Most Germans are happy with Berlin as the capital, but would rather live in Hamburg or Munich. And actually many love the homeland, for example for retirement.
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Berlin as a capital is fine, but to live there? No thanks! Thus can be interpreted the results of a representative survey of the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the German press agency. Real or perceived cosmopolitan talent is not important for many Germans. Small towns and villages are also ideal, especially for children and retirees. But first things first.
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Germans love Hamburg
Of the five German-speaking cities with over one million inhabitants, adults in Germany clearly have a favorite metropolis, namely Hamburg – according to a survey, the second largest city in the Federal Republic is “the nicest” (25%) . Only then follow Munich (19 percent), Vienna (15 percent), Berlin (12 percent) and Cologne (11 percent). The rest did not want to choose either city.
When people are asked which of Germany’s ten largest cities they would most like to live in, nearly a third (31%) answer: In none of these cities. After all, 16% say Hamburg or Munich, 10% Berlin, 6% Cologne and 5% Leipzig. Far behind are Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Essen.
imbalance between city and countryside
In contrast to France or Austria, for example, the gap between metropolis and province in Germany is smaller, due to the federal structure with 16 state capitals and other major metropolises such as Cologne, Frankfurt, Leipzig or Nuremberg, Mannheim, Bonn and other.
However, there is an imbalance between the city and the countryside, for example in the presence of the media. On the other hand, in densely populated Germany it is often not so easy to tell where the city ends and the so-called countryside begins.
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Smaller villages and towns on the outskirts of big cities are often doing quite well, but elsewhere entire regions are suffering from the rural exodus, especially in eastern Germany.
Berlin as a capital is more popular in the east than in the west
In the east, the capital Berlin, which is located there, is more popular than in the west. When asked “Are you convinced that Berlin is the capital of Germany?”, 75% of the east answered yes (in the west 66) – a total of 68%. For example, approval ratings for Berlin as a capital are below average in Bavaria, Bremen and North Rhine-Westphalia.
Perhaps all this is due to a secular mentality. As is known, German history is that of a “retarded nation” (sociologist Helmuth Plessner). For a long time, Germany was fragmented into small states, which is why it had many small centers.
It was the Prussian politician Otto von Bismarck who formed the German national state as a so-called Kleindeutsch solution, i.e. without Austria, with “blood and iron” – after the victories in the wars against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France ( 1870/71).
He loved federalism but also found it annoying
After the terrible wrong turns of National Socialism, Germany (at least in the West), which had been pacified by the Allies, re-established itself as a confederation of states, so to speak, as a Federal Republic of Germany. It was joined – a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 – by the states that had re-established themselves in East Germany.
Federalism is still loved and cultivated today, but also rejected and sometimes perceived as an annoying patchwork quilt. For example, it has recently shown its tricky side in the corona pandemic with various regulations of the federal states.
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However, in Germany there is a widespread pride in life in small units, in everyday life beyond the big city – and this also applies to regions which are not federal states at all, which do not form a state of their own, such as Swabia and Franconia.
Perhaps this is also where the romantic notion of regional roots comes from, the German love of country life.
Moving to the country as a retiree
When asked “Where do you think a child should ideally grow up in Germany?”, 57% chose the answers “small town” and “village”. Only ten percent prefer the big city (more than 100,000 inhabitants).
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And not only in childhood but also in old age, most people actually prefer the countryside or the small town. When it comes to choosing where to live in retirement, 58 percent say they would like to spend their retirement somewhere with fewer than 20,000 residents – 26 percent say “small town (population 5,000 to 20,000)” and at least 32 percent “In a rural area/village (less than 5000 inhabitants)”. The value for the big city is only 16%.
