[ben_w]

> English, no matter how ragged

Not as true as you might think. I’m from the UK originally, live in Berlin now, and while I can do a lot with English, there are doors closed to me by not being C1/C2-level German.

(I have of course been doing online language courses for ages, but as the locals say: Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache.)

[TheOtherHobbes]

Of course there are, because C1/C2 is equivalent to professional fluency. You're going to need that if you're working in (say) law or management.

But that's - what - the top 5% of jobs?

[ben_w]

The case I had in mind was “lead software dev”. Quite a lot of local job ads — even in software — very definitely require better German than I have.