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Dubai: From building thriving businesses to raising families in a new culture, German expats in the UAE say the country has given them far more than they expected when they first arrived.
This week, as UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was welcomed by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Villa Borsig in Berlin, some of them told Gulf News how the visit struck a personal chord, reinforcing a bond they have lived and built for years.
They are part of a wider German community in the UAE that includes doctors working across the country’s hospitals and clinics, along with artists, entrepreneurs and professionals in fields ranging from finance to hospitality. Together they form a visible thread in the UAE’s multicultural fabric that has grown alongside the deepening diplomatic and trade ties between the two nations.
Gulf News spoke to some German women and men who moved to the UAE at different points over the past two decades, each building a career and a life here. Their stories reveal just how far the relationship between Germany and the UAE has grown beyond government corridors.
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Career built on empowering women
Dr Kim Dede moved from Germany to the UAE four years ago, after a career in management consulting that she says was shaped by working in a “traditionally male-dominated environment”. That experience sparked her interest in women’s careers and what helps them thrive into leadership roles.
Before relocating, she researched the UAE extensively and says one fact still surprises fellow Germans whenever she shares it.
“Women hold 50 per cent of the seats in the UAE’s Federal National Council. Women also hold key ministerial and leadership positions across government and business in the country,” pointed out Dr Dede, who holds a doctorate on women in management and now runs her own female career coaching business in Dubai.
Dr Dede now works with women and companies in both the UAE and Germany to increase female representation in management, regardless of whether they are Emirati, German or from any of the more than 200 nationalities living in the UAE.
“The strong collaboration of our countries is the best foundation to create an environment where we all can grow and succeed together,” she said, welcoming the UAE President’s visit to Germany from September 9.
From corporate job to camel riding
For Linda Krockenberger, co-founder of the first dedicated camel riding school in Dubai, more than a decade in the UAE has meant building a life that connects two countries she considers home.
She often hears Emirati friends recall childhood summers in southern Germany, the friendships they formed there and the German words they still remember, connections she says go “far beyond business and diplomacy”.
“I am deeply grateful to the UAE for the opportunities, acceptance and inclusion and sense of safety it has given me,” said Krockenberger, adding that the country’s ambition for excellence and inclusive mindset have always resonated with her.
Watching Sheikh Mohamed’s visit to Berlin, she said, felt especially meaningful. “It brought my two homes together. I hope Emiratis in Germany experience the same warmth, respect and welcome I have received here, and that the friendship between our countries continues to flourish.”
Horse-guided coaching
Monica Kubik arrived in the UAE in 2006, straight after completing her master’s in economics in Germany. Two decades on, the country is home for her and her family, and has allowed her to turn a lifelong love of horses into an unusual career path.
Ten years ago, Kubik certified in the German-developed HorseDream method in learning and coaching. Today, under her own brand, she runs workshops in which CEOs, executives and high-performing teams learn to build trust and grow on a human scale, guided by horses rather than PowerPoint slides.
“A horse follows you only when it trusts you, when your vision is clear, and when you stay flexible enough to adapt,” said Kubik, who runs a personal-development and wellness retreat business specialising in horse-guided coaching.
She sees a parallel with the UAE’s own leadership style, describing the values her workshops teach as mirroring the close bond the country’s leaders have shown with horses.
“With the President’s visit to Germany opening a new chapter between our two nations, I’m proud my work, German at its root and Emirati in spirit, is part of that story,” she said.
Where deals move at Dubai speed
Benjamin Böhmer’s move to the UAE with his wife was not, he says, a leap into the unknown. It was “a bet on a place that builds fast and decides faster”.
Coming from Germany’s HR sector, where he says change can take years, Böhmer, co-founder of an HR consultancy in Dubai, was struck by how quickly business happens in the UAE. “A conversation on Monday can turn into a signed project by Friday,” he said.
His consultancy helps companies, many of them German and European, digitalise their people processes as they set up or scale operations in the Gulf, a flow between the two countries that he says has grown noticeably over the past three years.
“What surprised me here the most is how normal it becomes to work across cultures every day,” said Böhmer.
“Dubai gave us a business, a home, and a much wider view of what’s possible,” he added.
