Week 40: Migration Debate, Bernd das Brot and Community

00:00:01:

00:00:03: Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of plus forty nine.

00:00:08: I'm your host, Malina.

00:00:09: And as September winds down, we bring you fresh headlines and insights into Germany's dynamic political and cultural landscape.

00:00:17: This week, Manfred Weber, vice chair of the CSU, has called for a new approach in the migration debate, emphasizing the essential role of migration for Germany's workforce.

00:00:29: particularly in healthcare.

00:00:31: On the international stage, Germany is competing to attract top talent, especially after the U.S.

00:00:37: hiked visa fees for skilled workers to one hundred thousand dollars.

00:00:42: Also, Federal Digital Minister Carsten Wildbecker unveiled a modernization agenda to cut bureaucracy by twenty-five percent, saving billions for citizens and businesses through streamlined administration and strict one-in-one-out law reforms.

00:00:57: Now, let's turn to culture.

00:01:00: Specifically, a German TV icon who is anything but cheerful.

00:01:04: Bernd das Brot.

00:01:05: If there is a more German mascot than a chronically crumpy loaf of bread with stumpy arms and a loaf of Raufwasser-Tapete, it's hard to imagine.

00:01:15: Our guest this week is Rebecca, a trainer who shares experiences as an expert, building community and a heartfelt love letter to Berlin.

00:01:23: And in Ask a German, we answer why Germans might stare more than you expect.

00:01:28: So let's jump right in.

00:01:41: A lot has been happening these last few days.

00:01:44: So let's start with a major political headline.

00:01:47: Manfred Weber, vice-chair of the CSU, is calling for a new approach in Germany's migration debate.

00:01:53: Weber urges his party and the public to recognize that Germany needs migration, not just to address illegal arrivals, but to fill essential jobs.

00:02:03: especially in fields like healthcare.

00:02:05: He emphasizes, we have to explain to people that Germany needs migration.

00:02:10: This should be said in every beer tent.

00:02:13: Weber stands contrast with recent author from CS chief Markus Söder, who has pushed for more robust deportation policies and spoken about changing the cityscape.

00:02:24: Weber however insists that diversity is now part of Germany's reality.

00:02:29: Those who are lawfully here and contribute to society belong in our cities.

00:02:34: He hopes that cities who can craft success stories from migrants' experiences and unite people across divides.

00:02:41: On the international front, Germany has stepped up efforts to attract foreign professionals, especially as US visa fees where top talent have soared to one hundred thousand dollars.

00:02:53: The German ambassador in India highlighted Germany's liberal migration laws and the financial advantages for skilled workers, positioning Germany as a compelling option for those seeking new opportunities.

00:03:06: In domestic policy, Federal Digital Minister Carsten Wildberger presented a modernization agenda aiming to reduce bureaucracy by twenty-five percent and save citizens and businesses billions in paperwork costs.

00:03:20: The ambitious plan includes stricter one-in-one-out regulations for new laws aiming for quicker, simpler processes in public administration and positive news for the housing market.

00:03:32: The German Real Estate Association's latest report shows buying a home is becoming more affordable for many households.

00:03:40: Even as new rental contracts see steady increases.

00:03:44: Outside the big cities, medium and small towns remain especially attractive, offering lower entry prices and high quality of life.

00:03:53: Stay tuned for more culture and some local coverage.

00:03:56: There is a lot happening across Germany this week.

00:04:14: If there is a more German mascot than a chronically grumpy loaf of bread with stumpy arms and a loft vor Rauffaser-Tapete, it's pretty hard to imagine.

00:04:24: Bern, the beloved but eternally miserable star of Kika, has now made it across the Atlantic, grabbing the attention of US late night host John Oliver and the New York audiences couldn't get enough.

00:04:37: Last weekend, Bern das Brot appeared on HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

00:04:42: The famous host spent nearly ten minutes introducing America to the famously fatalistic bread, describing Bernd as fatalistic, antisocial and chronically depressed.

00:04:53: Maybe the most German character he's ever seen.

00:04:56: Oliver showed classic clips.

