Villages in Germany: description, distinctive features, infrastructure, photos. What does a German village look like?

What does life in the village associate with for a person with post-Soviet space everyone knows. Today I invite my readers to take a short walk through a typical German village in the southwest of the country. There are thousands of such villages in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria and they all differ little from each other, so everything you read and see here can be safely applied to each of them. Well, let's see how and how the German village lives.

My village has 3,000 inhabitants and, together with two neighboring villages, forms the community of Hohberg, with a total population of about 8,000 inhabitants. The community is notable for being located at the foot of the mountainous Black Forest, and also for being one of the sunniest regions in Germany.

01. From the outside the village looks like this. The main dominant feature of the village is the Baroque church, built in 1754-1756. In general, the village, as often happens in Germany, has rich history: the first mention of it dates back to 777.

02. It’s hard to surprise me with cleanliness and order in Germany, but in the village these indicators are simply brought to the absolute. During my entire walk, I did not notice a single piece of paper on the streets, they are sterilely clean, but you can already see this from the photographs.

03. Many old half-timbered houses have been preserved in this region - in the photo there is a hotel located almost in the very center of the village.

04. Basically, the streets look like this: modern faceless houses with triangular roofs, asphalt and tiles. There are no dirt roads in the village at all.

05. Also, there are no abandoned or even shabby houses here, all housing stock in perfect condition, which indicates the high wealth of local residents.

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08. In the German village, the position of religion is traditionally strong. Often there are such decorations of facades with religious motifs. There are also two church choirs and several church verein in the village.

09. One of the most beautiful houses on the central village street.

10. The pink building on the left is the city hall. When registering, I appreciated the first advantage of living in the village - no queues. I was probably the only visitor that morning and registration took 10 minutes, counting from the moment I entered front door. The official was very nice and smiling. When registering, they asked about religion, probably for statistics. He said he wasn't religious.

12. Written by hand, not printed. Cute isn't it?

14. We were pleased with the lanterns that had been preserved from the time when lighting was by gas lamps, as evidenced by the hood on the hood.

15. Sculpture of Jesus in the churchyard.

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17. The main street of the village is called Hauptstraße.

18. A few words about life in the village. As a rule, people living in a German village are far from poor. Most locals are strong middle class. Almost all village residents are homeowners, not renters. A typical two-storey house in this area costs between 200,000 and 400,000 euros. So judge for yourself the income of the people living here. Despite this, people are very simple and drive the most ordinary cars, parked en masse on the side of the streets and in the courtyards of the village.

19. Another significant advantage of living in the Village is parking. It is allowed everywhere; I have never seen a sign prohibiting parking here. You can throw the cart anywhere, the main thing is that the passage does not block.

20. People in the village are completely no different from the city. This is not surprising, because intermediate level Life in the village is much higher than in the city. And the level of education in rural schools in southern Germany is higher than the level of schools in big cities such as Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg.

21. The fact that you are in the village is reminded by such buildings with a tractor and other agricultural equipment parked inside. Few people, probably ten percent of the village population, are engaged in agriculture. The rest lead a normal lifestyle, no different from the city.

22. While walking around the village I checked out the local chicks :)

23. And the chicks did not take their eyes off the guy with a camera in his hands - an unprecedented type of passerby in these parts.

24. The monotony of the local landscape is diluted by a small stream flowing through the entire village. There is a walking path along it, but I won’t say that it is at least somewhat picturesque.

25. At first I thought that the building belonged to the village fire department. But it turned out that this private house. The owner is most likely just a lover of old equipment and bought himself a decommissioned fire truck, placing it in the yard for decoration.

26. As elsewhere in Germany, no matter how expensive and luxurious the mansion is, fences here have only a decorative function and are often simply absent. A high fence in this country is considered a manifestation of the owner’s redneckness and secrecy.

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28. There are no fewer cyclists here than in cities. This is not surprising, because the infrastructure for this type of transport here is simply ideal. If I stay in these places for a long time, I’ll buy a bike for myself.

