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My fellow Americans in Germany,
If you’re like me, you probably meet a fair amount of other Americans in your life here. In big cities like Berlin or Munich it can be hard not to, and even in the mid-sized ones like Nuremberg or Stuttgart, there seem to be plenty of us around.
But in recent years, amidst a flurry of news that Americans are moving to Europe in record-breaking numbers I’ve found myself wondering, ‘Why aren’t more Americans moving to Germany?’
The United States experienced negative net migration in 2025, meaning more people left the country than arrived, for the first time in 90 years. But while that shift has resulted in something of a flood of Americans into other countries in Europe – the population of Americans in the neighbouring Czech Republic has more than doubled in the past decade, and its nearly doubled in Spain and the Netherlands – it doesn’t seem like there’s been a surge of US citizens into Germany.
Recently, I put the question to the authorities, asking Germany’s Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) how many US citizens had moved to Germany in recent months and years. The numbers I got back, which detailed how many US citizens came and left Germany every month since 2022, showed that the the stream of incoming Americans has been relatively steady for years.
But interestingly, the total immigration figures (including Germans and other nationalities) revealed another piece of the puzzle: while Americans continue to move to Germany at the same rate, the number of Germans and other nationals moving from Germany to the US has dropped.
REVEALED: How many Americans are moving to Germany and how many are leaving?
In other words, it seems that political tensions in the US have not really pushed a big number of Americans to Germany. But they have apparently made Germans and other nationals much less interested in moving to the US.
A new report from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) offers the latest bit of evidence that "European trust in the US has crashed to new lows" under the US’s current leadership.
A narrow majority (53 percent) of those surveyed in Germany said that US-Europe relations will probably get better once Trump leaves office. But the other side of that stat implies that a significant portion of those in Germany think the damage Trump has done to international relations will outlast him.
North American World Cup
Meanwhile in North America, the 2026 World Cup is off to a strong start. For Americans in Germany there is an interesting decision to make: to support the players from your homeland in red, white and blue, or to throw your support behind the black, red and gold?
In their first few matches in the championship, both teams looked relatively strong. The two teams had also faced-off in a friendly game ahead of the championship, where Germany beat the US 2 to 1.
For fans around the world, the World Cup is all about football (what we Americans call soccer), camaraderie and the love of a good game. But somehow politics always come into it in one way or another.
Recently German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attempted to use the World Cup fanfare to get closer to US President Donald Trump. At the G7 summit in France, where the leaders met to discuss Ukraine among other things, Merz presented Trump with a Germany team jersey in his own name with the number 47 on it.
Presumably Merz might've hoped that the gift would get him back on Trump's good side. Trump had reacted harshly to a couple of critical remarks by Merz in previous weeks, and had abruptly announced a decision to pull US troops out of Germany around that time.
READ ALSO: Who would really be affected by the removal of US troops from Germany?
"Happy belated 80th birthday, @POTUS," Merz wrote on X, adding, "After all, we're on the same team."
For his part, Trump seemed less than enthused about the gifted jersey.
By the way, if you'll be tuning-in to the World Cup from Germany, we’ve put together some tips for doing so.
Taxes, taxes, taxes
Ahead of the launch of this newsletter, we put up a survey asking our American readers what aspects of life they could use some more information about. One topic that came up again and again was taxes.
To start with the basics, all US citizens living in Germany are required to file taxes in the US and many are additionally required to file in Germany as well. The standard deadline for most US taxpayers in Germany has just passed on June 15th, but you can extend that to October 15th by filing for an extension. Here are all the tax deadlines you need to know this year.
But, of course, knowing by when to file is the easy part, and from then it gets more complicated.
In response to our survey, Carla, who lives in Berlin, said that many Americans struggle to find tax assistance in English. "Is there any central database/assistance for locating a linguistically talented Steuererberater (tax advisor)?" she asked.
The simple answer: Yes, the US Embassies in Germany maintain lists of English-speaking tax advisors. So, if you're in Berlin, try here; if Munich or Bavaria, here; and if Frankfurt or surrounding regions (including Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland), then here.
Note that your tax advisor doesn't necessarily need to live where you live. So if you have trouble finding one nearby, you could try some from the other embassies' lists above.
By the way, we wrote a short guide on the topic last year with some more insights.
The main thing to know: If you have a relatively simple income situation (i.e. work a single job in Germany), you may be able to manage your filing on your own, perhaps with the help of tax filing platforms in both the states and Germany. But if your situation is a bit more complicated it certainly can make it easier, and you might save more, to use a trusted tax advisor.
READ ALSO:
- A tax expert's best advice on when and why you need to file in Germany
- Do I have to declare income from foreign sources on my German tax return?
Well that's all for now. Be sure to stay tuned for more 'Americans in Germany' updates – If you'd like to receive them directly in your inbox before they're published just go to your newsletter options and subscribe. And if you have a burning question, or a bit of advice to share, please submit them directly to our ongoing survey.
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