There were certain areas in Berlin where speaking English seemed almost mandatory, especially in Bars and Cafes but that said I don't know how the situation is

There were certain areas in Berlin where speaking English seemed almost mandatory, especially in Bars and Cafes but that said I don't know how the situation is with gov institutions etc. I would guess though that it can't be such a big deal as there seemingly are a lot of non German speakers everywhere (in the mentioned areas it felt like German native speakers actually were a minority) and consequently at least some of the local businesses were owned by non Germans too. Vienna is definitely less pronounced international but telling from my experiences at coffee shops as well as the "Wien" subreddit at least there must be a thriving expat community. Sorry for not having more info about the official lang requirements in Germany/Berlin but do check out the cities' corresponding subreddits: http://www.reddit.com/r/berlin http://www.reddit.com/r/berlin http://www.reddit.com/r/wien http://www.reddit.com/r/wien