Most of the institutes involved in the school are located in the area of Potsdam, a medium size town very close to Berlin. The institute of Physics of the Humboldt University is located in Berlin.

Both towns are rich in cultural and social life. Berlin is among the towns in Germany with the highest amount of foreigners. There are many students, scientists, artists and a lot of young people just looking for an exciting place to live in for some months or years.

For students in our school there is a clear option to live in Potsdam, closer to the campus, or in Berlin in the core of the metropole. In either case, there are train connections and a large public transport network that allows to commute and reach the working place.

Housing is not a problem in the Berlin area. From one hand, the Universities offer students the possibility to get a room or in some lucky case a small flat in the student house. On the other hand, the market for flats is very favorable at present with a relatively large offer of small flats to rent even with a student's salary.

We are also organizing a kindergarten for those who have small children.

Once a new student joins the school, he/she will receive our help in finding a first accommodation and in dealing with the most common first issues like bank account, or Visa extension. Moreover, the PhD students representatives would help in finding your way through the internal life of the institute and would give some useful advice about most of the practical things from your arrival until the submission of your thesis.

There exist a guideline for newcomers written by the PhD representatives, from which we quote the following information.

More information about life in Germany is available at the websites www.handbuch-deutschland.de. Furthermore you can inform yourself about the International Relations Office of the University of Potsdam under www.uni-potsdam.de/aaa/science/index.html.en. Do you have questions regarding your stay in Germany or in any other EU member country? You can consult the information published by the Researcher's Mobility Portal Germany (ERAMORE) www.eracareers-germany.de/en/index.htm. The portal provides a broad variety of information on topics like funding, taxes or even on child care facilities. The Webpage of the Federal Foreign Office will give you also general information about Germany and your stay here www.auswaertiges-amt.de/www/en/index_html.

If you are looking for some general information for foreigners about Berlin, ask the excellent English website www.berlinfo.com. You can get more information about Potsdam on the websites www.potsdam.de or www.potsdamtourismus.de. There, you find relevant information about shopping, cultural events, health and social welfare and other things.