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Stuttgart is not a world-class city and Munich is filled with Bavarians (I.e. conservative, burgeois). Cologne is too small, Hamburg has no tech scene. Germany

by tormeh 9y ago

Stuttgart is not a world-class city and Munich is filled with Bavarians (I.e. conservative, burgeois). Cologne is too small, Hamburg has no tech scene. Germany only really has Berlin for the kind of tech and city that I imagine the HN audience is interested in. >Munich, doesn't get much more major city than that San Francisco, Shenzhen, Paris, London, Berlin? Because the competition is international. Regional/National thinking is part of the problem.

allendoerfer 9y ago
The cities you listed are 3 times older than even the idea of an American continent. They are culturally rich and unique in their own way. They have survived several countries around them and are historically significant regardless of their size today. Cologne for example is the 4th biggest city in Germany and 2000 years old. They have traditions the rest of Germany finds odd and a strange beverage they seem to think of as beer. If that isn't enough for you culturally, than Germany really cannot compete. I don't see any reason to create some artificially big city for the sake of competing world-wide. Also you forgot that those cities are often very close to each other. The Rhein-Neckar (Mannheim, Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen), Rhein-Main (Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Wiesbaden, Mainz etc.) or Ruhr (too many to count really) area do form hubs, which can compete worldwide and are economically MUCH stronger than Berlin ever will be.
- DanielleMolloy 9y ago
  Berlin is the only true international city of Germany, and with its active startup and IT culture - ~20 hackerspaces, countless IT MeetUps, startup events, well-known STEM research labs spread across 3 full and several applied universities and research institutes like MPI or Fraunhofer; industry research (Amazon) - the only place in Germany and one of the few places in Europe that is interesting for the HN audience. The areas you mention are only places to go if your startup wants to tap into the (indeed very established) mechanical engineering industry, or very specific areas of research. But definitely no place for people who have a more international view on things.
carlmr 9y ago
Stuttgart to me is more world-class than the hordes of homeless and poor infrastructure in San Francisco. I have a 15 minute commute to work. I have a little forest 100m from my apartment. I can get to downtown in 15min as well with public transport. There are over 20k expats in the biggest expat group on Facebook, and there are 3 others. It's lacking a bit in the international food department. But otherwise it's much more liveable than SF, London and Paris. Shenzhen I can't comment on, because I haven't been. I could imagine it's amazing, because Chinese food. Berlin I don't like personally, but not for rational reasons like the other cities. In Munich you get the international food. However you pay in rent and commute. Still better than SF, because public transport and almost no homeless. Munich is conservative, bourgeois, clean and friendly, as if that's a bad thing.

by tormeh 9y ago

allendoerfer 9y ago

The cities you listed are 3 times older than even the idea of an American continent. They are culturally rich and unique in their own way. They have survived several countries around them and are historically significant regardless of their size today. Cologne for example is the 4th biggest city in Germany and 2000 years old. They have traditions the rest of Germany finds odd and a strange beverage they seem to think of as beer. If that isn't enough for you culturally, than Germany really cannot compete. I don't see any reason to create some artificially big city for the sake of competing world-wide. Also you forgot that those cities are often very close to each other. The Rhein-Neckar (Mannheim, Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen), Rhein-Main (Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Wiesbaden, Mainz etc.) or Ruhr (too many to count really) area do form hubs, which can compete worldwide and are economically MUCH stronger than Berlin ever will be.

DanielleMolloy 9y ago
Berlin is the only true international city of Germany, and with its active startup and IT culture - ~20 hackerspaces, countless IT MeetUps, startup events, well-known STEM research labs spread across 3 full and several applied universities and research institutes like MPI or Fraunhofer; industry research (Amazon) - the only place in Germany and one of the few places in Europe that is interesting for the HN audience. The areas you mention are only places to go if your startup wants to tap into the (indeed very established) mechanical engineering industry, or very specific areas of research. But definitely no place for people who have a more international view on things.

carlmr 9y ago

Stuttgart to me is more world-class than the hordes of homeless and poor infrastructure in San Francisco. I have a 15 minute commute to work. I have a little forest 100m from my apartment. I can get to downtown in 15min as well with public transport. There are over 20k expats in the biggest expat group on Facebook, and there are 3 others. It's lacking a bit in the international food department. But otherwise it's much more liveable than SF, London and Paris. Shenzhen I can't comment on, because I haven't been. I could imagine it's amazing, because Chinese food. Berlin I don't like personally, but not for rational reasons like the other cities. In Munich you get the international food. However you pay in rent and commute. Still better than SF, because public transport and almost no homeless. Munich is conservative, bourgeois, clean and friendly, as if that's a bad thing.