As their country faces increasing economic difficulties, Germans are emigrating to Ireland in the belief it can offer a better quality of life. Petar Hadji-Ristic reports from Berlin

Ireland seems an increasingly attractive destination to Germans who want to emigrate. Some believe they will find a better health service and a more relaxed way of life in Ireland.

"I want to spend the twilight of my life there [Ireland]," said Ekkehard Reischl, a 61-year-old graphic artist living in the south German city of Munich.

On March 31st, 2005, Reischl will finally shut down his freelance business. After that, the only artwork he will be doing will be on the banks of Lough Ree (near Boyle, Roscommon) - and it will be strictly for pleasure.

Six hundred kilometres to the north of Munich, in the capital, Berlin, two nurses are also mentally preparing to close down their lives in Germany, believing Ireland offers them a chance to live out their dreams.

"It's horrible waiting," said Katja Javaid (40), "I'm just sitting at home with my books learning medical English. All I need now is my registration from the Irish Nursing Board, then I'll start applying for jobs."

She was also helping her colleague, Stephanie Jonczyk (26), through the bureaucratic hurdles, so she could do the same.

"I am a little ahead of Stephanie," she said, after advising her which new certificate they both now needed to have translated for Dublin. Both nurses expect to be working in Ireland by September.

"I'm a big-city girl, so I want to go to Dublin," said Jonczyk.

Javaid, meanwhile, is considering work wherever there is a large hospital - places such as Limerick or Sligo. "But not a small village community, they hold closely together and it would be more difficult for someone coming from the outside," she said.

In total, official figures indicate that some 119,000 left Germany last year, 10 per cent more than in 2001. But the statistics do not give a full picture of the number of Germans leaving, or the current trends, according to Monika Schneid of Raphaels-Werk in Hamburg, an organisation that advises would-be emigrants from Germany.

Thirty per cent of Germans who leave the country to work abroad do not show up in official statistics, she estimated. This is because they do not de-register with the German police immediately after they leave - usually because they do not want to cut all ties with their country.

"There has been a 50 per cent increase in the number asking for advice [about leaving Germany\]," said Christina Busch, who works in the Berlin office of Raphaels-Werk.

"The feedback I'm getting suggests an increase of between 30 and 50 per cent for the country as a whole," she said.

Discontent is a major reason now for wanting to leave Germany. "This is more clearly expressed than before," Busch observed, basing her view on some 12 years' experience of helping would-be emigrants.

"Now, there's a sense of resignation that things won't be getting any better here. The people want new challenges, new experiences; they want to live differently than here," she said.

Most would-be emigrants still want to go to the US - some 30 per cent. Also high on the list are Spain, for its sun, and Switzerland, for its high salaries without the problems of learning a new language. But Ireland is an increasingly popular destination. Irish Census figures show the number of Germans in the Republic has risen from 6,343 in 1998 to 8,770 last year.

"There are very good job offers for some professions in Ireland," Busch said. On a shelf behind her within easy reach is a book entitled Working and Living in Ireland.

"The quality of life is different in Ireland," she said, explaining its attraction to those who want more than just fatter pay cheques.

"The Irish are more relaxed. It's not as hectic as here. I know this is true from my own experience. People work very hard, but they do it with a sense of happiness," she said.

This "quality of life" factor is certainly high on the list for Reischl, Javaid and Jonczyk.

Reischl could not precisely pinpoint the moment he decided to retire to Ireland, although he has had a cottage in the country for 22 years. "Anger rather than fear," is his major reason for deciding to renovate his Irish cottage and put in central heating for his retirement days.

"This \ society has a problem with elderly people. You have to be young and healthy here. No one needs to care for me - but I do not want to be rejected. My children are grown up and now I am free."

What he finds attractive about Irish people is a talent for enjoying life without material trappings. "They live out of themselves," he said with admiration.

Other German pensioners - there are now 14 million over 65 and their numbers will peak to 23 million by 2040 - might well think of going to Ireland rather then end their days in a big German city.

But Christina Busch has so far noted that most of the new upsurge in interest in leaving Germany has come from the 20-40 age group. One reason for this emigration is the deteriorating state of Germany's health service.

"Germany's health system used to be the best in the world," said Roland Berger, the country's leading strategy consultant. But it has slipped to fifth place from the bottom of a life expectancy list of 15 countries (still slightly better than Ireland).

"No one seriously doubts that we are in a serious crisis," he told foreign journalists in Berlin recently, calling for a new vision and reform in all sectors of the society and economy - including its heath service.

Neither Javaid or Jonczyk have the patience to wait for this reform - although both have secure jobs. "I don't have confidence in German politicians and their plans to reform Germany," says Javaid. "I have to take care of myself, I want better living and working conditions."

Javaid switched from being a secretary to train as a nurse in 1997. "It was always my dream to be a nurse." But over the past 18 months the pressure to reduce costs in hospitals became intense and she was having doubts about her future.

"There's less and less money available, less and less staff. The situation is dramatic. If I had to stay in Germany I would have to change my profession. I fear I could not cope any more," she said.

"There are still homes where patients can be put into wheelchairs to be pushed out to meals. But there are places where they can only lie in bed 24 hours a day; they only get to put their feet out when they are washed.

"I think we have reached the end here. It can't go any further. It's madness. It's terrible."

Jonczyk also works in a home for elderly people. She lost her job in the psychiatric department of a hospital last year. "I loved the work and wanted very much to stay there," she says. "But they took on a newly trained nurse because this was cheaper than employing me.

"When that happened I decide to leave Germany."

In the home for the elderly where she now works everything operates according to business principles. "Money rules and old people are in second place. It's just not the way I want to work."

Both nurses have questioned friends about Ireland and investigated the job opportunities there. But neither have visited.

"I don't think I can be disappointed," said Jonczyk. "I've thought of going to Ireland on holiday," said Javaid, "but it wouldn't change my mind."

Busch said it was too early to say whether the wave of emigration would continue. "Over the next six or nine months we will be able to judge," she concluded.