What Do I Buy In Germany

[starlegohunter]

I am going on a trip to Germany for my spring break (this Saturday until next Sunday) and I want to get some fountain pen related paraphernalia while I am there. I already plan to be picking up a bottle or two of pelikan blue-black but I don't know what else to get. Are there any lamy nibs only available in Europe, and are there any other nifty inks that aren't available in the US?

As a side note, I am on a college student budget and only want to spend about $50 on pen related items.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

Chris

[lurcho]

Hullo Chris

 

Germany's a big place, obviously. But if you're going anywhere near Hanover, why not arrange a visit to the fountain-pen version of Willy Wonka's? I think it's about 100 miles south of Hamburg, or somewhere in that scale.

 

You can buy a Souveran and get it expertly tuned to your exact liking, just as in a pen show. I noticed this on Pelikan's website recently.

 

I'd love to do that.

 

But I haven't got a job.

 

So I can't.

[I.M.]

There are very affordable and surprisingly decent pens by a company called ONLINE, and they're fairly widespread (available in both stationers and department stores). You could also keep your eyes open for inks made by a company called Standardgraph, but be sure to check in the shop that the bottles don't leak, I took home a leaky bottle without knowing it once.

Edited March 5, 2015 by I.M.

[mike.jane]

I find -in fact- Germany to be a bit of a difficult place to buy pens. Last time I checked I did not find a good online store available (with a great selection, good prices and an user-friendly interface). (Well, you know, other than amazon of course)

Also Germany has a high consumer service tax rate, 19% I believe on anything but food. So You'd have to try to buy somewhere where you -as a foreign traveler, can claim the taxes back once you leave the country again.

In addition central (old) Europe is not a cheap place. It is not rare to find European products cheaper in the US than in the place that they originally come from.

 

So yeah, keep these things in mind. Sorry that I don't have any concrete suggestions.

(Wow man 19% tax, that's a lot of tax)

Edited March 5, 2015 by mike.jane

[Bo Bo Olson]

Online is about as affordable as you are going to find.....we still have fountain pens in the big department stores.

Do Check Kaufhaus for regular Pelkian, Lamy, Cross, Waterman and so on.

Galiera Horton or other ones have the Online.

Then there is still in every big city a pen store....

Lots of little school kid and magazine stand stores sell, paper, fountain pens....mostly Lamys....some Pelikan inks, some Lamy.

 

Do get the 4001 inks, Blue Black, Green is very, very good, brown, turquoise.....violet

Could get a fancy bottle of Lamy turquoise...just as good and you do need the bottle.

Those would cost about €4 a bottle.

 

Do not, repeat do not buy Brunner paper. Nor Rossler. Repeat do not buy Brunner paper...good for ball points only.

 

Buy Zander....in good to better pen shops.

Frankfurt and north you can find perhaps the English Oxford Optic 90 g....as good as the below.

In Horton and some other department stores, you can get Clairefontain Velot '90 g spiral binders....a best buy in affordable paper.....do ask and bug you hotel to call up the department stores for you to find that paper.

I can get it in Horton's in Heidelberg but not at my pen shop.

 

So $50 for a pen...Online....$50 for inks, $50 for paper.....Sigh...you will have to make due with German beer, in American Craft beer is going for €6-8 a bottle...and hard to find. Start with Export beer it is milder than the 'dry' herber (bitterer) Pills....

 

A dishwash Bud is 12 on the bitterness scale...and being tasteless has to be drunk cold. Export is 18-22 and has taste so can be drunk cool....same with a pils. 23-42 on the bitterness scale...Jever at 42 is the bitterest beer in the world...in larger production....a good summer beer.

 

Where in Germany are you going?

I could point out some good beers.

Drinking age is 16 here...18 for the hard stuff....but is stupid to drink expensive whiskey or over priced vodka when one can have good beer and wine.

[mike.jane]

You could buy some Rohrer and Klingner ink, as it's a smaller German company. I really love their Scabiosa, which is an iron gall ink and it's purple. Not a flashy loud purple though, it's 'quiet' yet distinctive enough. Love it.

[starlegohunter]

I will be in München for the entire week I am there, and do intend on enjoying some German beer. Is there a pen store in München?

Thanks for all of the suggestions and advice.

 

Chris

[mirosc]

Lots of stationery/paper/writing/pen departments in shopping malls

 

Some adresses, there are much more, just to name a few.

 

Kaut-Bullinger

Rosenstraße 8

80331 München

(it's at the Marienplatz with the court house)

(four floors of office/writing)

 

Schreibmayr

Fünf Höfe
Theatinerstr. 11
80333 München

 

(at the same address there's also another Kaut-Bullinger)

 

Prantl

Luitpoldblock

Amiraplatz 3 (at the corner to Brienner Straße)

80333 München

[I.M.]

Be sure to have a Hefeweizen beer while you're here. Kristallweizen is also good, but personally I prefer the cloudy and yeastier Hefeweizen

 

Enjoy your stay.

[Polanova]

 

 

Do not, repeat do not buy Brunner paper. Nor Rossler. Repeat do not buy Brunner paper...good for ball points only.

 

 

 

 

 

I have a little Brunnen notebook which I use mostly for short notes, shopping lists etc. The paper is surprisingly good! No bleeding & I prefer my pens wet & flexible.

It`s about 10 times as good as the expensive CD Japan notebook I`ve recently bought.

 

I also have a DinA4 block with Rossler writing paper - again, I can`t complain!

Maybe you have more experience with these brands….

 

 

As to ONLINE pens: They`re the cheapest looking (and feeling) pens I`ve ever handled.

 

Get a dark Weizen beer instead

[dneal]

Honestly, there's not a lot to get in Germany that you can't get or have delivered to the States for a better price (I live in Germany). Pelikan 4001 Blue Black would be one exception, if you like that color. You can find it everywhere, probably most easily at a Galleria Kaufhof or Karstadt (both are department stores).

