Rosa Bucheli, 52, has been living in a village on the Rhine for three decades
“30 years ago I dug up my roots in the Black Forest and found new ground for them just 100 kilometers further in Gailingen on the High Rhine,” says Rosa Bucheli. “Two years later, when I was 24, my husband and I have our own on our farm House built, our home. I could never leave this place.” Because this place gives her peace, strength and security. Over the decades, they have shaped and shaped it together, and that creates a deep bond. “I experience our organic farm as a community, in harmony with people, animals and plants. It’s the place where my heart feels good.” Home – a very great feeling that also has an important spiritual meaning for Rosa Bucheli. “For me, home means life, faith and hope. Nature, but also fantasy and art. And last but not least, the 52-year-old lives out this feeling of home in her garden: “It contains many stories. For example, a number of stones from the area have found a new home in my garden.” Embedded in medicinal plants, flowers, bushes and trees. For her, this special place on her farm also means “giving space to the soul, letting yourself drift”.
Heike Berdos, 39, hotel manager on a cruise ship
“My home? For me, that is the expanse of the sea, the people from all over the world,” says Heike Berdos. Since 1994 she has spent ten months of the year on the ship. She has also chosen her mainland residence on the Mediterranean: in Athens. After graduating from high school, the current director of a floating luxury hotel worked as a hostess on a cruise ship for a year – and discovered: home is where the waves slap against the bow, where every morning brings a new port. “The ship that grows on you.” The cabin, the team you’re with 24/7. The short way to the office, “down seven floors in the elevator”. Born in Bonn, who grew up in Algeria and later lived with her parents in Canada before completing a hotel management school in Germany, she loves her independence. “start a family settling down is not my thing.” Never homesick? “Just a little when I’m onNot being able to go to my parents’ house for Christmas .” A tiny touch of melancholy if it weren’t for the next temptation, the prospect of New Year’s Eve in Rio.
Aneta Mielczarek, 31, left her native Polish city
“I’m much more reserved than I used to be.” This sad undertone always resonates when Aneta Mielczarek talks about herself. Eight years ago she came to Germany from Mazury in northern Poland. Just like her mother, who also left her home country because she couldn’t find work in the small town. At that time, Aneta was only 13. Later she studied computer science and wanted to visit her mother during the 2003 semester break. But things turned out differently: “I fell in love,” says the 31-year-old. Everything went very quickly. Aneta moved in with her new love, a German-born Pole. She took a German course. “My plan was to pass the exam and then finish my studies here.” But that never happened. She dropped out of the language course for fear of not making it. There was no money to graduate. Aneta went cleaning and finally took a manicure course. In 2007 she married her “Love of Germany”, a year later the couple had a son. “I’m grateful for everything,” says Aneta. “But I often feel lost. I am a stranger in Germany. I miss my home, the nature, the food, the warmth. But of course a lot has changed there. I’m not really at home anywhere.”
Why are we homesick?
“We need a feeling of home,” says the Berlin psychologist Dr. Uwe Langendorf. “People who feel homeless are restless, constantly searching without knowing what for.” No wonder we long for home and miss it when it’s missing. Then we get that bittersweet feeling – homesickness. As children, being separate from our home environment is a physical pain. “The parental home is something like our first state of mind. This place with all its facets shapes us. It is the soil on which we grow,” explains Langendorf. Later, our feelings of home expand: to new cities, to other people, objects or habits. Home and wanderlust then go hand in hand. curiosity, the urge to discover new things,
