I dont use Cyber Ghost I use North VPN Im Half American Half German I live in Munich in Bavaria I wanted to leave my mothers home and live alone that was 21 years ago. I moved inside of Munich already 9 times to another part of the City because my father had different Jobs in different parts of the City. So we moved with him. My Father is a New Yorker. I visited him In New York 29 times until I was 35 years old and he 75 years old. I flew the first time to America with PANAM Airlines later Delta Airlines. I was 5 that was 1979 to New York. Since that time I visited 45 States of America I can say that I have a good look of the Country that in the Future I would like to see it again. So as his son I never lived in New York only 8 weeks in the Holiday and 9/11 3 Months until I was Allowed to be flown out. Due to the Terrorist Attacks of the World Trade Center. My Stepaunt Elenora still lives in New York. She is the opposite of me she has Relatives in Germany Colongne and lives in New York now. So you can say she is half German half American. But my Grandparents and Great Grandparents did. My Great Grandmother Left Germany 1932 with 3 sisters to America because of the Beginning of the Third Reich. There parents came from Polen and East Prussia. Now everybody exept my Uncle my 2 Cousins that still live in Florida and Trenton New Jersey are the only reletives that are left from the Familiy. I live with my Mother she will reach in a few months 80. Im will be on the 8th July 50.
As an Italian, you should know that the concept of multi generation houses is actually a much more Italian thing than German. Living together with several generations of a family hasn't a long tradition in Germany. Germans used to move out but stayed in the region. There was also the tradition of young men that had finished learning a craftsmanship (Handwerk) to move out of town for a couple of years and walk thru the country and work at a lot of different places to get a wider knowledge of how things are done. After this they returned home to continue the family business or stayed somewhere else when there was an opportunity.
Some years ago I read a newspaper article : They found bones of people having died 5000 years ago in the Harz area. They checked their DNA and the DNA of the present inhabitants of that area and found out, that the offspring of these people who died 5000 years ago still live in that same area.
In a rural region, that's totally possible. The family side of my mother lives at least since 1900 in the same village, maybe longer, but therefore I would have to start genealogy.😊
I don't think it just has to do with culture. Of course, the job market in the USA and the social environment are structured in such a way that statistically people move or even leave their homeland more often than in Germany (which is also very common here). Since the Neolithic period, however, there has always been both sedentism and migration: A few years ago it was determined through genetic analysis that some of the people buried at Stonehenge apparently came from far away, some from what is now Austria and even further. It's the same today, some of humanity simply has the "local gene" and others have the "wide world gene".
I live in a small village in Germany - 100 m away from the house, my great (great great...) grandfather build in 1555. I was born in a hospital 5 km away, but since then I live in the same house. The room I called Kinderzimmer is now the room of my son (8). So, I am an absolute boring person. Traveling far away - but home is where my heart(and family) is.
honestly it just sounds incredibly comforting to me. obviously the freedom should be given but I think this sounds super calm and has this family feeling that has vanished over the past decades. I personally live far away from my family and even further from my birth place, most likely like many others
I had an ancestor from a small village in Germany. All of his ancestors had lived in the same village for generations and generations. All of his grandparents, despite having 4 different surnames, had 2 or 3 grandparents of their own in common with his other grandparents. So it's probably a good thing he left that village and settled in another tiny village nearby and married someone from that village, lol. One of their descendants came to America and here I am. I do think the American pattern of constantly moving about following work or other opportunities, or fleeing local misfortunes, has got to settle down sometime because it's disruptive to the formation of true communities or society. Many people hardly form any ties or bonds with the place that they live or the neighbors they live among. My grandparents are from 4 different states. And they all died, or will die, hundreds to thousands of miles from where they were born. That being said, a majority of Americans do still stay put relatively speaking. Where I live now there are a few prominent local families that have been in the area for hundreds of years, have hundreds of members, have given their names to local streets, businesses, and landmarks, are visible and influential in local life and politics, etc... I travel around the region a lot, to both small towns and big cities, and I can see in other towns even quite nearby it's different families in those roles. So it is very localized. It even happens a little bit in the cities but it's much more pronounced in small, rural, towns. In many ways, that's the real America, but it's much less visible, and it's overlooked or despised by America's urban monoculture which controls most major institutions.
What's 'despised by America's monoculture' is perceived and actual ignorance. Historically, the insularity of some some of small town America has bred mistrust, fear, hatred of outsiders and of ideas and of religions. A closed information exchange is a detriment long term to any society, small towns included. @@eliharman
@@corriemayo2715 NOBODY is more ignorant, or closed-minded, or arrogant, meddlesome, intolerant, etc... than urban, "sophisticated," "educated," fashionable, snobs...
I also think a big aspect ist the ''sicher ist sicher'' german style, so that americans tend to risk more in life while germans normally would always prefer the safer way and not risking that much.
Now that German style "sicher ist sicher" might end soon enough the way things are going to change here currently. In many ways economically, financially and more ...
