Any Germans that happen to read this, please give me some insight into what my neighbors are thinking. Thanks!
I am having major problems with my German neighbors. We live in an apartment building and they live beneath us. They have complained since we moved in that we are too loud with regards to closing doors, climbing the stair well, music, tv, etc. anything that makes noise. They are in their mid 30s we are in our mid 20s.
We have honestly gotten better at all the things previously mentioned. We escort our guests to the front door so that it does not close too loudly, and have generally just paid attention to the level of noise coming out of our apartment. Especially after 10pm during the weekdays.
Last night at 1:30am (Sunday night) our neighbor started banging on his ceiling (our floor) because we were too loud. This woke me up. If that was not bad enough, I looked over at my boyfriend and he was in bed too! I had no idea why the neighbor was banging on the ceiling. About 5 minutes later, I hear the neighbor running up the stairs and banging on our front door. Turns out he was upset because my boyfriend was walking in the dining room at 1:30am and he could hear it and could not sleep.
He then went on to complain that we WALK around the apartment too loudly and that by boyfriend has been coughing too loudly. Boyfriend is coughing because he is sick. He has been to the doctor last week and got antibiotics for the cough. Other than that there is nothing to do but wait for the cough to go away.
I am really at my wits end. This is not the first time this neighbor has banged on our ceiling or harassed (yelled) at us. We have offered to give him our telephone number so that he could call us if we were being too loud, but he refuses to take the number prefering to bang on the ceiling. We have only been living there since January.
I have the feeling that he perhaps dislikes foreigners and anyone he terms 'young'. He has repeatedly made comments about our age, and never having lived in anything other than a 'studentenwohenheim'. Which is not true.
I realize that I am american and young (23) by German standards, but I've been living on my own since I was 18 and have NEVER had problems like this with my neighbors.
Does anyone think that calling the Poliezi or the Ordnungsamt would do any good?
Thoughts please!
-Da8thMonth