days away from full rollout. Here is what you need to know.
🔹 Public sector employees Pay rise: State-level public sector workers covered by collective bargaining agreements across all 16 German states began receiving a 2.8% salary increase, or a minimum of €100 extra per month, whichever is higher, from April 1.
🔹 Fuel pricing rules tightened: The German government introduced new rules allowing fuel stations to raise prices only once per day, though they may reduce prices an unlimited number of times.
🔹 Clocks moved forward: At 2am on Sunday, March 29, clocks turned forward to 3am. Evenings are longer now through June. If you work shifts or have scheduled appointments, double-check your times were not affected by the change.
🔹 Easter weekend: Germany observes Good Friday (April 3) and Easter Monday (April 6) as national public holidays, giving workers a four-day weekend. Most businesses, supermarkets, banks, and government offices are closed Friday, Sunday, and Monday.
🔹 UK ETA price increase - April 8: The cost of an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) for travel to the UK increases from £16 to £20 from April 8.
🔹 EU Entry/Exit System goes fully live: From April 12, the Digital Entry/Exit System (EES) is to be introduced at all EU external borders. Going forward, entry and exit of non-EU nationals into the EU will only be recorded digitally
🔹 Winter Semester 2026–27: Non-EU students targeting the October 2026 intake should be preparing documents now. Most university application deadlines fall between May 15 and July 15
🔹 Free lung cancer screening: From the start of April, active and former smokers between the ages of 50 and 75 can get an annual free examination for early detection of lung cancer, covered by statutory health insurance.
🔹 ELSTER auto-fill: Germany's ELSTER tax filing portal has begun auto-populating income and deduction fields for the 2025 tax year.
🔹 New Video: Most students in Germany are sitting on thousands of euros and don't know it. My latest video walks you through exactly how to claim back up to €5,000 in taxes, even if you never paid a single euro while studying. I cover the difference between first and second-degree claims, what expenses you can deduct (laptop, travel, rent and more), and the exact checkbox, Verlustvortrag, that makes it work.
Watch Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lspdmEyf1o
That is it for this week. Stay informed, stay prepared.
Until next week,
💙 Peace,
Srijith