00:04:58: Bernd declaring, my Leben ist die Hölle, my life is hell, laminating his existence and snapping at friends.

00:05:05: The audience was both baffled and delighted as Oliver joked, this is really supposed to be for children.

00:05:11: Oliver and his crew even dug into Bernd's wild backstory.

00:05:15: Yes, even the legendary two-to-nine kidnapping of the two-meter, one-hundred-twenty-five-kilogram statue from Erfurt's Town Square, eventually found in an abandoned barracks thanks to a city-wide search and much media laughter.

00:05:29: Bernd's creator, Tommy Krabweis, was featured in a short video, sharing that the now culprit only got his butt instead of a cactus at the last minute.

00:05:39: Bern's impact, though, goes well beyond slapstick.

00:05:43: For twenty-five years he has grumbled his way through late night TV loops, never smiling, and certainly never pretending to see the bright side.

00:05:51: So why do Germans, and now even the Americans, love Bern?

00:05:56: Maybe it's precisely the contrast to candy-colored, forced happiness kids TV.

00:06:00: Bern's authenticity and resigned, dry humor speak to generations who sometimes just want to say missed and escape it all.

00:06:08: Adults relate to his refusal to perform happiness and kids get a slapstick and snorke.

00:06:14: He's a cult hit in memes, rival clips and even has a permanent statue in Erfurt, as well as his very own fan shop.

00:06:22: As Kika Putzit, Burns' humor connects across generations and cultures.

00:06:27: Perhaps there is nothing more German than a talking loaf of bread who can make existential dread funny for kids and adults alike, one missed at a time.

00:06:36: So next time anyone asks if German have a sense of humor, just show them Bernd das Brot, now an international comedy export.

00:06:52: Hello, today at plus forty nine we have with us Rebecca Del Vaje and we would like to welcome you.

00:06:59: How are you doing Rebecca?

00:07:01: Well, first of all, thank you so much to both of you for inviting me today.

00:07:05: I'm so excited to have this conversation and share with you a little bit about me.

00:07:09: And yeah, I'm doing fine.

00:07:11: I'm feeling the autumn coming to Berlin, but doing good.

00:07:15: That's great.

00:07:16: So we would like to start off with getting to know you a little better.

00:07:19: So can you tell us when you came to Germany?

00:07:21: Why did you come to Germany?

00:07:23: So and how is that going?

00:07:24: And what are you doing here?

00:07:26: So yeah, I came to Germany seven years ago.

00:07:30: I have to say that I was looking for a change in my life.

00:07:34: I felt already a little bit stuck in Mexico, so I wanted to give it a try to another country.

00:07:39: I tried first New York, then I tried Paris and then here.

00:07:44: I was just visiting a friend.

00:07:45: I didn't have any plan of moving to Germany.

00:07:47: I didn't know anybody here or nothing about the culture.

00:07:51: But then I met my partner.

00:07:53: So that's why I stayed in Germany.

00:07:59: We're both Mexicans.

00:08:01: Of course, it starts getting cold and we want to go back.

00:08:07: And one of the biggest things that people tell us when we're here is go out, do some sports, do some yoga, do some meditation.

00:08:18: And I'm pretty sure that you have something quite amazing that you do on a personal level but also on a professional one.

00:08:26: that helps.

00:08:28: Yeah

00:08:29: definitely it took me quite some time to realize that because I think this is one of the hardest parts of their migration but also one of the most beautiful parts the part

00:08:42: of

00:08:44: deconstructing yourself and reinventing yourself.

00:08:47: so when you come from your country you know you have some skills but also we don't know that we have other hidden skills.

00:08:56: and then when the winter hits and this kind of time of the year and where you feel kind

00:09:02: of

00:09:03: nostalgic and so on then the hidden skills come up.

00:09:08: and well that's what I discover in me.

00:09:12: so I'm a fitness trainer as well.

00:09:14: So I used to have communication in Mexico, I was working in PR, I was working in agencies, but also I'm a fitness trainer.

