Insurance
Hausratversicherung
Hausratversicherung is household-contents insurance: it replaces your belongings after burglary, fire, water, or storm damage at replacement value. For a student room with laptop and bike, basic tariffs start around €2 to €5 per month; it is optional and worth it mainly when your gear is expensive.
Household-contents insurance covers everything movable in your home (furniture, electronics, clothes, kitchenware) against a fixed catalog of risks: burglary, robbery, fire, tap-water damage, and storm or hail. Payouts are at replacement value (Neuwert), meaning the cost of buying the item new, not its used-market price. Bicycle theft outside the flat usually needs an explicit add-on clause.
Premiums scale with living area and coverage sum; a typical student room or small flat lands in the low single-digit euros per month. In shared flats (WGs), one policy generally covers only the policyholder's room and share, so flatmates need their own contracts.
What it means for working students
Do the math honestly: if your possessions are a used laptop and IKEA furniture, the premium may not justify itself, while a €2,000 MacBook, camera gear, or an e-bike changes the calculation quickly. Working students with employer laptops note: company hardware is the employer's problem, not yours, but your own devices used for the job are not covered by the employer either. If you insure, document valuables with photos and receipts now, not after the burglary, and check the bicycle clause before relying on it.