29. There is nothing else to see in the village, so let’s go and take a look at the territory adjacent to the village.

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42. Village cemetery. This is a new cemetery, the earliest burials date back to the 90s of the last century. I walked around the entire cemetery, paying attention to the dates on the tombstones. All the people buried here lived from 70 to 90 years, which perfectly illustrates the standard of living in these parts.

43. It’s summer outside and the whole village is surrounded by greenery. From the hill you can only see the bell tower of the church and a few roofs - everything else is hidden by thick foliage.

44. I'm returning home. This is the street where I live. It is very small - only a dozen two-story houses.

45. And this is my home. It belongs to a local resident who lives on the first floor and rents out four rooms on the second floor to tenants. Marcus is a blacksmith, he makes various jewelry and wedding rings from gold and silver and sells them. This is how he makes a living, and renting out rooms also brings him a good income. He is very nice and friendly, we are all on first name terms with him, in general the atmosphere in the house is very homely and cozy. Three of the four rooms have access to one common balcony, which stretches along the entire floor. My window is the central one.

46. ​​Let's go inside. This is the second floor - the territory of tenants. A guy from Berlin lives right behind the glass door, he gets working profession at the same company where I am writing thesis. He almost never leaves his room, doesn’t cook in the kitchen, and I rarely see him. To the left of the Bob Marley poster is the entrance to my other neighbor's room. He graduated from the university in economic informatics and is currently working temporarily at the university. He rarely leaves the room and never cooks. On weekends, a girl comes to him and they sit together all weekend in the room and barbecue on the balcony. Both guys are friendly, but they don’t strive for any contact beyond standard politeness. To the left of the spiral staircase to the attic is the entrance to my room and opposite it to the neighbor’s room. I was lucky with my neighbor, a very sociable and sociable girl, who, when she hears that I’m cooking in the kitchen, always comes out to sit next to me and tell me how her day went. She is very open, as for a German, so we usually chat about everything. Natalie is a student, she studied for two and a half years to become a lawyer, then she realized that she was in the wrong specialty and from this semester she transferred to logistics. Despite the fact that her parents are wealthy people and her dad drives a Jaguar, she receives only 150 euros a month from them, which is not enough for her to even pay for the rent of a room, so she is forced to work while studying.

47. This is what the kitchen looks like, modest but cozy. True, we cook, that is, I cook (in two weeks I haven’t seen anyone else cook anything other than pizza in the microwave) downstairs in Marcus’s kitchen, because there is no electric stove on the second floor and there is also no sink for washing dishes .

48. Well, the holy of holies is my cozy den:) There is everything a person needs for a fulfilling life. The heating works even in summer, tested. Fast W-LAN, access to the balcony. There are even leather chair with footrest for complete relaxation on the balcony. True, in the almost two weeks that I have been living here, I have never used it once.

49. Thanks large area glazing, the room is very bright, and at night you can close the thick curtains and it becomes very cozy. All this costs me 250 euros per month, including electricity, heating, water and internet, but from September the price increases to 270.

50. And finally, the balcony. We have one for three of us. It’s a great place to relax, but on weekdays I come home in the evening, and on weekends I’m not at home, so the balcony is a nice option, but in my situation it’s useless.

51. This is how we live in this small but comfortable village.

I have already listed the advantages of living in the village: the absence of queues, problems with parking, beautiful nature one hundred meters from the house. The road to work without traffic jams among picturesque landscapes. But there are, of course, disadvantages. For example, today I needed to send a letter, but the post office is open only three hours a day from 9 to 12, and on some days additionally from 1 to 16. That is, it is problematic for a working person to send a letter. I had to go to the neighboring town of Lahr to buy a postage stamp from a machine there. There are only two stores here: "Edeka", which has amazing prices, and "Penny", located outside the village near federal highway. Again, you need to go to neighboring cities for shopping. All doctors and government agencies are also in cities. Fortunately, they are only 10-15 minutes away by car. This is less than driving from any area on the outskirts of Dresden to the center.