00:09:21: So then that was one of my skills that I already knew, but then also one of the skills that I discovered is that I really like to make, you say in English, a companionship.

00:09:33: like to work together with women and to help them also not just to train themselves physically but also to be with them in their process of migration.

00:09:44: and I think this started because for many years when I arrived here I felt a lot of solitude and it was also COVID time everything was closed and it was you were

00:09:55: here in the middle of COVID.

00:09:57: yes

00:09:57: I just arrived when the COVID started.

00:10:00: oh wow oh my god I'm sorry I didn't know that this thing was going to appear, you know?

00:10:07: So I arrived and two weeks later, they closed borders.

00:10:10: Oh my God, I'm here in the middle of Germany in winter in COVID.

00:10:15: It was really difficult to make friends.

00:10:17: It was really difficult to meet people in general or to get to know the city itself.

00:10:23: So I went through that process myself with my partner.

00:10:27: to experience a lot of solitude and to feel lost and to feel that I didn't find myself in this culture and to feel a lot of the cultural crash.

00:10:35: Yeah, so because of these that I felt or I experienced for many years, that's why then afterwards I made this project to work with other migrant women here and to tell them and to share, yeah, I see you and I feel you and I have empathy with you.

00:10:53: So let's work on this together

00:10:55: because it's You pointed something that's probably not only, of course, you do it for women, but I think for everybody that migrates.

00:11:03: It is a process of grief, because you are grieving the person you were in your home country, and you are re-adapting yourself here.

00:11:13: And at the same time, you have to rediscover yourself.

00:11:15: So for me, it has been a constant grief about everything from not speaking my language every day to not hugging every day.

00:11:24: I miss that hugging.

00:11:26: I really, I'm grieving, hugging all the time.

00:11:28: But on the other side, when I go back to Mexico, I start grieving a little bit of Berlin as well.

00:11:36: Yeah, then it happens.

00:11:37: After a couple of years, then it happens that you are a little bit from here and a little bit from there.

00:11:42: But that's also fine.

00:11:44: Then I think we have to give a space in our new us, in our new personality to encourage this new person that is diverse, that is bi-cultural or maybe multiple cultures.

00:11:58: And yeah, it's to enjoy that.

00:12:02: So tell us a little bit about your workshops or the way that you communicate all of this with the woman in your life.

00:12:11: So it started because I was training people while I was training in gyms But also I started having like private clients and I realized that all of us and all of my clients were struggling with this grieving of the migration.

00:12:25: and and the funny

00:12:26: part is that it's not a linear process, you know It's a process that can be circular

00:12:32: and you

00:12:32: you think you already are in a new stage and that you heal something but then it can come again in I don't know a couple of months or a couple of years.

00:12:41: so then I realized that a lot of my clients were struggling with this feeling like feeling disconnected from their culture but feeling that they don't find themselves here.

00:12:51: and also I don't know if you have heard or many of the people that will hear this the term of pink migration

00:12:57: no

00:12:58: which is more referred to women that migrate because of their partners.

00:13:03: So this is another effect of the migration that can give you a big grieving because you are very dependent on your partner economically, emotionally, socially, everything.

00:13:17: So you put everything on that person and therefore it's really difficult to go out and explore and meet more people or to meet other realities because it's like a filter and you are getting to know this country or this culture through their eyes.

00:13:35: So I realized

00:13:36: that in my clients and then I started making like a plan to okay.

00:13:40: so I also.

00:13:41: I was doing meditation already for almost ten years and I started connecting elements in a more somatic way like okay for me the goal is not just to lose weight for looking good but what's?

00:13:55: what's your breathing?

00:13:56: How do you feel?

00:13:57: What's your process?

00:13:59: What are you experiencing right now?

00:14:00: and

00:14:01: how can we

00:14:02: change some habits in your daily life in this new culture?

00:14:06: and then how can we work on sustainable goals for your not just your body but for your well-being.

00:14:12: So that's how I started creating meditation classes and also some personalized programs where I can work with them in what they need.

00:14:30: How can we find you?

00:14:31: How can we approach you?

