Berlin has an unemployement rate of approximately 20%. The German “support money” is called Hartz IV. Basicly the tax payers pay for your apartment (up to 350 Euros) and you get about 300-350 Euros to live. That can make it a quite nice life in Berlin especially if you consider the cheap rent and cheap food prices here. A lot of university students live from less money this is why this add by a hairdresser is not really surprising: