Arriving at MPI

• For how to reach us, please see the link Location on our institute's homepage. Keep all plane and train receipts for a later reimbursement of travel costs, if you are entitled for that. If you are familiar with the local busnetwork, please use this as the cheapest option to get from the local train station to our institute (tickets are sold at the train station, at vendor machines in the city or with the bus driver directly; an one way ticket costs 2,40 euros).

• At the institute, please first see your group's secretary who will provide you with an info-folder containing:
  • • • your Computer Account/Login (after your first login please change password immediately)
      • your arrival form
• Please see Alexandra Klasen (SWS Building E 1 5, 1st floor) to get your:
  • • • office key (20 euros deposit)
      • MPI card (20 euros deposit)
        • 1. provides access to the institute's building through side entrance (before 7a.m. and after 7 p.m.; on weekends and bank holidays)
          2. opens terminal, printer, and graduated students' rooms
          3. gives access to the group and main library
          4. operates the bicycle cage (basement parking garage)
          5. for the automatic access barrier gates when coming by car
      • Mensa card for the university cafeteria, (20 euros deposit) enables to get meals at staff member discounts
        • • To put more credit on the card, use the machines next to the main entrance inside the Mensa building.
            (Institute members, also registered as students at the University should use their student's Mensa card.)
• If you've booked a room in one of our MPI guesthouses, please see the International Office of MPI-INF for further information and getting the key.

What to arrange within the first days of your stay:

A bank account is necessary in order to receive your monthly salary (bank opening hours are Mo - Fr, from 9 a.m. until 4.30 p.m.; small branches close for lunch).

• The following documents are required to open a new account: :
  • certificate of registration from Residents' Office 
  • passport
  • employment contract
  • residence permit 

If a bank account is overdrawn, the interest rate can be up to 16 %.

To use the bank's automated teller machine (ATM) or cash dispenser, you get a debit card and a PIN from your bank (an EC-Card, which is widely accepted within Europe) usually. The ATMs are available 24 hours a day in bank lobbies and allow customers to withdraw cash, make deposits and check statements at their convenience. ATMs for cash withdrawal are also located in shopping areas around town.
Please consider that a fee is charged when you withdraw money from the cash dispenser of a different bank.

Online banking: This allows you to carry out most transactions by "pointing and click". The bank where you have opened a bank account also issued you a PIN. Online transactions require additional transaction numbers (TANs) which are computer-generated in sheets of 100 or sent by sms to your mobile. Each TAN is valid for a single transaction and an attempt to re-use one generates an error message from the bank's computer.

In order for your salary to be transferred, please forward your bank details to Heike Löx. 

Summary - facts at a glance

INFO: On the initiative of the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) a help desk for students and scientists entering Germany is now located at the airport in Frankfurt.

Hapag-Lloyd Geschäftsreise GmbH
Flughafen Frankfurt,Terminal 1, Halle 1,
Schalter 284-286, HBK 190
60549 Frankfurt
Tel. 069/690-36351, Fax: 069/690-59028

Office hours from 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. on workdays.

They offer assistance at the airport itself, organize travel plans, and provide important addresses (of Goethe-Institutes, German Highschools and universities, Offices of Foreign Affairs (''Ausländerämter''), and branches of the Dresdner Bank.