00:14:33: How is there a way that we can find this path that you're giving us the tools for?

00:14:41: Well, I have my Instagram.

00:14:43: I can give it to you.

00:14:45: I don't know if I can mention it.

00:14:46: It is Rebeca, low, you say low dash, fit me up.

00:14:52: And then I share a lot of things, but also very interesting.

00:14:55: I do workshops, mobility workshops and retreats.

00:14:59: with migrant women, which yeah, I wouldn't like to say just expat because sometimes that's a word that comes from privilege, but with migrant women.

00:15:09: Maybe you can just make a quick exploration about the words because yes, I've come to understand that the construct of expats were the people who were working on any company and then they were sent to a country just for two to three years and they go back.

00:15:29: And then nowadays we have this migration bubble that I do believe that we need to refine in terms of where so many different types of migrants and we have so many different needs.

00:15:44: and the problem is under my construct is that sadly migration and of course I'm saying this out of being a Mexican because if I say in the US that I am a Mexican then you're an illegal migrant.

00:16:01: And migration is seen such as a bad word.

00:16:05: The connotation some words have, yeah, definitely.

00:16:09: And

00:16:10: here I also good at, it's very interesting what you were saying, but the reason of why we moved to another country can be also very different.

00:16:18: So it's not the same having a job and these kind of conditions that give you a certain privilege.

00:16:25: rather than the people that sometimes have to migrate for necessity, for the conditions in their countries, the political situation, the economic situation, cultural, and so on.

00:16:36: So I think we need more sensitivity towards these different groups of people in order on how can we... adapt them to the culture.

00:16:48: because at the end also one thing that I really like of Berlin is that there's room for everyone.

00:16:54: so there's room

00:16:55: for

00:16:55: the very party kinky scenario that is very exotic from Berlin but there's also room for all the migrants that we came because something wasn't working in our countries and we all make a new kind of society or culture here

00:17:13: it is.

00:17:13: It is very complicated whatsoever to migrate.

00:17:16: I've come to talk about this a lot here and this is also one of the reasons.

00:17:22: Of course, I came on a very different setting that, for instance, what your story is or what, for instance, Rufus is.

00:17:30: She's our producer.

00:17:31: She comes here.

00:17:32: She came here from Pakistan.

00:17:34: And one of the main things that, at least, I mean, again, someone coming from Mexico and Latin America, we know that the freedom we have here is something that also sort of keeps us here.

00:17:48: and even though sometimes we battle a lot with Berlin or with Germany and sometimes even the Germans go a little bit ahead of themselves and say like no everything is bad in Germany it's like you have no idea what how good it feels to go out at five o'clock in the morning and nothing happens to you.

00:18:11: That freedom, as you said, to be everything and nothing at the same time, to have a husband or not have a husband, to be engaged or not be engaged, to be alone or not be alone.

00:18:23: To be able to make decisions, no matter your religious background, cultural background or political background, to be able to make decisions.

00:18:31: that I think it's one of the top things that we can do here.

00:18:36: We went very philosophical at some point.

00:18:39: We need sometimes this love letter to Berlin because on great days like today, that you're not precisely knowing what to do or how to do it, or how to Berlin, now you have the opportunity to at least acknowledge one of the reasons why you're here.

00:18:58: For me, if I could choose, of course, being me, I could choose somewhere warmer, but... Berlin is like a medicine or like a confrontation.

00:19:10: Berlin will always show you why you have to work on yourself.

00:19:14: Like somehow for everyone.

00:19:17: you

00:19:17: have to confront

00:19:18: your

00:19:18: goals, your shadows and work on that.

00:19:21: Once you work on that maybe you're ready to move on and then or then you decide to stay here.

00:19:25: but Berlin can be like this master that will help you in the process.

00:19:31: And what you were saying like different ways of migrate and so on.

00:19:37: What I would say the most important is that once we are here and we have this freedom we also have to now recognize who are we here.

00:19:47: Like rediscover

00:19:49: ourselves

00:19:49: and the most important to have the necessary tools to regulate ourselves because there is I think a genetic part that we grew up certain way with certain conditions and it's difficult even if the rational part of us know that it's different conditions is difficult to in a somatic way to process that.