I live in northern Hesse. I was born and raised here and will probably never leave this area because i love it here. My whole family has lived here in Germany for hundreds of years. My mother's family is recorded as having lived here for more than 700 years. My friends, family and relatives and everything else I know are here. Leaving this place would be like uprooting a tree.
I think, your last sentence is an important factor: In several videos foreigners living in Germany pointed out, that it is difficult to get a German to be a friend, but if you succeed, he will be friend for life. I personally keep still in contact with several friend from my youth (and going on 60 myself). I got the impression, that Americans take friendships less seriously and thus deem it less problematic to leave their friends behind.
I did what most Germans won't do! I moved from Germany to the States 40 years ago. I am surprised that only 10 % of Germans move away from their hometowns. My three brothers did stay close to the area where we grew up but several of my nieces and nephews moved to other German States. Now that I'm older I miss Germany more because I feel Germany moved forward whereas here in Florida we haven't made much progress in the past 40 years. The work conditions are poor. No unions, low pay, people seem to work all the time and can't really enjoy life. They are looking forward to retirement instead of living life while they are still young. I love the sun so living in the Sunshine State works for me! LOL. Love your videos!
you picked a red republican state to live in so you got what you paid for, its well known that florida pays very poorly and has little social services, you wanted a sun climate in a red state so you got it. in your lifetime florida will not improve, enjoy R
I moved to Florida from Germany 25 years ago and I agree with you about the conditions here. I love where I am and the life I built, but I would not do it again. Little vacation time, non-existing parental leave, expensive child care, expensive college, no social safety net, working all the time, and Florida is going back to the stone-ages.
@@ksinfl Florida is also not necessarily reflective of the whole US, though. Also, I would dispute the idea that there is no social safety net, as things like food stamps/EBT and Medicaid do exist. They're not fantastic, but they do exist.
I was born in Oregon. But when my parents got divorced my mom took us kids back to Germany to her parent's place. Now I am 62 years old and I still live in my mom's house.
As a highschool-student I once wrote an essay: "Born, living and (not yet) dying in Walldorf". That is Mörfelden-Walldorf near Frankfurt. Even though I went to highschool in Frankfurt, had my "Ausbildung" 50% there, studied in Frankfurt and my first 2 girlfriends were from "the city", I could not imagine leaving my smalltown! And, of course, at the age of 57 I still live in Walldorf... Quoting John Mellencamp: "I was born in a smalltown, and I live in a smalltown, gonna die in that smalltown, and that's propably where they burry me..."! ...or: NEVER change a winning team ...
I was born and grew up in Groß-Gerau, so very close to Mörfelde-Walldorf, passed my high-school leaving exam in Groß-Gerau, and couldn't wait to leave that area. The past 18 years, I've been living in Brno, Czech Republic. Best decision of my life. And the more often I visit the Frankfurt - Groß-Gerau area, the happier and more relieved I am to be gone. Terrible IMHO. No disrespect to you.
Alright, so I grew up in Mörfelden and left 10+ years ago to another continent (and that is not because our part of town is worse, its the opposite haha). Anyway, enough local banter, I can understand you in a way. It is a great area to stay, guess we are lucky to have all options also at home. I am still happy to go back 'home', but after a while you start losing your connections. For me that point was after about 3 years abroad. The longer you stay away, the bigger the distance, the less likely it is you will be back. I'm not unhappy, its just a part of life, some things you gain, some things you lose. Rhein-Main still rocks though, so god knows, maybe eventually...
Language is probably also an important factor! If you move from Florida to Texas, you are still in the same language area. The German-speaking area in Europe is much smaller!
Despite the increasing use of English in media and science, German is still the most widely spoken language in Europe, either as a first or second language.
My local German example is a family who divided their home into fourths so that their 3 adult children could live in the home with the parents. 1 house, 4 mailboxes, 4 separate entrances and somehow they pull off harmony. The father was born in a house on this street - I cannot imagine living my whole life on one street, and for the kids who are in their 30s and 40s, the same house. I wish someone would do a vlog on this house sharing concept. Every house on my street looks like a normal house, but all but a couple of them have two mailboxes.
At my grandmothers 80th birthday luncheon in 2007 I sat opposite three colleagues of my grandfather who were teachers at the same Gymnasium Oberschützen in Burgenland. One served at the Eastern Front in WWII. The man next to him was a U-Boat man (a service that suffered 75% casualties most of them KIA) and next to the U-Boat man was a former English and biology professor who served in the US navy on destroyers during WWII because he was born in the US and was there for his studies when the war started. His family had moved back to the Burgenland in the 1920s. He joined the navy because his younger brother was drafted into the German Army, and he wanted to fight against the Nazis, but he didn't want to possibly shoot at his brother. These three old guys (as well as my grandfather, who was also on the Eastern Front) had been on different sides during the war, but they had become livelong friends in the decades after the war.
I think the "community"-system is one aspect. E.g. in the US you are only part of a sports team in school or uni, while In Germany sports teams or bands etc. are outside of school/uni so that you basically stay in the same "community" after school too.