 

One thing well in your price range and exclusive to Europe might be a Guilloche Kaweco Sport. They have a guilloche pattern similar to the original Kaweco Sports of the 30's. They're exclusive to Manufactum, and there is a store in Munich.

 

Manufactum Warenhaus im Alten Hof
Dienerstraße 12
80331 München

 

www.manufactum.de

Edited March 5, 2015 by dneal

[sargetalon]

Hullo Chris

 

Germany's a big place, obviously. But if you're going anywhere near Hanover, why not arrange a visit to the fountain-pen version of Willy Wonka's? I think it's about 100 miles south of Hamburg, or somewhere in that scale.

 

You can buy a Souveran and get it expertly tuned to your exact liking, just as in a pen show. I noticed this on Pelikan's website recently.

 

I'd love to do that.

 

But I haven't got a job.

 

So I can't.

 

That Willy Wonka tour sounds great but the next tour won't happen for 2 months time (May 8). They are only offered on select Fridays. The custom nib grinding is available this month but only on March 18th.

 

Enjoy your trip to Germany. It's definitely on my bucket list. Please report back your experience.

[Bo Bo Olson]

(Wow man 19% tax, that's a lot of tax)

 

Yep @ England's too.

 

A social net is not cheap, add 15% health tax...40-45% income tax....but when you get unemployed either short time or professionally....if you have a family you do ok...

 

Families get paid near $450 a month per kid, working or not.

 

30 days of leave...ie 6 weeks vs the ten days in the US....weekends do not really count for vacations.

 

A good company gives you 50% of a month for summer vacation money and 1 month at Christmas...sigh the taxes eat half you Christmas bonus up.

 

You do not want to get paid for your over time...but take days off. Paying out over time is taxed so high....it's cheaper to get a second job at McDonnalds than be paid out for your over time.

 

Munich...Schwabing...party town....too early for all the nude sunbathers in English Gardens in the middle of town...perhaps. Rumsfeld an American Loyalist Tory built it...1790's-1800. (The American Éthnic Cleaning of the Tories in the Revolt is was not taught in HS decades ago....could be now.)

 

Paulaner, Thomas Brau...got to get to the Hofbrau house it's required......Spatenbrau is a bitter beer but worth trying.

If you can get out to Andech's Monistary (S-Bahn) on Stamberger See....a crisp huge ham hock...half the size of a football, from a full sized pig... with knurdels the size of soft balls.

On a hill, great view out the back....if you drink 5 liters you can talk to JC....7 and you can talk directly to God. One of the Great beers of the world.....with Double Bock...half that.

[lurcho]

 

That Willy Wonka tour sounds great but the next tour won't happen for 2 months time (May 8). They are only offered on select Fridays. The custom nib grinding is available this month but only on March 18th.

 

Enjoy your trip to Germany. It's definitely on my bucket list. Please report back your experience.

 

Spoilsport.

 

There's always one, isn't there?!

[Bo Bo Olson]

Forgot to reply to the bad Brunner paper... Even tried the 120 g marbled paper....that ended up in the printer.....was not up to snuff. I tried all the school pads....tried the four or five different 50-100 sheet packages.

I had gone one a paper buying splurge...hit every pen and paper shop...school/newspaper in low to middle class shop, Department stores, and my B&M......buying every paper in Heidelberg....was disappointed....got to get to a big city like Mannheim some day.....

 

 

Whoopes....Brunner makes M&K paper too....now that is Good Paper......three 'types'....can be ordered on line and worth paying the postage for....one's better than the other two by a tad...but all three are worth while. Back in the '30-50 M&K was it's own producer and had a great name. Later Brunner ended up with that name.

Luckily one of the department stores in Heidelberg....Horton's had it.

 

Regular Rostler....is also second class.

At the pen shop...I paid €0.75 a sheet for Rossler 100g......so sinfully good to write on, they'd make it Illegal to use on Sunday in Kansas........but it feathers.....bleeds. Some day I'll try their 120-150g.....one sheet.

I do find Clairfontain Velot to be a very, very good inexpensive paper, a hair better Oxford Optic 90g.

I find them better than Zander's Bond....I had saved some from the '70's....and yep...the '70's is the slightest tad better than modern.

[starlegohunter]

Bo Bo do you live near Heidelberg? Last time I was in Germany (before I got infected by fountain pens) I was staying in Östringen as an exchange student.

[Bo Bo Olson]

A couple kilometers outside...15 minutes from Lamy.

I once lived in Munich...went to the American University there, rated by Playboy as the second best Party School in the world, behind Yale in '72....do go to Andech's Monistary (by S-Bahn) on Stamberger See. (Lake)

Die Alte Penotke (sp) museum, takes two days walking....so take your running shoes. One of the bigger, best museum's in the world.

Edited March 7, 2015 by Bo Bo Olson

[Ambien]

(Wow man 19% tax, that's a lot of tax)

 

Yep @ England's too.

 

A social net is not cheap, add 15% health tax...40-45% income tax....but when you get unemployed either short time or professionally....if you have a family you do ok...

 

Families get paid near $450 a month per kid, working or not.

 

30 days of leave...ie 6 weeks vs the ten days in the US....weekends do not really count for vacations.

 

A good company gives you 50% of a month for summer vacation money and 1 month at Christmas...sigh the taxes eat half you Christmas bonus up.

 

I would like to move to Germany

 

I think I'd buy Pelikan and Lamy inks too as they'd be cheaper I presume than having to deal w/import costs. Although, glass bottles tend to be fragile.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Wrap them in bubble wrap.....@€4.00 a bottle for either Pelikan or Lamy.