The trend towards the east

What do you do when you've finally arrived in Darmstadt with your family, everyone has a well-paid job, and the house is finally renovated after a few years? Exactly: You sell it again and return to where you left off 14 years earlier: your hometown.

There have to be good reasons for such a step, and Terence Böhme, along with his wife Jenny and their three children, had them: "A year ago, we were standing in the playground in front of the after-school care center, after walking through the lovingly designed elementary school with Grandma Sabine Dohrmann, and we realized: Hmm, we don't have anything like this here in Darmstadt," he recounts. This "we don't" was evident in other ways as well. The grandparents were always far away. And the feeling of home only ever arose during the holidays in the "Priceless Land" (a play on words, as "Unbezahlbarland" is a play on words, roughly translating to "Priceless Land").

So they spontaneously put together a family project plan. Work was, of course, a significant factor. Terence Böhme is an expert in digital transformation. That's not something you give up easily. But can you really take that up and relocate to a region known for its poor mobile network coverage? Terence Böhme simply decided to try it and spoke with his boss. His boss surprised him: "Okay, but you won't be alone there; we'll open a new office!" He hadn't been familiar with Görlitz before, but he had noticed a trend toward relocations eastward. So, in addition to Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main, and Karlsruhe, now there was Görlitz. The senior consultant has already recruited a second employee to return to Görlitz, and more are welcome. Student interns are also encouraged to apply.

The beautiful town on the Neisse River turned out to be a stroke of luck: they found office space dating back to 1226 that suited their modern business, and the local utility company was ready to connect the building to the fiber optic network at short notice. The new house the Böhmes found in Rothenburg also has historical charm: an Art Nouveau villa. So the young family traded the new for the old, taking a piece of the new with them: Jenny has created the popular blogs brei rezept.de and familienkost.de in recent years, which allow her to work anytime, anywhere. She also supports the new location with social media and the organization of daily office life. They are still busy settling in and getting organized, but the children have already settled in well at kindergarten and school. Later, like so many returning and newcomers, the Böhmes plan to get involved in the local community.

Are they perfectly happy? Terence thinks for a moment and then frowns. If he wants to go to Frankfurt am Main, it takes far too long by long-distance train from here – without an ICE connection.
So there's still a lot to be done to help the region get back on its feet. This young family can be part of that change.

Photo: Marcel Schröder
Text: Arielle Kohlschmidt

Living in Görlitz     Working in Görlitz     Visiting Görlitz    Silicon Valley Görlitz