The "average German" is a member of three clubs, e.g. soccer-club, traditional-costume-club and the volunteer fire department. It was also common for Germans to work in the same company their entire live. In addition, many Germans aim to own their own home. To achieve this, they often spend their entire lives paying off loans. They are reluctant to sell the house early because they have usually invested a lot of their own work. Is that the case in the USA too?
Most American houses were built before the current living Americans. There is no investment in the current locations we live. Americans gladly sell their houses to profit on a move to a different house that has better costs.
@@margritjones7934That is because you have no Grunderwerbssteuer, which cost you, depending on the German State, between 3.5 and 6.5% of the selling price. Do the math.
@@Ba34qt that's a lot! Plus I think you pay the notary places etc. a lot. We pay like a lump sum which is rolled into the loan. And I had loans where I just had to have 3% down. We would never have been able to buy a house in Germany!
You hit the nail on the head. When immigrants moved here(America) they stayed together with family for a little time, but wanted the American dream of owning their own home. Being independent was huge. It was instilled in you. Being free of what they moved to America for in the first place. That need for freedom/independence was past down from generation to generation. We are very lucky that our 3 kids and their families all live within a hour from us. That is GREAT. Now the movement within the US is gone in a different direction and reason. I have gone to my families home town in Germany on a Ancestry pilgrimage. Seeing where my family came from is mind blowing. I think this was your best vlog yet. Looking forward to this year when we are coming back there for a Christmas Market adventure. Blessings, D and J
Beeing independet you can do in 5 miles, or 50 miles distance. Why moving 2000 miles away ? Somebody doing so, would be considerer an adventurer, or a dropout in Germany.
The concept of "owning your own home/apartment" is not so prevalent in Germany because of the strong laws protecting the renters of apartments. You can live your whole life while renting an apartment and never be evicted/priced out like in the USA.
I read once that anthropologists discovered 2000-year-old human remains somewhere in the Harz region of central Germany. DNA testing showed that the descendants of those people were still living in a nearby village - they hadn't moved in 2000 years! In America, not even the Native Americans are still living in the same place where their ancestors lived 2000 years ago, but in Germany they do.
You forgot to mention what huge impact the concept of "Heimat" (home/native area - there is no real appropriate translation in English) has in german culture and attitude to life.
I was born in Detroit, Michigan and today I am living in Bayreuth, Germany for my masters degree. I want to thank you for your videos as they have been both entertaining and informative before and after i moved here!
One major Point, why People are staying near their Birthplace and especially near or with the Family comes down to Tradition. It was pretty normal for Families to take care of each other till the very End, there where no Retirementhomes or Kindergärten in the past, so the Elders took care of the little Children and the Parents and older Children/young Adults took care of the Elders and so on. This has changed in the last couple Decades, due to the growing Economy bringing in bigger and more spaced out Communes, which turned into Cities. Suddenly the Cities are way more interesting cuturally and the young People wanna go into Cities to see something new. Also the rising Inflation, paired with the faster Lifestyle of People made it necessary to create said Nursinghomes and Kindergärten, which made it unnecesarry for someone to stay at Home to take care of the very young/old. These old Traditions are slowly coming back for good, I think.
Nick, sehr viele deutsche Familien sind nach dem Krieg aus den Ostgebieten vertrieben worden... und sicherlich froh eine neue Heimat gefunden zu haben.., meine Familie z.B. auch.
I was born in the hospital in the county seat and grew up 25 miles away in one of our hollows. Same for my sister. I now live seven miles from where I grew up and my sister lives at one end of our small town and I live at the other. My son is 30 and after his divorce, he moved back in with us. It has been a tremendous blessing having him here, but I’m praying that he finds someone who really loves and appreciates him. Rent in our area has gotten out of control and a single person can’t make it by themselves.
Germany is full of people who moved due to severe trauma: war, genozide etc pp. Moving your family again just shortly after you settled might not be that popular partly due to that. When you are the child of a Heimatvertriebene or a refugee from Croatia or Vietnam the idea simpy might be too connected to negative images - and connected to the feeling of finally having a new home.
Local patriotism that’s been built over generations for centuries plays a huge part, too, I guess. Asking around in SHA for locals who‘d consider moving to a different state? Unlikely. Moving to another area in the same state? Maybe not as unlikely but still. Swabians moving to Baden and vice versa? That’s basically the same as moving from your village to the neighboring one. You have often been raised with a certain local identity that’s hard to lay off. Americans are very diverse in terms of origin, too, probably even more so than Germans. But they always find common ground in being Americans. I am a German, but I‘m actually more of a Baden-Württemberger. To be frank, I‘m a Badener, from Südbaden to be even more specific. And I‘m not from the Black Forest, I‘m from the Hochrhein region, to be precise. But not any Hochrhein region but specifically… you know what I mean?
Born in Missouri, 58 years in the Chicago area, 3 years in Germany, 19 years in Portland, Oregon. I have lived in 11 homes and apartments in my life. I owned 3 of them. My German wife spent her first 25 years in Darmstadt., before emigrating to the U.S. with me. Her family all still remain in Hessen.