If you have a car, all these problems cease to exist, but life without a personal car will be a little more complicated, since the bus to the city runs once an hour, and even less often on weekends.

That's basically all I wanted to tell you about the German village. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to write in the comments. I will try to satisfy your curiosity.

Despite the constant outflow of ethnic Germans to the West, according to the 2010 Russian census, about four hundred thousand Germans (Holendrians, Russian Germans, Swabians and Saxons) still live in our country, with almost one and a half million people having close blood ties with them , and more than two million people speak German.

Due to the terrible events of the 20th century: pogroms, wars and repressions, the area of ​​settlement of the Germans has changed greatly, and if previously it was the fertile lands of the South of Russia, Crimea and Volyn, now the German population lives mainly in Siberia.

Altai region

The most large number Germans live in the Altai region. There are 50,701 of them here. In the northwest of the region, almost five hundred kilometers from Barnaul, the German National District is located with its center in the village of Halbstadt (with Soviet power Nekrasovo). The resettlement of Germans to these regions occurred back in 1907–1911, under Emperor Nicholas II, who transferred 60,000 acres of land to the colonists. The Germans lived in the steppes of the Kulundinsky, Blagoveshchensky and Tabunsky regions.

The NPR was abolished by the Bolsheviks after the revolution and restored only in the nineties. During the years of repression, the population was sent to soda mining in the Chkalov region or taken to coal mines in Perm.

Despite the adversities, the Germans have not yet lost their way of life and live by agriculture. With the help of German economic assistance programs, a modern meat processing plant and a dairy plant have been built in the area. There are oil mills, mills, and cheese factories. The cultivation of vegetables, sunflowers, wheat and fodder crops has been established. A bilingual newspaper, Neue Zeit, is published.

Omsk region

Currently, 50,055 ethnic Germans live in the Omsk region. Most of them are descendants of the colonists who settled these lands in the late 19th century. People moved here from the Stavropol region, from the Saratov and Samara provinces. Before the war, residents of the Autonomous Republic of Volga Germans and Germans from some other regions of the Central part of the USSR were deported to the Omsk region.

The Azov German national region was formed in the fall of 1991, when it became clear that the revival of the German republic in the Volga region would not happen. The center of the district became the village of Azovo. The German region included twenty villages and hamlets, in sixteen of which the German population was the overwhelming majority.

Now the population of the ANNR lives by agriculture, there are poultry farms, ATPR, and construction companies. Locals pay a lot of attention to preserving traditions. Twelve kindergartens and nineteen schools in the district teach German, a bilingual newspaper Ihre Zeitung is published, and German cultural festivals are held annually.

Novosibirsk region

The Novosibirsk region ranks third in the number of Germans among all regions of Russia. 30,924 Germans live here. Despite the fact that the Germans are the second largest people inhabiting the region, they do not have their own districts, the population is fragmented. Almost a third of the German population lives in Novosibirsk. Among the regions of the region, the leaders in the number of Germans are Bagansky, Ust-Tarksky, Karasuksky and Suzunsky districts. Only one in five Germans speaks their native language, and less than a third of the population is engaged in agriculture. Small, remote German villages are dying out.

Where else do Germans live?

Quite a lot of Germans live in Kemerovo region(23,125 people), in the Krasnoyarsk Territory (22,363 people). in the Tyumen region (20,723 people) and in Chelyabinsk region(18687 people). Much fewer live in the Sverdlovsk region (14,914), in Krasnodar region(12171) and in Volgograd region (10102).

After perestroika, Germans began to actively return to the Volga region, and for some time the German population here grew, but then many left for Europe. IN lately a reverse process has begun, but it is proceeding rather slowly.

The diaspora of St. Petersburg stands out from the urban German population. Despite the fact that few Germans live here - 2849 people in the city and about two thousand more live in Leningrad region, there is a very active cultural life here. At the end of the 20th century, the “German Society of St. Petersburg” appeared in the northern capital, and the newspaper began publishing German"St. Petersburgische Zeitung", erected German cottage village in Strelna.

