Anecdotes from an unfamiliar Land

A journey through rural areas of Germany in search for a unusual, alternative and tragicomic view on my homecountry.

For me, Germany seems unfamiliar. After my youth in the province, I moved to Germany’s
largest metropolitan region. In my previous home area, the Sauerland, many people identify
strongly through traditions and history; something that I could not find in the milieus
of the larger cities and which was rather met with aversion there. These differences gave
me a feeling of being in between. I became aware that I could not define my home country
and that much is unknown to me. This leads me to question „being German“ and to
enable a comprehensive, alternative and personal view of Germany. Places and events
where collective identities could be found form the framework of my project.
What speaks for or against the idea of a collective identity? Can there be a common link
between different collective identities?
I want to rediscover this country, examine the unnoticed and the overseen, let myself
be surprised—track down Germany and find out what it has to tell. I look for occasions
where people escape from their everyday life, identify with traditions and history and
thus take on roles, dress up or stage themselves. Moments that we, as outsiders to these
communities, hardly notice, combined with associative images of decay and decline, are
lined up to form a tragicomic narrative of Germany. The provocative question remains:
What does it mean to be „German“?