There's plenty of Germans around here in the south who have moved in from the north/east. The rest are locals and locals mean never had to change their 2 license plate letters. At work I'm always shocked how many say how they would like to try another job in the company but they are too far being on the other side of Stuttgart, ie 45min drive.
Born in Frankfurt/Hesse; emigrated to Oslo/Norway at three years; moved to Rhineland-Palatinate at five years; lived a year each in New Jersey, Kentucky and NYC after school as an AuPair, as an undergraduate and as a postgraduate; then moved back to Mainz/Rhineland-Palatinate, Bingen/Rhineland-Palatinate, and back to my parent‘s house in Ingelheim/Rhineland-Palatinate due to the fact that since 2000, I have had a steady job at Mainz university, my parents needed assistance in old age, and now I own the home I spent my late puberty and young adulthood in, still close to my place of work… Considered briefly - when involved in a transcontinental relationship - of moving to the U.S. (where he lived at the time) or to Malawi/Africa (where his family was from), but am happy the really complicated relationship ended after 17 years and am to be back in my turf… I‘ll be here for the rest of my life.
I would like to add one aspect. In Germany (and other European countries as well) you build a house to stay in it for the rest of your life and also to hand it over to next generations. Houses are built to last, unlike the US cardboard models that will fall to pieces after a decade or maybe two. This ties you to your home and reduces the motivation to start nomadizing just because you are looking for a new job.
Oh no. My house (in the US) is probably 70 years old. I am risking death for every minute living in it, since a collapse must be imminent. Well, I am a daredevil and living on the edge is my middle name. I will prevail.
@@XX-bn9sf Some houses in Germany are older than the USA. Of course they were renovated but houses here are definitely more sturdy and are more likely to stand the test of time. You don't need to take everything as a personal attack.
You are delusional. I have lived in brick and wooden houses here in America and they have been around for a century+ and are not falling apart. I moved from one brick house to another due to cost. That brick house to another brick house due to cost again. That brick house to another to get away from family. That brick house to a wooden house to get more space. That wooden house to a brick house to get 3 hours closer to my daily activities. That brick house to a wooden house for work and to live on my own. All of these houses are still standing without issue. Not sure how your education can be so bad that you think a house of brick, or wood can fall apart in a decade.
@@KonglomeratYT The average life expectancy of an american house is 30-50 years. Yes, there are older houses, but they are not the norm. The norm are cheaply but impressively built wooden stick houses, that can be easily replaced by something "better" (usually higher quantity instead of quality). The average german house from the 60 and 70s (the worst time to build a houses) has a life expectancy of 50-80 years, while proper german houses (read from before the war(s) or after the 70s) have a life expectancy of 80-100 years at least. And of course, we do have still many much much older houses (thus that survived WWII that is). Summa: no, not every house is a pile of termite food... but the vast majority is. So please refrain on blaming your lack of knowledge about building statistics on others.
To some degree it's also a culture thing of local customs, dialects, etc. It is getting lesser through Globalization and more centralization of culture as a whole (e.g. dialects being spoken less) but still someone from southern Germany, used to the dialects, festivals and cuisine there will have some catching up to do on regional customs, like the food and learn to understand people that speak the local dialect when moving to the north
I was born in New Orleans and live in the same house at 60 years old. My family in Cefalu, Sicily have lived in the same house, (apartment building) for 11 generations. It's an Italian thing as well.
Not just Italian. My maternal grandfather's ancestors lived in the same area of German West Hungary, since 1921 Burgenland Austria, for more than 500 years and my maternal grandmother's for 450 give or take, though neither of them stayed in the same house for 11 generations as far as I can tell, well that's not entirely true as my great-grandfathers grandmother was the bastard daughter of a count. And I know that his ancestors had owned the castle where he lived with her mother since more than 350 years I'd say chances are that it were 11 or more generations living in the castle but without doing some research I can't be sure. I'd say it is a European thing.
Heimatverbunden! I lived in the neighbour town of my home for a few years (but just a 15 minute car drive away from home), but our family home since the 1950s is a Two-Family house, so at first, my parents and grandparents, then my parents and my aunt and now my parents, my son and I live here.
@@Akrus15 Wollte nie für immer in den USA bleiben und habe meinen Traumjob hier angeboten bekommen. Das Angebot kam völlig überraschend und ich habe die Entscheidung, den Job anzunehmen, innerhalb von einer Minute getroffen. Habe das auch nicht bereut :-)
Born and raised in Brandenburg --> 7 years in Russia and Ukraine --> 2 years in California --> 5 years in Munich --> 6 years in Saxony - What's next? Sweden!
My wife and I were nomads growing up. She was an army brat, I was a uitliity company brat. We ended up starting our family away from all of our immediate family. We are trying hard to change that by having our mother-in-law live with us, and our kids (3) have all ended up staying relatively (for Americans) close. We now have 5 grand children within a 3 hour drive and my wife's brother recently moved from across the country to be closer to Mom and our extended family. We'd really like to change the legacy of our family by being physically closer.
