Money After Moving to Germany — Research and Legal Information

Version: 1.0 · Effective: 1 August 2026, 20:00 (Europe/Berlin)

About the research​

geldchen is studying how Russian-speaking adults who moved to Germany rebuild income, organize household money and make decisions when the future may be uncertain.

• Research form: open the Russian version; approximately 10 minutes; no name or email requested.
• Publication: aggregate findings, method and questionnaire will be published on the research page.
• Optional follow-up: a physically separate form can be used for the prize draw, one results email or consent-based news about geldchen materials, events and products.
• Separation: geldchen receives no shared key and does not connect or attempt to infer which follow-up entry belongs to which research response.
• Field period: 1 August 2026, 20:00 to 1 September 2026, 23:59 (Europe/Berlin).
• Open survey language: Russian.

Participation is voluntary and independent of course enrolment or any purchase.

Research-survey privacy notice​

Controller and contact​

Maksim Palevich, trading as geldchen · [email protected] · full statutory contact details.

Information collected and purpose​

The form collects answers about broad migration and household context, work and income transition, household financial resilience, decisions and sources of information. Most answers use categories or ranges. Questions about prior country, migration context, household-income band and free text are optional.

The form asks for no name, email or participant identifier. “Limit to one response” requires Google sign-in, but email collection is off. Google states that the form owner does not receive the account username unless email collection is enabled. geldchen therefore does not receive the account used for duplicate prevention. Google may separately process account and service data under its own terms.

Please do not enter names, employer names, exact addresses, account details or information about another identifiable person in free text.

geldchen uses responses to check and clean the dataset, describe patterns among respondents, publish aggregate findings and methodology, and improve public educational resources. Responses are not used for marketing, course selection, credit assessment, individual advice or automated decision-making.

The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR: geldchen's legitimate interest in conducting and publishing proportionate educational research. Participation is optional, direct identifiers are not requested, potentially sensitive questions can be skipped, small groups are suppressed and publication is aggregated.

Provider, transfers and access​

The form and response store use Google Forms and Google Sheets. Google provides these services to geldchen under the applicable data-processing terms. Google and its subprocessors may process data outside the EEA using an adequacy decision or contractual safeguards. See Google's Privacy Policy, Data Processing Addendum and subprocessor list.

Access to row-level responses is restricted to Maksim Palevich.

Publication and retention​

geldchen publishes counts, percentages and other aggregate findings—not the row-level dataset. Cross-tabulated groups smaller than ten are merged or omitted. Free-text answers are paraphrased by default; any quotation is reviewed to remove identifying detail.

Row-level research responses are deleted after the report has been published and checked, no later than 12 months after the form closes. Aggregate tables, the questionnaire, methodology and non-identifying analysis code may remain part of the published research record.

Rights and right to object​

GDPR rights may include access, correction, deletion, restriction and objection. Because geldchen does not receive an account, email or participant code with the research response, it may be impossible to identify and remove one particular response after submission. geldchen does not collect additional identity data solely to make responses identifiable.

You may object to processing based on legitimate interests for reasons relating to your particular situation by emailing [email protected]. You may complain to the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

Optional follow-up privacy notice​

The optional follow-up form asks for an email address and at least one of three independently selected purposes: prize-draw entry, one research-results email or news about geldchen materials, events and products. It is stored separately from the research survey, with no shared identifier available to geldchen. Draw entry never requires consent to product/news updates.

For each winner, a minimal award record—email address, prize and delivery date—is retained until 31 December 2029 to document delivery. The gift-card purchase receipt is stored separately for eight years from the end of the calendar year in which it was created.

Consent can be withdrawn at any time via [email protected]; every marketing-style email also provides a direct stop route. The Google arrangements, controller, rights, complaint route and absence of automated decision-making are as described above. Unlike a research response, a follow-up record can normally be located using the submitted email.

Prize-draw terms​

1. Organizer​

The organizer is Maksim Palevich, trading as geldchen; [email protected]. Full statutory contact details. Amazon is not a sponsor, organizer or partner of the draw.

2. Eligibility​

Entry is open to people aged 18 or older who live in Germany. The organizer and anyone directly involved in administering the draw cannot enter. One entry is permitted per person.

3. Entry​

Submit the separate follow-up form between 1 August 2026, 20:00 and 1 September 2026, 23:59 (Europe/Berlin), select “enter the prize draw,” provide an email and accept these terms.

Entry is free. No purchase, payment, research response or consent to updates is required. Research answers do not affect the chance of winning.

4. Prizes​

Twenty winners are drawn at random. Ten each receive a €10 Amazon.de gift card; ten each receive a €5 Amazon.de gift card, delivered as a code by email. Entries drawn 1–10 receive €10 cards and entries drawn 11–20 receive €5 cards. Each person can win at most one prize. If fewer than 20 valid entries are received, remaining prizes lapse. Prizes are not paid in cash or exchanged by geldchen.

The Amazon.de Gift Card Terms and restrictions apply. Cards remain unredeemed until their codes are delivered to the winners.

5. Selection and notification​

Winners are selected from valid entries within seven days after entry closes. The draw order and result are logged. geldchen notifies every entrant of the result by email: winners receive confirmation and further instructions, while other entrants receive a short closure notice. This message is not a subscription. If a winner does not respond within 14 days or cannot receive the prize at the submitted email, another entry may be drawn for that prize.

6. Exclusion​

geldchen may exclude duplicate or automated entries, false eligibility information or attempted manipulation. A technical error that does not affect fairness may be corrected.

7. Cancellation or change​

geldchen may suspend, change or cancel the draw if technical failure, manipulation or a legal requirement makes fair administration impracticable. A prize already validly awarded is unaffected unless delivery is unlawful or impossible for reasons outside geldchen's control.

8. Personal information​

Contact information is used under the follow-up privacy notice, is not connected to research responses and is not used for updates without separate consent.

9. Applicable law​

German law applies without removing mandatory consumer protection applicable to a participant.