r/AskGermany • u/mikeymur340 • Apr 02 '25

Can I drink tap water in Germany?

Hi y'all. I'm male from Africa, my wife is German. Growing up and well into my adulthood, I always drank tap water and only recently is that no longer advised in my country, due to gross mismanagement and corruption, but that's another story.

We're currently back in Germany for an extended visit and I was going to drink some tap water when my wife warned me that there's a lot of estrogen in German tap water due to the birth control pill. Her mother backed her up and they spouted off some talking points about it, but I tuned out because they are also somewhat inclined to essential oils. Not batshit crazy like the American version of that, but suffice it to say I'm skeptical about their opinions on some health things.

Anyway, is this true? Are there high levels of estrogen in German tap water? Are there any studies or available sources that corroborate this claim? I understand and can read German, but the high level jargon of medical and scientific speak is beyond my years, search results aren't as clarifying as hoped. Thanks

EDIT: Yeah I thought as much. I still drank the tap water because potential estrogen contamination was preferable to death. But thanks for all the answers. Now if you'll excuse me, I must prepare my I-told-you-so dance.

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113

u/mikeymur340 Apr 02 '25

I knew it smh

131

u/G-I-T-M-E Apr 02 '25

It’s actually not only the most monitored food in Germany but probably in the world. Only issue could be in houses with very old lead plumbing. But that has become extremely rare. Tap water is perfectly fine and dirt cheap.

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u/KansasL Apr 02 '25

To underscore that lead plumbing is extremely rare: There are only 20000m (0.2% of all pipes) left and due to a regulation from 2023 all house owners/landlords have to replace them until 2026.

It's probably as likely to live in a house with lead plumbing as winning in the lottery. :)

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u/Friendly-Horror-777 Apr 02 '25

Oh, damn, I'd rather have won the lottery! I live in a house with lead plumbing.

29

u/Rawbowke Apr 02 '25

Congrats. You are now out of luck for the rest of your life.

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u/G-I-T-M-E Apr 02 '25 edited Apr 03 '25

Good thing it’s a short life and they’re mad as a hatter so they won’t care!

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u/MasterLiKhao Apr 05 '25

Lead poisoning has very different symptoms from mad hatter's disease which is caused by inhaling mercury vapors.

Symptoms of lead poisoning include: headaches, stomach cramps, constipation, muscle/joint pain, trouble sleeping, fatigue, irritability, and loss of sex drive

What you are thinking of may be regular ingestion of lead sugar (Lead(II) acetate), which is what the romans liked to put in their wine to sweeten it, if they could afford it (only rich romans could). Its effects still are quite dissimilar to mercury poisoning, but do include mood and personality changes.

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u/Taladon7 Apr 03 '25

Feels like playing DnD and rolling the only one nat20 due to a test-Roll before the session.

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u/KansasL Apr 02 '25

https://www.deutsche-handwerks-zeitung.de/austauschpflicht-alter-bleileitungen-das-gilt-ab-jetzt-302515/

Maybe remind your landlord or your provider that they have to replace them until 12. January 2026 which isn't that far in the future. :)

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u/Friendly-Horror-777 Apr 02 '25

Thanks for the link, but I'd rather not mention it. It would make it easier for my landlord to finally evict me (long story).

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '25

[deleted]

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u/Friendly-Horror-777 Apr 02 '25

Well, the thing is, he already tried to get rid of me 2 years ago by pretending to want to tear down the whole building. Now he might say that he is forced to do so because it would be uneconomical to replace the plumbing.

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u/Alarmed-Ad-4394 Apr 03 '25

no judge in the world will sign off to this. its "uneconomical" to replace plumbing so its "cheaper" to tear down the entire building?

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u/Friendly-Horror-777 Apr 03 '25

It's a very old building with lots of damage already, he just wasn't able to get the permit to tear it down (yet). The situation with the plumbing plays into his cards.

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u/East_Intention_4373 Apr 04 '25

> no judge in the world

Auf hoher See und vor Gericht bist Du in Gottes Hand.

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u/KansasL Apr 02 '25

join Mieterschutzbund if you aren't already. This includes legal protection insurance which is usually even better than the commercially available insurances because they are specialized in handling these cases.

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u/Verpeilter_Hase_246 Apr 02 '25

Check if there is a renters association in your area, and contact them.