Houses are build for the future of more than 1 generation. So you Stay in the Area and live oneday in the house where your grandparents lived before. Not me. But friends of mine
I am a Bavarian with the congenital defect 🙂 being born in Stuttgart, Baden Württemberg. After several years in Switzerland I live in Schleswig-Holstein. Edit: Even with my current location being relatively far away, I still can drive to my parents, who moved back to Bavaria, within a day. I can drive to friends in Stuttgart within a day. Do I miss something? Yes, the food and the language of the South. Sometimes in the North I am not understood because of my choice of words. The food I have learned to cook myself in a quality that is as good as I remember it -- and the remembrance is refreshed often enough when I travel down south.
@@Pseudonym-qh3ooDer Geburtsoŕt sagt nichts über Hintergründe aus. Hätte meine Mutter mich in bspw. Seoul zur Welt gebracht, wäre ich dann nach Deiner Auffassung Koreaner?
Austria is about the size of Bavaria and has 9 states, I was born in one state and work and live in another. My youngest sister was born, has worked and still lives in one Austrian state. My second sis was born in Austria but now lives in Edmonton, Canada, after having lived 20 years or so in South Africa. My oldest sis moved from one side of Austria to the other, she lives now 3 km to Switzerland. In Austria many young people go study in one of the major cities and then often stay there. Farmers and craftsmen usually stay where they are from. Cheers!
Well a bit of both I presume. After university I moved to Australia, initially for a postdoc, but somehow got stuck. Now, after 30 years, I am back in Germany with my kids, living in the same house that my great-grandfather built more than a 100 years ago.
After the War Germany had the "Wirtschaftswunder" and there was no need go somewhere else for job opportunities. On the contrary a lot of people from other countries (Italy, Greece, Turkey) came to Germany to work here. Germany is one of the place people want to go to find a better life. The second thing is Germany was created out of over 300 "micro states", changing states back then, was much more complicated. So there is very little tradition of moving long distance. A third thing is that at the end of the war, people from Ostpreussen and Sudetendeutsche where forced to leave their homes and became refugees. The were not very welcome at that time. I think that also put a negative image to moving long distance.
I live just a few kilometers from the village I grew up in. My parents still live there. My sister also lives just a few minutes away which is great. I am so grateful for all the time I've spent with my parents in the last 20 years since moving out. My mum is 72 now but my dad is 82. They won't live forever so I'm glad I stayed here. It's also great when you start your own family. My kids have their grandparents around and I feel like having a helpful network for raising my kids.
I am now back in the Town were i was born. I was 1 year in Maine and i still trave a lot in Europa. for 4 years i lived in Hannover, because of work an familie i moved back. It is normal in Germany to live close to you familie. Back Back Back in time familie hat to stay together to service.... In the past, far far back, families lived together in tribes to survive. To this day, these tribal boundaries are visible in everyday life in Germany. So it is understandable that this has not changed to this day. I am very happy about this video, thank you
Furnished housing and thus not being attached as much probably also plays a role. Moving is expensive when you have to move the whole household. Byok - bring your own kitchen 😅
Yeah I'm one of the 10%. Born in North-Rhine-Westphalia, moved from there to the smallest state in Germany Bremen, then to Schleswig Holstein after this to Bavaria. Completly fine with it.
I live in Florida, but was born in Oregon. My parents aren't from Oregon; they are from another state. Their parents aren't from the same state as them, and their grandparents were immigrants. My family history-post immigration took us from Ellis Island to Pittsburgh, to Chicago, to Indiana, to Oregon, to California and then to North Carolina in the course of less than 75 years. I splintered off and went to Florida.
Loved you insight and getting a bit deeper into this subject! Living abroad and in different areas of Germany I appreciate my home growing up even more.
Born in Lower Saxony and than moved to the United Kingdom, back to Germany (N-Westfalia, than Hessen and again N-Westfalia) and back to Lower Saxony … 10 km from where I was born- Home is where friends and family are and the heart is …
I would say Nalf's perspective is nurtured from his cosy Swabian enviroment in the Southwest of Germany. The picture could be quite different on the opposite end of the country in the Northeast. Just consider that already 20% of the population of former East Germany moved to the Western part in the last 30 years... about 10% of the poplation there came from West to this area after the unification. This doesn't consider people moving between East German states. There you often have to move to get a job, to get a professional training or go to university. This has consequences for family. The younger generation is not close by to look after grandparents. Grandparents are not close to babysit grandchildren etc. It even seems that discussion about loosening the strict German cemetery laws are more advanced there - to make it more easy to take urns with you, because there is no-one to look after graves in the local cemetery.
I also think that Nalf mainly sees the southern German perspective and the people there are already very conservative. I come from NRW and have lived in Berlin for a long time and it's true that at least half of the Germans there are not native Berliners. People come from everywhere, people from NRW, Lower Saxony, East Germany or Hesse. Apparently the people there are not as close to home as Bavarians or Swabians. I think people from southern Germany are more interested in their customs and traditions. I, for example, can be hunted with it.
