Living at the MDC and Berlin-Buch

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1 Introduction
Dear Colleague,
We would like to welcome you to the Max Delbrück Center for
Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin Buch.
Living abroad, far away from home is an important
and interesting experience for everybody. Such a sabbatical
leave and life in another cultural sphere is also, however,
accompanied by some challenging experiences. We want you
to feel welcome in Germany and at the MDC in Berlin Buch
and we wish your stay to be happy and pleasant.
Since the foundation of the MDC in 1992, the
institute has in a short time gained an excellent reputation in the international biomedical
research community. A parallel and very positive development has been the increasing
number of foreign nationals that have been attracted to work at the Buch campus. From the
total staff of about 1000 people now employed, nearly 200 come from outside of Germany.
In order to be able to better represent and help this large international group within
the MDC we want to help you wherever we can and we try to represent the interests of foreign
scientists and staff. In specific, we would like to know of any problems you have encountered
in order to take appropriate steps to improve the situation. We are therefore encouraging you
to contact us at any time.
Please, find enclosed an information brochure from the MDC about the institute,
Berlin and life in Germany in general. The information has been collected on the basis of the
current law codes and information leaflets of the responsible authorities, ministries and the
EU. As the laws are subject to change we will regularly revise the Internet version of this
booklet. We cannot, however, accept liability for the correctness of the contents, although the
data has, of course, been collected with due care. We would be grateful if you could inform us
about your practical experiences as well as help us with suggestions, comments and
corrections. Your help enables us to update the Internet version on a regular basis.
Additionally we would like to draw your attention to an interesting handbook for
foreign guests in Germany published by the Berlin Commissioner for Integration and
Migration and to www.deutschland.de published by he Press and Information Office of the
German Federal Government.
If you have suggestions or comments we would be happy to discuss them with you. Let
us assure that we will do our best to help you settle down at the MDC and in Berlin as easily
as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Sylvia Sibilak
Contact person in the personnel department
Room 4029, MDH
3349
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