00:20:10: So the more tools that we have and the more community we make, I think all that circumstances will be easier to navigate.

00:20:19: How do you suggest we start doing a community?

00:20:23: Oh, that's a very, very good one.

00:20:25: First,

00:20:27: what helped me specifically me, but it doesn't have to be to everyone, is to connect with people of my culture and not just exactly Mexican, but Latino in general.

00:20:39: And I know that many, many people avoid this also to try to learn the German language and not keep the same language.

00:20:46: But for me, it's very important to feel what you mentioned at the beginning to receive a hug.

00:20:53: to be able to touch the Proxemic.

00:20:55: each culture has, that's very important.

00:20:57: And I found that not just in Latino cultures, but also in some Asian cultures, in some African cultures that are similar to ours.

00:21:08: So I need that, I need to be able to feel vulnerable and that also people can feel vulnerable with me and there is a reciprocate relationship.

00:21:19: When, for example, compared to Germans, they also can be vulnerable but they take longer.

00:21:25: so it's a little bit difficult to crack that first shell.

00:21:30: but

00:21:31: for me in order to feel better I need to connect with emotions with sharing about myself and also listening about yourself.

00:21:38: so I would say first try to connect with people that gives you this feeling of security and that you can be vulnerable doesn't matter if it's your culture or not.

00:21:49: and then I would say also look for the groups or spaces where you can find your hobbies, what makes you feel yourself, where you can feel your strengths, and also your weakness, because we also have to work on that and give a room for that.

00:22:04: I would say that that's a good way to start.

00:22:08: One of the things that I love to do here in Germany, to be honest, is to be as Mexican as I can.

00:22:15: I've said that also a couple of times.

00:22:17: I love being as Mexican as I can because I don't look at Mexican.

00:22:20: I know that, but I am very Mexican.

00:22:23: So for instance, whenever I meet someone else that I actually like, I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm Mexican.

00:22:28: I hug people.

00:22:29: And of course it's

00:22:31: very weird for a lot of people.

00:22:34: But on the other side, it's kind of like, I do understand that you German, you're not that open to this, but we are having a good vibe

00:22:42: here.

00:22:43: And I'm going to also show you what this Hetzlichkeit is, you know?

00:22:52: Because the weird thing about this is that whenever you ask a German, like, why do you want to go to Mallorca?

00:22:58: And they're like, oh, because Spaniards are so nice.

00:23:02: They're so open.

00:23:04: They're so heartfelt.

00:23:06: And you're like, so come on here.

00:23:08: Let me hug you.

00:23:09: I mean, it tends to be available.

00:23:15: But

00:23:15: sometimes they are training for this, you know.

00:23:18: It's very funny when you hear them like, oh, I also don't feel identified with my people because they are training for more contact.

00:23:27: I'm gonna pause real quick just because Rufruf is today for the very first time with us to be our producer here on the show.

00:23:37: And Marlene, who was up until now with us, she already graduated, which is already a good thing.

00:23:43: And she's going on a different pastures.

00:23:45: I'm always trying to say to Marlene, she should go to Mexico for a little bit, but let's see how that goes.

00:23:51: But I'm very sure that from everything that we have talked up the moment, Rufruf might have a question since she just started life in Berlin.

00:24:01: And she's just experiencing Berlin for the very first time.

00:24:06: And when we met, the first question for Ruth was actually like, how can I make friends in Germany?

00:24:13: But now she went also to Pakistan, where she comes from, and she was happy to come back to Berlin.

00:24:21: Yeah, so I did go back home for about two weeks and I did miss Berlin and I came back and then I went out for a donor at eleven PM in my PJs and I was like, oh, this is the best feeling in the world.

00:24:35: So my question Primarily from the aspect of is in your you know in terms of working with migrant women and everything.

00:24:43: But what is the opposite in terms of the German people accepting?

00:24:47: What have you seen so far?

00:24:48: How are they?