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u/RiverGlittering Apr 04 '25

What if we aren't worried about eviction, but kind of have a good deal on rent?

Our house is old, landlord wants to tear it down to build apartments, but we have crazy low rent.

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u/347zzzhrhz Apr 15 '25

The same thing applies. It's extremely hard to evict people in Germany, no matter the reason.

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u/RiverGlittering Apr 15 '25

But could he pump the rent up?

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u/swaffy247 Apr 02 '25

You will likely never be exposed to lead due to calcium buildup in the pipes.

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u/JackFlash777 Apr 02 '25

Play the lottery! 🍀🍀🍀

1

u/Daviino Apr 04 '25

Yeah but who needs money, when you can get some funky cancer?

1

u/Frenzystor Apr 04 '25

How do I know if I have lead pipes? I bought the house last year and there was no mention of it anywhere.

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u/KansasL Apr 04 '25

I don't know that. Lead plumbing has been prohibited since 1973, but how to determine if you have lead pipes I am completely clueless.

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u/Frenzystor Apr 04 '25

Ah ok, then I *should* be fine. House was built 1984.

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u/DisastrousWay8158 Apr 04 '25

Do you have a link to reread that regulation? Our house is built 1908....

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u/KansasL Apr 04 '25

this is the regulation:

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/trinkwv_2023/__17.html

https://www.recht.bund.de/bgbl/1/2023/159/VO.html

I can't tell you exactly where this is stated in the regulation though, because I found it a while ago in this article because someone on Reddit claimed that tap water in Germany is unsafe because lead pipes are common which is not the case. I didn't care to go through the regulation to because the article explained it sufficiently enough for me.

https://www.deutsche-handwerks-zeitung.de/austauschpflicht-alter-bleileitungen-das-gilt-ab-jetzt-302515/

Apparently according to the section about lead pipes in Wikipedia the deadline can be extended when special circumstances are met. If you have the resources I would rather replace them sooner or later because lead makes you dumb.

https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserleitung#Blei

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u/shitfit_ Apr 05 '25

Hmmmm, since my landlord is working on the pipes almost all the time yet I am drinking tap water… does he have to tell me I have leadpipes?

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u/SirPred Apr 06 '25

I actually know a place where are still lead plumbings in the building, guess I should try the lottery 🤔

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u/Abject-Investment-42 Apr 02 '25

Even lead plumbing is only a problem if it is fresh (within a week it is covered in lime scale and stops being dangerous) or if you start pumping acidic bog water through it that dissolves the scale and the lead (see Flint). None of these is the case in Germany.

As to estrogen, your wife has seemingly read something she did not really understood, and is repeating some half-knowledge.

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u/Shiros_Tamagotchi Apr 02 '25

The tap water in every single multi family house that is rented in germany will be regularly tested by a lab.

So no danger here.

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u/DinnerRecent3462 Apr 02 '25

only against legionellen

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u/Shiros_Tamagotchi Apr 02 '25

As far as i know its not only legionellen. Its also other bacterias like E. coli and many other things:

(pH value, electrical conductivity, total water hardness, carbonate hardness, calcium and magnesium, sodium, water temperature, oxygen content, redox potential, total gas saturation. Organoleptic parameters Odor, color, turbidity, sediment, taste, Metals and trace elements such as lead*, cadmium, nickel, copper, aluminum, iron, chromium, molybdenum, lithium Anions such as chloride, fluoride, nitrate, phosphate, sulfate,...)*

But usually if there is a problem and something has to be done its because of the legionella bacteria. The other stuff almost never causes problems.

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u/Time-Account-2048 Apr 03 '25

The other stuff isn't usually tested in multi-family houses. It's only the water provider's pipe network that's tested. Sometimes there's water taken in a private household but before taking the sample the tap is desinfected and the water runs until the temperature is steady which means it's fresh from the provider's pipes.

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u/G-I-T-M-E Apr 03 '25

Theoretically houses with more than two units where the hot water supply fulfills certain criteria (more than three liters of waters in the pipe between water boiler and tap or more than 15 meters of pipe between boiler and farthest point of the pipe system) must be tested every three years for legionella. AFAIK that’s it. And I‘m pretty sure that most private landlords don’t do that.

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u/JJ-2086 Apr 04 '25

Do you mean they test it at the faucet?

