The federal government is right - if you are sensible, you move to the country

I have no idea who Klara Geywitz is. But in an interview with the "Berliner Morgenpost" she said that people should move to the countryside. Because there are free apartments there. To be on the safe side, I googled who Klara Geywitz is. And in fact she is the Minister of Construction of the Federal Republic of Germany. And I read that she had promised that someone should build 400,000 new homes in Germany.

Then I read that Klara Geywitz obviously couldn't do it. Klara Geywitz, I read that too, was born in 1976 in the GDR. In the GDR, politics meant, above all, managing shortages and praising them. It's just stupid that this shortage management has now also arrived in the Federal Republic. On the other hand, maybe this is also an indicator that the reunification is now really complete.

And of course Klara Geywitz is right. Any sensible person should move to the country.

I am now 34 years old. And when I was 20, I moved to Berlin from Franconian Switzerland. I wanted to take drugs, sleep with strangers and be anything. And, irritatingly, I thought at the time that you would have to go to a city for that.

It wasn't original. It was pure followerism. Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, and every other postmodernist had done it before me. I thought I had to too. But I was wrong. I've been living in Franconia again for seven years now, and it's wonderful.

The first good thing about country life is that you are mostly left alone by politicians. In Berlin-Kreuzberg, a city councilor is laying stones on the street, in Mitte someone is building seating areas on Friedrichstrasse that not even pigeons want to sit on, and a transport senator from Hamburg has made a “real laboratory” where he can study live and in color people doing experiments.

That will never happen to you in the country. Just pay your taxes and you'll be left alone. And should there be an election again, no one will ring your doorbell and hand you an SPD pen or CSU flag. Because it's simply not worthwhile for politicians to go outside.

And because I mentioned the drugs at the beginning: There is certainly a wider range of toxic substances at the Kottbusser Tor in Berlin or at Munich Central Station than in the country. But in the country you can drink alcohol permanently. In the rifle club, in the football club, in the music club, even at kindergarten festivals. Nobody will mind.

A friend of mine even has his filled wheat glass in his hand when he goes for a short walk. And while it's obviously not a good idea, you can even drive drunk in the countryside. As long as you have a local number plate, the village policeman will not stop you. And if he does, then probably just to ask if he can come along for a half.

In recent years it has become apparent that the state is less and less concerned about civil liberties. We remember Karl Lauterbach, who once wanted to give up the inviolability of the apartment for a bit of protection against infection.

There are similar signs for the future in environmental, transport, construction and energy issues. In other words, a state that intervenes more and more in individual lifestyles in order to protect the so-called common good.

That will either not happen to you in the country or will happen much later. Because the rural population has retained a critical attitude towards their state that is fundamentally healthy for a democracy. The state has significantly fewer access options in rural areas.

This is mainly due to the significantly higher home ownership rate. The larger a city is, the lower the ownership rate there. The home ownership rate in Berlin was 17.4 percent in 2018. In no other federal state are fewer people owning property. In Bavaria it was 51.4 percent, and in Saarland, a federal state that actually doesn't have a single city, it is even 64.7 percent.

The most reasonable and equally beautiful protection against an encroaching state is own property with a house on it. And that's exactly what many people in the country can still afford.

Because in the country you don't get a windowless 1-room apartment in a so-called hip neighborhood for 350,000 euros, but a real house with a real garden. That's still a lot of money. But it can be done.

Besides, the people in the country have learned something worthwhile. The people there are carpenters, butchers, doctors or kindergarten teachers. This means that they have a regular job and have completed vocational training.

Unlike many city dwellers who, as so-called speakers, “activists” or mindfulness coaches, act on Instagram as if they were working, but actually live from their parents or from social benefits.

And that has several advantages. For one thing, you don't have to pay for the living expenses of the people in the country. But the best part is that if you get along reasonably well with the people of the country, you'll never have a problem getting a handyman again. Because if in doubt, you live next to one. And if not, then they live next door to someone who knows someone who definitely knows someone.

I just rode the train. Irritatingly, it came almost on time and didn't stop on the way. But that's the exception in my life.

When I recently drove to my lecturer in Munich, it took me five hours to travel the 150 kilometers by ICE. And there, too, country life has advantages. There is simply no public transport, so it cannot be canceled.

But the most beautiful thing about the country is the boredom that makes children develop their own ideas. After school there are no Mandarin courses, no business English revision courses in kindergarten and nothing else that over-ambitious parents use to steal their children's childhood.

There are the meadows. The soccer fields. The outdoor pools. That's all you need. And if they do, then the people in the country don't wait for the state to solve their problems. You just do it yourself.