00:24:50: processing in terms of people coming in.

00:24:54: So what are your tips and something you would like as a migrant to tell to, for instance, people who are the host communities here in order to open up or do something slightly different to make us feel a little more comfortable at the start, because bureaucracy in itself is very scary at the start.

00:25:09: So we look on to the people to guide us.

00:25:12: So what do you... in terms of your, for example, suggestion to the people who are accepting us that we're coming to Germany, what would you tell them?

00:25:23: That's

00:25:24: really

00:25:24: a very good question

00:25:25: because it makes you think a lot

00:25:27: and

00:25:28: in order to give that as an answer.

00:25:33: That was a very tough one.

00:25:36: It's a lot of debates.

00:25:39: Especially because it's not that easy to accept another culture.

00:25:42: It doesn't matter how multicultural you are.

00:25:45: I mean, we're having in a situation in Mexico where a lot of Americans are coming to Mexico City and there are places where you no longer speak Spanish, you speak English.

00:25:57: And it is also, it kind of feel weird to be in your home country and just hear people hearing.

00:26:05: English and seeing that the prices are going up and We're welcoming and we're very welcoming society.

00:26:14: I think In that specific case is a little bit different the phenomena of migration because it's more gentrification with people that have money when in Germany Sadly or unfortunately the majority of the migration is because of the conditions of the country where you come.

00:26:33: And but nevertheless I think it's a very human feeling to be afraid to the unknown, to the uncertain things.

00:26:42: That's why sometimes we put like a shell to protect ourselves and that's part of the human nature.

00:26:52: But what I would say is that being empathetic, not towards migrants but in general in life, being empathetic and because it can be, you never know when we're going to experience that situation.

00:27:06: so you will need also that someone else is empathetic with you.

00:27:09: and

00:27:10: at the end we all are product of migration.

00:27:14: in all the world like for many thousands of years people were moving towards one place or to another but it seems like people are not very aware of this or we tend to forget these kind of things.

00:27:27: so we were always new in a school in our work in a Gym.

00:27:34: so how would you like that others make you feel in that moment?

00:27:38: So I think when you put in the shoes of another person that you can be more sensible

00:27:42: and then

00:27:43: to give room to another thought like okay, I know these are my beliefs or this is why am I?

00:27:50: But not everyone has to be like me.

00:27:53: So of course we have to give room to diversity other political point of view other religion other cultural learnings, cultural traditions.

00:28:05: So we have to be open for diversity in every sense.

00:28:10: And yeah, I think that would be one.

00:28:14: And also to be able, okay, to be empathetic, but also to experience new things and new cultures and new flavors.

00:28:22: and you, because this is what we, this is what is building a new culture.

00:28:28: If you see, for example, if you go to Akita, a kindergarten in Berlin, kids are not anymore the typical blunt with blue eyes or white.

00:28:38: They are so mixed.

00:28:40: So it's really beautiful because in a couple of years, this kind of idea of how does a German look like or how does a Mexican look like is slowly fading.

00:28:50: And we are just a melting pot.

00:28:53: that is really very nice.

00:28:55: to mix beliefs, to mix cultures, to mix different ways of thinking, approaching and so on.

00:29:01: So I think we always have to make room in our heart for something different, first experience it and then say, okay, I like it or I don't like it.

00:29:13: I definitely love this.

00:29:16: Thank you so much.

00:29:17: I think we can all also go with a very heartwarming message to be empathetic.

00:29:23: not only towards everybody else, but also towards ourselves.

00:29:27: Understand that we're all in this process together.

00:29:31: They adapting to other cultures and we adapting to another culture.

00:29:36: So let's just be gentle with each other and understand that this is also part of the process of life and it's great that we can do it together.

00:29:45: Yeah, I really love that that you said that we are all in a process, always constantly we're changing.

00:29:52: I love that.

00:29:53: So that's very true.

00:29:54: You don't know what's the process of the other person in that moment.

00:29:57: So yeah.

00:30:00: Because we are all in a process all the time, starting with something with work, family, relationships,

00:30:06: everything,

00:30:06: our body, our process of changing and aging.