Despite all the efforts of national communities, Russian Germans still remain an unrehabilitated people.

I finally got tired of traveling around the countless cities of Germany, and I went to the village. What could be better than getting out of the stuffy, dusty and noisy city into nature! Ah, the village! Pink “Schweins” are running around, German women are carrying water in buckets, and their husbands are brewing homemade schnapps at home. I don’t know about you, but I imagined a German village this way. This is a village after all! Well, only the roads there must be always new and smooth - in Germany, after all, there are excellent roads everywhere.

In fact, of course, the German village has nothing in common with the Russian village. And it’s not even a matter of improvement and standard of living, but a completely different concept of villages. A village in Russia is, first of all, agriculture. Beds, fields, land, livestock, as well as everything connected with it. The Russian (more correctly, even post-Soviet) village lives on what it has grown. A village in Germany is simply a small settlement in which, mainly, people live who do not want to live in a large city: pensioners who do not need to travel to work, introverted Internet workers, lovers of being closer to nature and other certain categories of citizens. About nothing agriculture, as a rule, this is not the case - it is carried out by farms, which, however, are not prevented from being located within the village. But, in general, a village in Germany is just a place for a quiet and measured life.

Today we take a look at a German village using Groschansdorf as an example. However, I would like to note that this village is not entirely typical: it is affected by the proximity of Hamburg, which is connected to Groschansdorf by a metro line. Here it is, the final station.

The inside is quite simple, but very clean. Cleaner than in Hamburg itself.

The calmness shines through even in the photographs: the houses are surrounded by greenery, there are almost no cars on the roads on weekends, and the rare passers-by probably know each other by sight.

5 minutes walk and you are already among fields and lakes.

As I already said, pensioners really like to settle in German villages. Well, or their relatives like them to settle there: in Germany, it is a very common phenomenon when children put their parents in nursing homes (this is, by and large, typical of Germans). So in Groshansdorf, on the edge of the forest, there is a large boarding house.

Village school. It looks much better than my city one, where I had the opportunity to study.

Farmer.

An extremely colorful bus stop. Where, if not in the village, can you meet such a person?

That's basically all. You can't tell much about the village.

To summarize: if you are not a pensioner and your children do not send you to nursing homes, then there is nothing for you to do in the German countryside. Including in Groschansdorf.

How to get there:
There is a direct underground line (U1) from the center of Hamburg to Großhansdorf. Travel time is about 40 minutes. You don't have to worry about accidentally missing the right stop: Großhansdorf is the final stop.

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When visiting Germany, don't limit yourself major cities with famous landmarks. This country is ready to open you to many beautiful villages and small towns with mesmerizing landscapes, irresistible half-timbered houses that just beg to be photographed.

The most beautiful villages and small German towns in Germany

1. Bacharach
2. Tüchersfeld
3. Meersburg
4. Schiltach
5. Sieseby
6. Dinkelsbuhl
7. Meissen
8. Mittenwald
9. Lindau
10. Rüdesheim am Rhein
11. Cochem
12. Quedlinburg
13. Tangermünde
14. Nördlingen
15. Monschau
16. Alsfeld
17. Volkach
18. Fussen

Bacharach

Bacharach (photo: @osternemma)

A small colorful German town in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, adjacent to the Rhine. Located an hour's drive from Frankfurt am Main. The nearby large cities are Koblenz and Bad Kreuznach.

Tüchersfeld

Tüchersfeld (photo: @timoontravel)

A small German village in the Püttlach valley in Bavaria, located in Franconian Switzerland. Located an hour's drive from Nuremberg.

Meersburg

Meersburg (photo: @bridilli66)

A small medieval town in the very south of Germany, located in Baden-Württemberg. The town is located on Lake Constance, and one of the main attractions is the old castle, built in 630 by the Merovingian king Dagobert I.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg ob der Tauber (photo: @heyitsamoff)

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is without a doubt one of the most beautiful small towns in Germany and Europe, famous for its bright, picturesque postcard views. Located in the Franconian region of Bavaria. Founded in 1170.

