Best advice to people who have just moved to Berlin? Trust nobody. Or at least keep your bullshit detector on high alert. Lying is a favourite Berlin sport.

What is it about Berlin that people here lie, more or less blatantly, more often than they tell the truth, and that lying is apparently considered completely acceptable?

I started to notice that the minute I moved here, and it is only getting worse. People in all walks of life, for whatever purpose or reason. From Hausverwaltung (in one instance that nearly landed me in real trouble) to Cresco Real Estate who when starting their what would turn out to be a typical Berlin infinity project next door promised me my balcony would not be affected, to an HNO doctor I consulted recently (who tried to perpetuate a minor issue rather than solve it immediately), to so-called friends (even those you thought were different). And many other examples in between which I have chosed to forget so as not to clog up my already limited brain space.

The problem is, that when you start to not find any reason to believe anything anybody says, you end up not wanting to communicate with anybody about anything, because – why bother? – once you know a person has lied about one thing, you know they have most likely been lying about more things, or even everything, especially in emails and on social media.

I am assuming that most people who grew up somewhere else were raised to know that lying is never an option, and therefore it is probably one of the reasons why so many people say Berlin is a hard city to live in.