18. Temporary Furnished Apartments

I decided to leave Bavaria and since my job is for a German company, I have not choice but to remain in the country, for tax reasons.
I opted for Düsseldorf because I know the city and because people there are open and because it is quite the opposite of Bavaria. Although it has been almost a decade since I have not laid foot there, I guess it has not changed that much, well, I hope so.

I was thrilled to move back to Düsseldorf until I had to face the German system, again, which sapped greatly my short lived joy.

My plan is to have my stuff stored until I find an option to leave the country. It makes more sense to rent a box near Munich, which makes me very anxious and sad to know that part of my possessions will remain in this awful conservative territory.

Then, I need to find a temporary furnished apartment until I find this miraculous new job outside this country. Furnished because unfurnished does not allow for flexibility (word unknown in the German language). Well, I thought it would be more flexible and I could not be more wrong.

(In France, in most big cities, you can rent a furnished or unfurnished apartment and even if the lease is 1 or 2 years, you can terminate it with 1 month notice for a furnished and 3 months for an unfurnished, whenever you want. It means that you sign a lease for December 1st, 2025, you move in your apartment and decide for any reason to leave it on January 31st, 2026, well, you only need to send your notice a month in advance, like January 4th and the lease will be terminated on February 3rd. In case of a valid situation, you can even shorten the notice period for an unfurnished apartment.)

In Germany, most furnished apartment have a 12 months minimum contract (Mindestmietdauer) and 3 months notice (Kündigungsfrist) so you are fucked for 12 + 3 = 15 months, and even if you loose your job, or change job and have to move to another city, or if you are sick for months and unable to work, this is not a valid reason to end your lease earlier.
The only solution that is not agreed by all landlord is to look for the next tenant yourself and hope the King, the landlord in other words, validate the candidate you found.

I really want to avoid using AirBnB but the German renting system might force me to do so.
I did saw some apartments with 6 months Mindestmietdauer but you still have the ridiculous 3 months notice so 9 months tied to the apartment.
An alternative to AirBnB is to look for Wohnung auf Zeit or sublet, for a fixed period, hoping that the availabilities match mine.

When you really want to flexibility, just avoid Germany, full stop.

Oh, I forgot to mention that you must give the landlord "Schufa", your credit record and of course, this has a cost, as This is Germany!, minimum 25 euros and valid for a few months.
There is the "free" version but it is for your eyes only as it contains too many details.
Another little surprise I discovered when I found a furnished apartment and had to send my "application".

Germany never stops amazing me, every day.