I was born in The Netherlands in a small town in North Holland near Amsterdam, grew up there until I was 12 years and moved with my parents to a town 6km away in another province. The culture was really different, from a kind of suburban town of Amsterdam to a rural village half the size of my birth town. Sports clubs (no Sunday sports because of religion) were very different, people were different, more religious, more friendly and open, more locally oriented for school and work, while the town I was born in was a commuter town, during the day almost everyone left for work, college and university to Amsterdam. Who knew a town, only 6km away, could be so different. I never left the town, although I moved three times already.
Many germans are socialized in strong regional cultures and with regional traditions. The home region is a very big part of the identity of a german. It goes so far, that we even have a culture of coming back to our home regions after living somewhere for a while. "Mich ziehts zurück in die Heimat"... is a sentence which you will hear again and again if you talk to germans who live elsewhere than in their home regions. Not because life is bad there, it's just a feeling of getting drawn back to the place where you really belong :D
Well, we Germans (in the linguistic case, I'm including us Austrians) have two words for quite opposite concepts, "Heimweh" which has a literal translation in the English "homesickness" (though they have a bit of a different feel) and "Fernweh" which has no literal translation but which I would translate as "longing for the horizon" or less poetic "longing to go to places far away". You described the first one very well, but the second one is why half of Germany's population (or possibly even more) leaves the country every summer.
I am born and raced in Germany but I can’t go back to live there. I married a Canadian soldier stationed in Germany way back at the end of the 1960. I live in Canada and my husband has been retired a long time. We own our own home and live very well . Since my parents never owned any property we always lived in an apartment. No problem there since about 60% of Germans live in apartment dwelling. When I go back to Germany to visit I find very confined in apartments and the do’ and don’ts you can’t to because of rules and regulations are a little insane. In Germany all you can maybe dream to get a 2 bedroom place to live unless you marry into family that has property. I still love Germany but living there for is not realistic . Of course it loose my German citizen ship once I became a Canadian a mother sore point in my life . There are only a handful country’s left in the world that make you do that. It’s kind hurtful when you foreigners with a German passport plus they are allowed to carry there passport from there birth-country. But I love my Canadian lifestyle . I did get faster ahead over-here ,no regrets..
im 22 now. I got born and grew up until primary school in Karlsruhe (BW) and region. Afterwards i lived in Stralsund (MV, 900km away) for 9 years. Afterwards in Hagenau (france), and Rastatt (BW). Then i started apprenticeship in gutach (BW) for 3 years, afterwards a short time in Malchow (MV) and now in Furtwangen to study (BW). I would say i moved well over the normal german already in my 22 years...
Successful people don't become that way overnight. most people see at a glance-wealth, a great career, purpose-is the result of hard work and hustle over time. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life🙏🙏🙏
People should remember: poverty is not an accident, a coincidence or an inevitability. It is something which is manufactured by the step or action we takes
Hi, born in 1962 in Hessen/Germany. Moved to another town in the same county 30 km away age 4. That’s where I grew up. My parents still live there. I moved to Baden Württemberg after university, lived/worked there for 4 years. Moved back (job related) to my home town, met my later wife there. After three years, took her over to the USA on an expat assignment. Moved back after 2 years. A year later, we moved to the biggest town in our county, 18 km away, where my two kids were born. Stayed with the same company for another 15 years (in retrospect, 5 years too many), then quit my job and moved to Bavaria for work, as a weekend commuter. Was offered and did accept a job in my home county after 6 years, and intend to stay there until retirement. So I have been around, with a huge number of business trips to a lot of remote corners in the world, but felt attached to my home county during all of my life. No intention to change that, ever. Germany still is a very tribalized society. There is a distinct difference between people say from Bavaria and Hessen, which you typically realize after 3-5 seconds listening to them speaking. There are huge differences in culture and also behavior between the tribes. That’s one of the main differences to the US.
I was born in Wurzburg, but grew up in Kansas (long story), moved to Texas for university - with a 8 month stint in Italy, then back to Kansas, and now live in Missouri. In a short while, I will be moving back to Germany (near Wurzburg) to be near family after I retire. My father's family is from the same small village near Wurzburg since around 700-750 A.D. (when records began) and there are many relatives living there. I have three siblings in Germany, two live within 10 km of the family home and one near Augsburg. In the US, I had seven siblings (all grew up in Kansas). Four live within 50 miles of our family home. One in Oklahoma, one in Massachusetts, one in Florida, and me in Missouri. One of my kids (born in Missouri) still lives in the same city where he was born, but the other now lives in Boston, MA. So, the 41% rate in the US is pretty accurate.
Born in California but like many Americans moved to different cities with parents while growing up and than when they divorced moved to a different city with one of the parents, than went off to college in a city 4 hours away. After graduating worked in my field of study for a while but always wanted to live in Germany since I was kid because I was somehow drawn to Germany and my ancestry here so it was pretty easy for me to make the move in 2006 and been living in the same city here ever since. Funny thing is I've lived in Heidelberg now longer than I ever lived in any city in America. I guess I'm becoming more German now than American.