00:30:10: So

00:30:10: I

00:30:10: think you said something very beautiful.

00:30:14: One of my last regards because I think we can talk about this a long time but before the good or the greatest thing about being able to be in Berlin or be in general in Germany is that Germany in Berlin has been under construction for the past thirty years, thirty five years.

00:30:36: So we're being able to be in a place such as this one that is a new city.

00:30:44: And we can establish ourselves in this process, which is great because we're experiencing history.

00:30:50: Even though we are tired of experiencing historical events, we're still in one and let's just make the best out of it.

00:30:59: Definitely.

00:31:01: Thank you so much.

00:31:04: No, thanks to both of you.

00:31:06: It was very nice chatting and yeah, maybe

00:31:08: afterwards

00:31:09: we go for a coffee because I think we can be talking

00:31:11: about this for

00:31:11: hours.

00:31:12: But it was very nice.

00:31:14: Thanks for the space and thanks for listening and sharing.

00:31:17: Thank

00:31:27: you.

00:31:31: There are several cultural reasons behind this behavior.

00:31:45: First, in Germany, maintaining eye contact with a sign of respect and attentiveness.

00:31:50: Germans believe that looking someone in the eye shows you are engaged and honest.

00:31:55: This can mean holding eye contact longer than people from other cultures might expect.

00:32:00: Second, Germans are naturally observant and detail-oriented.

00:32:04: They might stare simply because they are analyzing their surroundings or out of genuine curiosity.

00:32:11: especially if someone looks different or interesting.

00:32:14: It's often not meant to be offensive, but it is a way of taking in what's around them.

00:32:19: Third, personal space is taken very seriously.

00:32:23: Staring can be a subtle way for Germans to assert their presence or communicate non-verbally, like signaling where they are headed.

00:32:31: The intensity and meaning of a stare can also vary regionally.

00:32:35: People in sovereign or rural areas tend to stay more than those in northern cities like Hamburg or Berlin.

00:32:41: Reserved Germans especially might use longer, more intense stair bags to check if something feels off, since they often avoid direct confrontation.

00:32:51: Also, sometimes people stare because they are socially shy or anxious.

00:32:55: They find it easier to look than to start a conversation.

00:32:59: It's worth noting.

00:33:01: Eye contact or staring in Germany rarely implies romantic interest.

00:33:05: In most cases, it's neither a flirt nor a rude behavior, but simply a cultural norm.

00:33:11: A good tip for newcomers is to smile back if someone looks at you warmly.

00:33:15: If not, it's probably just neutral observation.

00:33:18: And if you ever find yourself blocking a door or causing inconvenience, that could be why you're getting those extra looks.

00:33:25: Eventually, the Germans there becomes part of the daily experience and might even teach you a little bit about cultural practice, curiosity and how different people connect around the world.

00:33:44: And that's a wrap on this week's episode.

00:33:46: And also on my time as producer of PLUSFORTYNINE.

00:33:50: Having recently finished my studies, I'm now moving to a new chapter and I want to take this moment to say a very very heartfelt thank you to Siegfried and Egon for trusting me and giving me this incredible opportunity.

00:34:04: Being part of this project has truly been such a wonderful part of my journey and I feel bittersweet knowing that this is my last episode.

00:34:13: Thank you so much for everything you've done for me.

00:34:16: It's been an amazing time.

00:34:18: A huge thank you to all of you, our amazing listeners, for tuning in week after week.

00:34:23: It's been wonderful to share these stories and discoveries together.

00:34:27: And of course, thanks to Lupeca for sharing her inspiring expert experiences and love for Berlin with us.

00:34:34: I miss the conversations, Herman the German, and most of all, the community was built here.

00:34:40: Keep following plus forty nine for more great insights and stories.

00:34:44: I have no doubt it will continue to thrive.

00:34:47: Take care, enjoy the beautiful days of early autumn and thank you again for being part of this incredible ride.

00:34:53: Until we meet again in another way, I'm wishing you all the very best.

00:35:08: Goodbye.