08/20/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FMVvKDQgM/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Imagine this. You sign the lease, get the keys, and open the door of your new German apartment — and where the kitchen should be, there is a bare wall with two capped pipes.
No cabinets. No counters. No sink.
This is completely normal in Germany. The kitchen — the Einbauküche — belongs to the tenant, not the apartment. When Germans move, they unscrew the entire thing: cabinets, countertops, appliances, and yes, the kitchen sink. Literally the kitchen sink. It rides the moving truck to the next home, where it gets rebuilt to fit a completely different room.
To Germans, this is pure logic: you paid for that kitchen, so you keep it. To everyone else on Earth, it is one of the strangest household facts in Europe.
Would you take your kitchen with you when you move?