That's so interesting to hear because there are sooo many Germans here in Switzerland. But I think the housing crisis is a huge contributing factor. Americans don't have houses that last a hundred years, German do. They stay in their home because it took them a lifetime to pay it off. Salary in Germany is lower but house prices a much higher than in the US. I also like to believe that many people just simply enjoy their hometown because it may be a beautiful old village or a nice town.
Born in Minnesota in a small town, educated in Minneapolis and spent my first 8 working years there. Moved to Phoenix, Arizona at age 35 for a better work opportunity in the same profession, to escape the winters, and to be closer to my elderly parents who had moved there while I was at university. Changed careers at age 50, retired at 60 and left the US for Mexico. After 9 years I made another move to tiny Saba Island in the Dutch Caribbean to begin my third career operating Airbnb rentals for tourists during the 9 month tourist season. This is now my permanent residence. I also maintain my permanent residency status in Mexico and return there for 2-3 months in the summer which is the low tourist season on Saba. I rent my house in Mexico to a friend from Minnesota and can stay with him whenever I return for a change of scenery. I visit the US every few years, I have exactly 7 people left there, but not regularly anymore as I sem to experience unpleasant culture shock now.
I come from the very south of Germany next to Neuschwanstein. I tried to life in Western Australia in Perth for over a Year and I also travel alot to china because of my wife. We talk alot about moving but even my wife likes it here where we life. The good thing about Germany is: withing 8-10 hours by car you come around quiet a bit. And it is a good place to raise your kids, too. And this year we plan to make a daytrip to Schwäbisch Hall because of your Vids :)
My mom went to Aldi on Sunday, and I was surprised they were open. I told her in Deutschland all commerce is closed on Sundays. She said when she grew up, there were BLUE LAWS in the United States that prohibited stores from opening.
i was born and raised in Greece, studied for 5 years in England then moved for another 5 years for more studies and work in Scotland.. then moved to Freiburg in Germany for 3-4 years for work.. and the past 6 years i live and work in Switzerland! still super close with my family ❤️
I wholeheartedly agree to that comparison at the end between Americans basically being descendents from immigrants and Germans being basically locals. Although I've been born and raised in Germany, my parents only came here a couple months before my birth. Therefore as a child I beleived that it'd be normal to move to another country, or at least city, when you're an adult. My suprise to see that some of my friends lived even on the same street as their grandparents...
Born in Westfalia, grew up in Hessen. My family half from Thüringen and half from Westfalia and we have also ancestors (before 1800) from Netherlands, Finland and England. I did my studies in Niedersachsen and Schleswig Holstein. As my brother never left Hessen. We have relatives in Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Austria. I can say for our lot: Rural family (farmers and forresters) stayed put for generations (over 400 years), while business people, doctors, teachers etc. moved to other places too
I must be American. 🤣 Born in Cologne, Germany, lived in the States for one year, came back to move to Hessen, moved to Baden-Württemberg, now moving to Niedersachsen.... and within these States I moves several times. This for sure will be my last move, probably. 🙂
German here. I apprechiate the fact that Germans are way more settled, but as a naturalized citizen myself (I am originally from Austria) I admire the fact that many Americans see so much more than their little corner of the country. Even in the same country (and especially in one that is as big as the US) you might have simmilar things everywhere but you also have many different cultures and mentalities within this country. So you have to adapt quite a bit. And learn how to make new friends when your old ones are on the other side of the country. That makes me curious: When you ask an American where they are from and they moved many times, what do they say? Do they refer to the state where they grew up or where they were born or where they currently live?
I think it probably depends on a lot of factors. If you're talking to an American outside of the USA they'll probably respond with where they currently live, but if you're in the state they currently live in they'll probably respond with either a short recap of where they were born and the states they've lived in since, or more likely just the state that they grew up in, at least that's what I think.
I was born in a hospital in Huntington, NY, which is on the North Shore of Long Island, though we actually lived in Seaford, NY, which is on the South Shore. When I was 8, we moved to Wappingers Falls, NY, in the Mid-Hudson Valley. When I was 18, I went to college in Baltimore, MD, and have mostly lived in Baltimore since. One big exception is when I lived in Rauenberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (near Heidelberg) for 2.5 years.
I'm Norwegian, 50, and have never lived in the same place for more than five years since I was 18. Lived in California, all over Scandi, Thailand, Italy, Spain and the UK. I guess I really don't fit this description of "most Europeans" as mentioned here :)
Europe also has a lot of walkable places, often a place to socialize and often unique to an area. I suspect these could create more attachment to a specific area. The are places where you actually want to be and what pops into your mind when you think if that area/city/town and all the memories that go with it. From what I've seen/heard, the USA most towns look more or less the same, while also not having a lot of unique, walkable places to socialize, if at all. I can imagine that it makes that specific "attachment to area" barrier a lot smaller.
