"My favourite place is the Johannisthal Landscape Park. There I can find peace and quiet and let my gaze wander into the distance. In spring, I smell the lilac hedge of the roller skating rink. In summer, I like to hear the sheep bleating or enjoy beautiful sunsets. When I need companionship, as it was sometimes the case during the Corona period, I go to the park in the afternoon to see funny dogs, compare jogging styles and watch the lively children in the playgrounds. When the other walkers...

My father came to Germany first and we stayed back. He was afraid that something would happen to us at sea and we would die. He said he would go first, as a victim so to speak, and see what it was like. And he almost died in the sea, but he tried again and made it in the end. With the rubber dinghy. Actually, a maximum of 20 people fit in it, but they put 50 people anyways. And that's when bad things happen and people die. He then said to us, "No, you won't come like that. I'll get you with...

This is the second column by Noor Badshah Yousafzai My heart aches all the time at the helplessness of an Afghan woman who was born in Afghanistan, grew up in the dust, never slept in an air-conditioned room, never slept in a soft bed, never had a good meal, no clean water, no good shoes, no good clothes, no adequate health or education! Love and happiness are not part of the fate of Afghan women. Early marriage, early motherhood and lack of education are commonplace for an Afghan woman....

At the beginning I actually hated myself, I didn't want to stay here, I just wanted to go back. I don't know anyone here, I can't speak the language. When I speak to people in English, they say "Hello! This is Germany. Speak German!". It was all quite stupid somehow. A whole new life. I felt different somehow, I don't belong here, you know. I just want to go back. To be honest, there were also a lot of racist people who said stuff to me. For example, after I learned the language, I think it was...

Last winter was stressful and cold for me: rain all day long for weeks, no sun, stormy weather and there were always dark clouds in the sky. All this took a lot out of me. Whenever I checked the weather on my phone, the app showed me a long list of rainy days. No sun, no glimps of hope!Sometimes I got angry at nature. Why wasn't there sunshine every day instead...I wished the situation had been reversed.There was a time when I lived in Karachi (Pakistan). There it was sunny and hot all the...

I come from Afghanistan. Germany has been a hope for me, for my health, dreams and a safe life. I have never been so accepted by a person as I was by my "grandma", whom I was lucky enough to meet in a refugee home. We had Christmas time then and all the children got presents. Unfortunately, my present was stolen and grandma saw me crying and looking for my present. Then she tried to help me and brought me a new present the very next day. She took me in like her own granddaughter and made me the...