One year of Corona in Bremen: This is how people experienced time

Stand date: March 1, 2021.

:
Catherine Wenk

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The first corona case became known in the country a year ago. People from Bremen tell what they felt back then – and why everything wasn’t bad.

Can the end of normalcy, as we knew it before Corona, be set for a specific day? Little by little, more and more has changed in our lives. But the fact is: on February 29, 2020, the people of Bremen began to understand that they will not be able to get past the virus. Because on that Saturday the first Corona case was officially confirmed in Bremen.

The woman who was sick with Corona at the time had come from Iran and was treated with mild symptoms in the Bremen-Mitte Clinic. She recovered from the virus and was later released from the hospital. But from now on it is clear: The corona virus has reached the smallest federal state. And obviously a feeling of insecurity spread: This is what the people of Bremen tell us when we asked how they were on the day of the first corona case in Bremen and since then.

For all of them, life has changed as a result of the pandemic, covering certain areas of life like a veil, displacing other issues and changing everyday life.

Wearing a mask and keeping your distance is just as much a part of the new normal as home office and home schooling, the digital game night with friends or a walk through the park. The year was exceptional in many ways.

Nevertheless, it was not a lost year for many. Despite lockdowns, contact restrictions and worries about how things will continue, the little moments of happiness have remained. Some found it with themselves, others with their families, sometimes it was just a beautiful summer day that was one of the highlights of the Corona year. What is noticeable: The crisis got many people thinking about what is actually important in life.

Even after a year of Corona, there is still no end to the pandemic in sight. A circumstance that weighs on and one that makes prognoses cautious. The longer the crisis lasts, the greater the desire that what used to be so normal and self-evident is possible again: traveling, meeting friends, going to the theater. Not sure when that will work again.

Probably just that is the challenge: staying optimistic amid the news of mutations and an approaching third wave and the feeling of not knowing whether the normalcy of yore will ever return. The anniversary can perhaps be an occasion to take stock of your personal life, to review the good and bad moments of this Corona year. And to draw strength from the knowledge that we have mastered this year.

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