On the outskirts of Cologne, directly behind the A1 motorway, is the largest private building area in North Rhine-Westphalia: Widdersdorf. More than 10,000 people live here, many are new. “It's like a Christmas fairy tale,” says Michael Kaiser, who helped build the district. “Mary and Joseph on their way to seek shelter.” This was repeated here 2000 years later: “Young families who set out to find a hostel. I was happy that I was able to offer these seekers a new home. “What is happening in Widdersdorf is typical of the situation in NRW. People join in, become local. Since 2012, the population in the state has been growing primarily due to immigration, as the death rate in NRW exceeds the number of births. The country is becoming more diverse. At the same time, the longing for stability, for home is growing. Psychologist Stephan Grünewald has conducted thousands of long interviews. He says: “When we talk to people about home, they immediately get shiny eyes.” In times of uncertainty, “the longing for a state where you could still orient yourself on the church tower, where you lived in a small, surrounded, manageable world. “But what exactly is “home”? Can Widdersdorf learn from Anklam, a city in northeast Germany? There, the mayor is pleased that many people have returned to their region of birth and life has returned to the city with them. But what drives them? A desire for home? People may have built houses in Widdersdorf, but thousands of I don't seem to have become a we yet. In the old village, some say that the newcomers did not want to integrate, did not come to the volunteer fire department, the Sunday service or the only remaining village pub. Which of them, they ask, will be buried here? You can study the unsettled country in Widdersdorf as if under a magnifying glass. What does the district say about Germany that seems agitated and upset, whether the question of who or what it wants to be. Home for everyone? Or just for the one who was born here? Cosmopolitan? Or a strong nation closing its borders? “Heimatland” leads to political Berlin, where the Ministry of Home Affairs has been providing answers for a year, to renowned experts. Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State, who once fled from the Nazis, says: Germany has always been a reliable partner. Now look at the countryside and hope that people would answer all these questions wisely. “We all want to know in which direction Germany is heading. We live in a complicated time that could be a crossroads.

To be seen at: Das Erste,Youtube
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Production: btf GmbH, WDR, ARD
Directed by Michael Schmitt, Julia Friedrichs, Fabienne Hurst, Sara Lienemann, Eva Müller, Nora Nagel, Andreas Spinrath, Kevin Brüssel
Screenplay: Julia Friedrichs, Leonie Heling, Fabienne Hurst, Sara Lienemann, Eva Müller, Nora Nagel, Michael Schmitt
Camera: Nicolai Mehring, Johannes Obermaier, Sebastian Fred Schirmer
Music: Lorenz Rhode, Florian Zenker
Editing: Elisabeth Raßbach
Color grading: Fridolin Körner

Length: 69 min