#studierendenwerk

Carl-Zuckmayer-Strasse: This is where I lived when I was in Mannheim, and it worked out pretty well. It’s a little far from the Schloss, roughly a 20-25 minute tram or bus ride. However, two trams go into the quadrat (one directly to the Schloss), and you can catch the bus 60. Despite being right next to a prison, it’s actually a really nice neighborhood. There’s a school nearby so the neighborhood is full of really friendly families. It’s also close to Kaufland, a huge grocery store, an Aldi, and a Sparkasse. We did have some problems with the WC, they had to work on it multiple times. Sometimes when I came home after a few days the water would come out light brown for a second then sputter and turn back to regular. Needless to say I didn’t drink from the tap. But they worked on it again before I left and I didn’t have a problem after that. My apartment had 8 single rooms with a sink in each, a bathroom with two toilet stalls and two shower stalls, and a fairly big kitchen/common room. It was a decent place to live for the price, but make sure when you come home from the bars you know when the trams are coming (at night sometimes it’s once an hour) because it’s too far to walk from the quadrat.

Ulmenweg: Ulmenweg is the largest student apartment complex, so there was always something fun going on and I think they have a restaurant in between some of their buildings. Rooms in Ulmenweg have a sink in them as well, and I think most have four bathrooms, two with just a toilet and sink and two showers. The common room size is also pretty good. They’re farther away than Carl-Zuckmayer-Strasse: the bus 60 stops here and goes directly to the Schloss, but the tram lines that stop at Ulmenweg don’t go to the university directly. I had a lot of fun at apartment parties in Ulmenweg, and it’s really easy to meet other study abroad students here.

Hafenstraße: These overlook the river, and kind of vary in size from single apartments with a small kitchen in your room, to ones with four rooms I believe with two baths and two showers. The kitchens and common rooms seemed to be significantly smaller than Carl-Zuckmayer-Str. and Ulmenwerg. Hafenstraße is near most of the good bars and also on the bus 60, although I think if you had to walk to the university it wouldn’t be too long. It’s not a great neighborhood, but when the weather was warm, a lot of students hung out and drank by the river.

Kolpinghaus: This is marketed as student living, but it is actually through the city and not Studierendenwerk. I heard a few horror stories about Kolpinghaus and highly don’t recommend it. One of my friends was robbed, probably by the cleaning staff because the thief didn’t have to break into his apartment. The worst part is that when he took it up with the Kolpinghaus people, instead of taking care of the situation, they kicked him out! They told him something along the lines of “if he didn’t feel safe living here they didn’t want him to live there” or something ridiculous like that. The rooms are private dorms and I think you share a bathroom with the person in the dorm next to you, with one kitchen on the floor. The lights are sensor-activated in the halls and turn off pretty frequently, some girls I know didn’t feel safe as Kolpinghaus is also for people on government support and sometimes creepy older men would linger in the hallways.