Our story started with a move

Unpack Dresden is personal support for people moving to Dresden and settling in. We help with the practical side of arrival: the first weeks, housing paperwork, Kita and school, and the appointments that fill your calendar.

Maybe your employer sent a relocation package. Those often cover the obvious logistics and stop there. Day to day, the harder part is local know-how: which form matters, which office to call, and the tax breaks or benefits that locals hear about through friends and colleagues. Fines hurt, but missed opportunities usually cost more.

German offices tend to put procedure first. Clear explanation and a bit of patience come second, if they come at all. We still think respectful guidance matters. We help you see what comes next, and we tell you plainly when something needs a specialist.

This work grew out of Unpack51, our parent site for Germany. There is a lot of free information there if you want to handle most of the move yourself. In-person support in Dresden stays with us.

Unpack Dresden was founded by a couple who lived the move themselves. He is Belgian and moved to Germany eight years ago for work. Dutch is close to German, and the culture is not that far either, but there was still a lot to learn the hard way. She is a native German who knows how local institutions work from the inside.

We do not only know the rules on paper. We have stood in those queues, filled those forms, and figured out which advice was useful and which was noise. That mix of lived experience and local insider knowledge shapes how we support you in Dresden.

Moving here is also about how it feels day to day: what is genuinely different about Germany, what is just Western Europe, and what is simply people being people. Forms matter. Feeling oriented matters too.