Is it possible to do a startup there for someone not knowing German?
You can found any type of company in Germany without having citizenship. But you will most definitely need an English speaking accountant. The forms/paperwork are only available in German and there is quite a long way from school German to understanding a discussion with the German tax authorities.
Be careful in choosing an English speaking accountant as the quality of their English abilities varies greatly. As with so many other things you get what you pay for.
The German tax authorities are generally welcoming and pleasant but you better have your papers in order and filled out correctly. Also expect to spend a considerable amount of time at the local registry. The lines are long and employees few.
If you come from outside of the EU you will probably have a more difficult time.
That being said it is not at all impossible. Berlin is a great city and lots of happenings related to start ups and development in generally takes place all the time. The German authorities realizes the value of foreigners starting companies and the have a really excellent website in English here
http://www.existenzgruender.de/englisch/self_employment/inde...
Also check out this site for a short intro
Are you sure this statement is true in general? In particular, what if you don't have a EU passport?
e.g., you can easily start a US company regardless of your US immigration/citizenship status - but you won't be allowed to work for it (and you might be denied entry when you come to board meetings ....)
But yeah, true, sure, knowing languages is always useful and can make a difference :)
Think about it: daily life instantly becomes gamified, a game of improving your language skills. You just have to make sure you set the scene: detach yourself a bit from the expat crowd (find local roommates for example). And then you throw yourself at it, not caring that you don’t know much in the beginning.
Especially the first year is super exhilirating: the first parties where you talk but that language, the first time you do a presentation, the first time you have a lover with whom you speak this language. Because another language is really another mental space in your head, it is a bit like you get to start over and everything feels fresh.
And then there is the aspect where speaking another language with other people is just really rich on an interpersonal level: it emports you so much of their culture. When someone talks to you about their childhood in the language of their childhood, for example, you really feel the difference.
I have to add though, that my situation is different from that of an an American, in that English is not my native language (it’s Dutch): so speaking English with Germans will always amount to us speaking through an intermediate which is neither their nor my own. So the advantages to speaking German are more immediate. As an American you have the advantage that people actually speak in your mother tongue to you.
But think about it, if you always speak English with Germans, you are always allowing them to get to know you, your culture, but you never take an effort to got to know the part of them that is in German. I’ve worked with colleagues in the Netherlands who didn’t know Dutch—and frankly, I found that after a number of years it can feel belittling: if you come to my country, but you don’t care about it’s language, it also feels like you are not really interested in me.
Of course, you can skip the German speaking folks altogether, like dualogy suggests, but missing out on a people seems to be a damn shame.
I've visited once before and the sentiment is right, everyone out there spoke english (at least the younger crowd). I've been following the Berlin Ruby User Group but have been struggling to find good resources beyond that. Any recommendations?
Once you venture outside work and start to socialize you will eventually want to speak German as it is much more fun to be able to understand everything.
Further German actually have roughly 35% more words than English. Because of this and the way it is grammatically structured a lot of fine detail is often lost in translation as the words simply do not exist in English.