Schiltach

Schiltach (photo: @evanub)

A small German town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, belonging to the administrative center of Freiburg.

Sieseby

Zizeby (photo: @dirk_butzheinen)

Ziseby is a small village in the municipality of Thumby in northern Germany. Located near Schlei Bay, an hour's drive from the Danish border.

Dinkelsbuhl

Dinkelsbühl (photo: @aprendizdeviajante_)

A historic town in Bavaria, located in Central Franconia. Dinkelsbühl is located in the northern part of Germany's Romantic Road, an hour's drive from Nuremberg.

Meissen

Maisen (photo: @rina093)

Meissen is a small medieval town 25 km from Dresden, located on both sides of the Elbe River. Meissen is sometimes called the "cradle of Saxony" and is famous for its porcelain production as well as its cathedral, construction of which began in 1260.

Mittenwald

Mittenwald (photo: @rina093)

Mittenwald is located in the south of the country, on the border of Germany and Austria. You can get here in less than an hour from Innsbruck, Austria, and in an hour and a half from Munich.

Lindau

Lindau (photo: @bridilli66)

Town on the shore Lake Constance, which brings together laureates every year Nobel Prize to meet young scientists.

Rüdesheim am Rhein

Rüdesheim am Rhein (photo: @kswooong)

A small, cute German city in Hesse, on the Rhine River, located about 40 minutes from Mainz and Wiesbaden.

Cochem

Cochem (photo: @quinmuros)

Cochem is a small city in western Germany, an hour and a half drive from the border with Belgium and Luxembourg. Located on the Moselle River, in the territory of Rhineland-Palatinate, it is known for its ancient imperial fortress.

Quedlinburg

Quedlinburg (photo: @anna.freialdenhoven)

Quedlinburg is located in Saxony-Anhalt, an hour and a half drive from Leipzig. Old town Quedlinburg is listed World Heritage UNESCO.

Tangermünde

Tangermünde (photo: @herrkolkmann)

A town on the left bank of the Elbe in Saxony-Anhalt. A vibrant, picturesque, historic German city founded in the 13th century. Located two hours west of Berlin.

Nördlingen

Nördlingen (photo: @adrianus_msf)

A city in Bavaria located between Munich and Nuremberg. Along with cities such as Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Nördlingen has completely preserved city walls.

Monschau

Monschau (photo: @annetje75)

Monschau is located in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany, right on the border with Belgium. Located approximately equal distance between Belgian Liege and German Bonn.

Alsfeld

Alsfeld (photo: @through_my_eyes_83)

Alsfeld, with half-timbered houses and buildings with bright orange roofs, is located in the heart of Germany. This is a very photogenic town in Hesse, an hour's drive from Frankfurt.

Volkach

Volkah (photo: @reiseger)

If you are in Wurzburg, you can also visit the small but very pretty Volkach, which can be reached in less than half an hour. The city is located on the Main and will give you wonderful landscapes, both natural and urban.

Fussen

Fussen (photo: @mackklyon)

Another locality right on the border with Austria. Füssen is the final point known to tourists The “Romantic Road”, which stretches from the very north of Germany. The main attractions of the city are the Abbey of St. Magnus and the Bishops' Castle. In the vicinity of Füssen there is the village of Schwangau with a sauna complex, Hohenschwangau Castle with beautiful views to the Alpsee and Schwansee lakes, and most importantly, the legendary Neuschwanstein Castle.

Village in Germany another village - discord. There are very small villages in which there is absolutely no infrastructure of any kind - there is a forest all around, nice houses, a small biergarten and that’s all... Therefore, in order to buy something for the residents of such mini-villages, they have to start the engine... or spin the pedals...

But many villages in Germany, of course, are equipped with - at a minimum - a butcher shop, a bakery and a small supermarket.

Village in Germany- this is not at all a place where only farmers live, where the roads are bad and where cow dung lies at every step. Quite the opposite - these are clean and cozy villages, with smooth roads, with cute houses - more like areas remote from the city where people live ordinary people different professions who get up in the morning and go to work, located 50 km (and sometimes 100!) from home.