One aspect that has been forgotten is dialects and culture. As a North German who moves to Bavaria, you will never be able to speak Bavarian at native speaker level. The mentality and culture, the customs, the architecture, the landscape - everything is different. You will never really feel at home if you grew up somewhere else. In the USA, everything is homogenized. Houses look the same almost everywhere, cities are built in the same way, the same housing estates and shopping malls are everywhere. People speak almost the same language everywhere, without the extreme linguistic differences that exist in Germany. I think only about 30% of Swabian words are the same as High German. Unless you learn High German at school, nobody would be able to understand each other. Especially as other dialects have a completely different vocabulary and there are even fewer similarities between the dialects. This was much more extreme 100 years ago. In the 1st and 2nd World Wars, the troops were organized regionally. This meant that people from the same region came together in military units. Only officers had to speak High German... As funny as that sounds, for me as a Swabian, High German is a foreign language. And I still can't speak proper High German to this day and always fall back into my dialect when I speak...
While I don't disagree with your basic point, I do want to clarify that culture, customs, and the like do actually vary quite a bit from region to region in the US. Granted, the regions tend to be huge, but there are differences. But to your point, yes, a New Englander living on the West Coast isn't going to have the challenge of needing to speak a different dialect or language.
@@mats7492 Ich kann dir versichern, Württemberg auch.😅 Aus Linguistischer Sicht ist Schwäbisch eine eigenständige Sprache, da man einen eigenen Wortschatz und eine eigene Grammatik hat, und sich Beides stark vom Hochdeutschen unterscheidet.😄 Ich habe mal eine wunderschöne Frau aus Norddeutschland kennengelernt und habe sie dann auch mal getroffen, ich musste mich so dermaßen anstrengen, halbwegs Hochdeutsch zu sprechen. Und als sie wollte, dass ich Schwäbisch spreche, hat sie wirklich gar nichts mehr verstanden😂
I am Austrian 🇦🇹. I have 2 sisters; both moved 300km within Europe in different directions (N and S), BTW: one to 🇩🇪. I went to the desert 🐪 13 years ago and live some 4000km from where I was born, in another continent. Some family have their nomadic generations. A family tree I did a few years back revealed to me that most of my ancestors stayed in the same 20km area for about 200 years, but the generations before that moved a lot. 🤷♂️
born in munich, lived in Koblenz, Saarbrücken, Bern and now outside of Zürich and yes i am happier now than ever, and beside the 3 generation under one roof, my family is dispersed in Germany too, also some part in Australia but i guess we were not the typical ones...
Born in Northern California and lived in a number of towns and cities in Northern and Central California. Last September I moved to Northeast Florida to a town between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach. Almost 3,000 miles away. The drive took 5 1/2 days. I'm retired now and just want to try a new adventure now that I can. My parents were both born in Oklahoma and met in California. Same for their parents (three of my grandparents were born in Arkansas, moved to Oklahoma then California). Great-grandparents the same (Alabama and Mississippi). Always on the move in search of a better life. Here in my new Florida city I would guess the majority of people are from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Plus a multitude of other Northern states. Americans are a restless people.
I am one of those rare Germans who not only moved out of their state but also moved to a faraway country -- the United States. I live in San Francisco now, and I love it. When I think of my entire family and the vast majority of my German friends, though, most of them still live very close to where they were born.
This is quite true for my family in Texas. I actually grew up in "the big city" but as soon as I graduated I moved to the small town where my mother was raised. I eventually ended up building a house on property my grandparents owned and am still here after 43 years. Both of my children plan on building their homes on the same property too.
My German family is a little bit more similar to yours I'd say. We all grew up in Bonn, but eventually only my two brothers stayed in that city. One sister moved to another big city in the same state, another moved to the Netherlands (after studying in Australia) and ended up moving two states away - and I'm keeping the option open to move countries at some point, maybe for an early retirement, who knows.
Well done video! And true :D. Reason (at least the reason I think of): Most of us feel lucky to be born where they are since nearly everywhere it is so nice here.
Im a Minnesotan of age 18. I couldn't fathom the idea of living outside Minnesota. several generations before me called this great American state home. I like hot dish, fishing, polka music, and going to the Lutheran Church every Sunday.
I had not expected so low numbers in germany. I was born in Lower Saxony, I studied in Hessen and Hamburg, worked in Bavaria, Grenoble, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg and am now living in Hamburg. Best reasons are two: I like the people of the north better and my parents are close and they can enjoy time with our kids!
Born in Lower-Frankonia, raised in Middle-Frankonia and Over-Bavaria (moved very often to another Village), lived 6 month in Iasi/ Romania, since 10 year in Lisbon-Portugal
Interesting video! Born in Austin, TX > Denver, CO > Dublin, Ireland 😅 All the Texans I know that moved out of state moved to escape the heat, conservative politics & moved to prettier nature areas.
Born and Raised in Husum, Schleswig-Holstein (close to where Silas Nacita Was on Sylt) and now i live in Kiel, Germany Codyfuzius said it : You save money staying close to your family 😂