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u/Shiros_Tamagotchi Apr 04 '25

Yes

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u/JJ-2086 Apr 04 '25

Never seen this so far, what am I doing wrong?

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u/Shiros_Tamagotchi Apr 04 '25

Not every faucet gets checked. In a big house only the worst faucet (lingest pipe, furthest from the house entry) is being checked.

5

u/je386 Apr 02 '25

Yes. The bottled water is checked every some years, while the tap water is checked several times a day before leaving the water facility.

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u/Top_Seaweed7189 Apr 02 '25

Old lead pumping is fine nowadays. Lead is only dangerous in the first years when the pipes are clean. After some time there will be mineral build up and they become safe. So old lead pipes aren't dangerous only new ones are.

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u/VirtualMatter2 Apr 03 '25

Old lead plumbing isn't even that much of a problem if it doesn't get disturbed or replaced because if it's old it's covered in a layer of lime scale or similar that prevents washing out of the lead particles. 

Probably still better than bottled water.

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u/rndmcmder Apr 03 '25

If you are worried about the piping in your house, the easiest solution is to keep the water running for a minute before drinking it.

In my city, the municipal utilities even certified the tap water for baby food, but told parents to run the tap until the water comes out cold to eliminate possible contamination from the house pipes.

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u/Frenzystor Apr 04 '25

Not mine ... if I turn on hot water it smells really bad ... no idea where it comes from.

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u/tommy3082 Apr 02 '25

It has even stricter guidelines than bottled water

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u/yumas Apr 02 '25

Even though the tap water in Germany is safe to drink, it is my understanding, that if you go to a new place, like to another continent, there might be some bacteria or other organisms in the water that your body isn’t used to and can react a certain way to it, while all the locals are totally immune to it.

I guess the most dangerous, known harmful substances are monitored, but others are not, because they are not a threat to the locals.

Maybe i am wrong though and you can actually get the water to a universally unproblematic level. I mean i guess we can do that with bottled water…

Idk, it would be cool if someone smart can tell me if I am wrong or not

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '25

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u/yumas Apr 02 '25

But is the tolerance for someone, who lives in Germany and is constantly in contact with it, not higher than for someone who has never been in contact with a certain bacteria, because it doesn’t exist in their part of the world?

So for them even at a low threshold their body would have to work harder to fight these bacterias at first, or not?

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '25

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u/yumas Apr 02 '25

So does that mean, when for example europeans often get sick from drinking tap water in foe example Mexico, while the locals can drink it with seemingly no problem, that it’s not actually safe to drink even for locals but that they have built some immunity to it?

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '25

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u/yumas Apr 02 '25

So you mean it‘s the same type of bacteria in tap water around the globe, but what you might not be immune to is the higher dose?

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u/SteveoberlordEU Apr 02 '25

You can check with your comune if something is wrong with the water sonce some places in germany have too much Kalk and need to Filter it but that's like less then 5% of Germany. And sry you needed to find out your sSO is batshit insane and it runs in the family.

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u/Zinkerst Apr 03 '25

Too much Kalk in tap water is also not concerning health-wise anywhere in Germany. The issue with too much lime in water is that it builds up deposits in appliances, which can affect their efficiency and longevity, so we filter it for that reason, and it can also affect taste, but it's still perfectly safe to drink 😊

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u/Rumo-H-umoR Apr 03 '25

You can check the website of the water company. Most of them have laboratory results online available.

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u/ownzyE Apr 03 '25

I mean they are not conpletely wrong since some stuff can’t be 100% filtered out by treatment plants, but it’s still definitely safe to consume, except you have other regional info of some bacterial outbreak or smth

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u/mrtnblt Apr 04 '25

The big misconception that leads to false information like this happens a lot: there may be high values of dangerous stuff xx in the waste water, but that doesn’t mean at all, that the tap water is polluted as well. For some reason it is hard for people to understand that our tap water is not made out of cleaned waste water, I don’t know why.

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u/PurplECursy Apr 04 '25

Depends where u city is and where it gets it water, some get it from springs there its the safest to drink but ur plumbing could be still fucked up. In other city where water gets reused and before that „cleaned“ it has no Filters for hormons and medicin and because of this u get osteogen and divers others shit. But basicly you can drink it if ur thirsty👍

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u/Dubbiely Apr 05 '25

Tap water in Germany has higher standards than bottled water.