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The greatest challenge since the Second World War, as Chancellor Angela Merkel called the corona pandemic in a televised address in March.
The Sars-CoV-2 virus has affected everyone this year, the powerful and the weak, the unknown and the celebrities.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has now counted over 1.7 million Covid 19 deaths worldwide.
Back in the spring, a SPIEGEL team of 52 colleagues decided to accompany people through this year without knowing what would happen to them when making the selection.
Among them are a stand builder and a virologist, an intensive care nurse, an undertaker, a cashier, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig and comedian Otto Waalkes.
They come from Jena, Munich, Hamburg and Heinsberg.
The youngest is 9, the oldest 91 years old.
The hundred people who are now reporting on their year here have been contacted again and again over the past few months, there have been personal encounters, telephone calls and e-mails.
This is how the Corona protocols came about - statements, thoughts and experiences quoted.
The months from January to March were reconstructed from stories.
The quotes have been authorized.
Two of the hundred protagonists received the Federal Cross of Merit this year.
One fled from her husband to a women's shelter in the first shutdown and speaks of Corona as her salvation.
One built a hospital out of the ground, another lost his job and is still unemployed.
Four of them know for sure that they have Covid-19.
Two died that year and one disappeared.
In December the hundred protagonists were asked to fill out a questionnaire about this year.
Of course, the deceased and a few others did not answer him: The homeless Stefan, for example, could no longer be found, one person preferred not to answer the questions.
But 27 say they got poorer this year, 74 say they are worried about dividing society.
32 of the hundred say they feel more lonely than last year.
Despite everything, 82 are looking positively to the new year.
Your stories testify to a historic year that changed us all, but each in a different way.