As statistics show, the younger generation, when leaving their father’s home, leaves the villages and is in no hurry to return to them. Only a small percentage of them - having started a family - settle down again in some nice village.

Königsbronn - a village in Germany

I spent the first ten months of my life in Germany in a small village. It is called Königsbronn and is located only ten kilometers from the current place of residence. Only 7,000 people live in it. This village is cozy and cute, like many villages in Germany.

Königsbronn has all the necessary establishments: two supermarkets, two bakeries, a pastry shop, two butcher shops, three pharmacies, a general practitioner, a dentist, two restaurants, a pizzeria, a Turkish eatery, several pubs, two banks, a post office, four hairdressers, a gas station, a small rural library, one , primary school, railway station. This is one of those villages where you can live without having one car for each adult family member.

The main attraction of Königsbronn is the town hall, which was built in 1769 in the Rococo style. Initially, the building was not a town hall, but a hotel for passing dukes and other eminent persons. And for seven whole years it was even used as a candle factory. And only in 1885 it became the town hall.

Not far from the town hall there is a small church with a chapel and walls from the monastery that once existed on this site. The monastery was destroyed back in 1552 - during the wars of reformation, only ruins remained - which were not demolished, and part of the wall - which surrounded the entire territory of the monastery.

Königsbronn once had its own large brewery, which, by the way, belonged to a monastery. The building still stands, but it has not produced beer for a long time. They say that the villagers can't wait for this colossus to be demolished and something more useful to be built in this place.

The fact that the brewery belonged to the monastery is reminiscent of these drawings on the buildings of the village:

Next to the brewery there is a former “brewery taproom” - and now it is a traditional restaurant on the ground floor and a small hotel on the subsequent floors.

On the walls of the monastery mentioned above hang iron plates with names important personalities- dukes and kings connected in one way or another with the described village in Germany.

And near the church there is a wall with the names of those who went to the war of 1939-1945 from Königsbronn and died. When I saw this memorial, everything inside me just rose and shouted: “a monument to the fascists? how is this? Why is this? – I thought.

And only then did I understand and accept that they, too, were someone’s sons and husbands, and not all of them supported the policies of the Nazis. There is a clear example of this:

Königsbronn is very proud of one of its residents. His name is Georg Elser, he lived in a village in the last century. In 1939, he single-handedly planned the assassination of Hitler himself by placing a bomb where the Nazi leader was supposed to speak. But fate decreed something completely different. Hitler was very lucky; on that day he was in a hurry to return to Berlin and left 8 minutes before the explosion occurred (although according to the plan he should have been there for at least another whole hour) - otherwise he would have been buried under the ruins of a Munich house. Georg Elser was arrested that same evening, and 6 years later he was shot.

A monument is dedicated to him, which stands right at the Königsbronn railway station. By the way, very often there are flowers and a lit candle next to the figure of Elser.

His photo with brief history how he carried out an assassination attempt on the Nazis - he meets all the visitors to the village.

In addition to buildings and famous people, Königsbronn also pampers the eye of any visitor with its nature. The village is surrounded by forest on all sides:

The Brenz River flows in Königsbronn, as does. Moreover, there is an amazing spring bubbling out from under the rocky mountains - they call it Brenztopf - “Brenz pan”. The water in it is simply emerald, you don’t want to take your eyes off this color. A few steps from the source they made a special staircase and a stone bottom - you can walk there, holding on to special handrails, it is believed that this is very useful, the water temperature remains unchanged throughout the year: +7 degrees - for me, even two seconds is a lot, I don’t I can stand it - but the Germans, as you know, are patient and also

This is my first one village in Germany– small, but with history and beautiful places. True, living in this village after my native Tashkent was very dreary and boring, especially in the cold season. Although all my friends - young families living in villages - are simply happy and do not understand how one can even love living in the city and why it is necessary.

But statistics still say something else: recently, German residents have been trying to move to cities, and German metropolises are generally experiencing a real boom!