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Researcher couple Uğur Șahin and Özlem Türeci
Photo:
Stefan F. Saemmer / imago images
We immigrants of 2015 are increasingly becoming a part of this country.
We are currently experiencing a German Christmas party under Corona conditions and are noticing that a lot is different this year.
The Christmas mood in Germany seems a bit slowed down.
While there are Christmas lights and decorations in the city centers, the pedestrian zones are empty and there is no smell of mulled wine and roasted almonds.
Meetings with friends in this typically German, pre-Christmas »cosiness« are hardly possible.
Corona overshadows life and the news.
People die from the virus, also here in our hospital in Rotenburg.
Can you really look forward to Christmas?
To the person Right arrow
Photo:
Private
Samer Tannous
was a university lecturer in the Syrian capital Damascus.
Since December 2015 he has lived with his wife and two daughters in Rotenburg (Wümme) in Lower Saxony, where he works as a French teacher.
Together with his friend Gerd Hachmöller, he writes about his attempts to understand the customs of his new German homeland.
For my family it is the fifth Christmas in Germany.
In the past few years we have adopted many German Christmas traditions.
Our two daughters in particular made us familiar with it when they recorded German Christmas traditions in kindergarten and elementary school.
For example the advent calendar, which does not exist in Syria.
It makes our family look forward to Christmas, and not only among the children.
While in previous years our children had a garland of 24 bags with little surprises hung in their children's room, this year our daughters turned the tables and prepared the same thing for us for the first time.
That was a successful surprise for my wife and me.
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