Background - Life in the Black Forest

Living here in Freiburg, Germany (the capitol of the famous Black Forest) for about 10 years now, we have grown to love the city and the surrounding area. Freiburg is a good sized city with over 200,000 residents. But it still has a small-town feel to it - you walk through the city center on any gven day and most likely will meet somene you know. And of course you have to stop to chat.

Freiburg is at the foothills of the Black Forest, not far from the Rhine River. Half an hour's drive to the west, on the other side of the Rhine lies France. A little less than an hour's drive to the south and you're into Switzerland. Because Freiburg lies so far south, it has a fairly mild climate and is known as the warmest area in Germany. In fact Freiburg is also a big tourist attraction - for Germans as well as 'auslaender' - foreigners.

More than the surrounding, we have also grown attached to the people - Freiburg is a very international city, influenced heavily by the University and many institutions of higher education - music school, teachers' college, Evangelical College, Catholic College, etc. Over 30,000 students last time I heard. They come from all over the world to study at the Uni - from Asia, Africa, Canada, North & South America, even from Down Under.

There is a saying that the closer you get to Rome / Italy, the more relaxed the people are and the more Catholic also! And that is true of Freiburg (which is only a few hours away from Italy).

From what we heard from other Germans,

the Freiburgers are fairly relaxed (compared to northern Germans). And the Cathloic Church has a fairly strong presence here also, which is typical of Southern Germany. We even have a Catholic priest's seminary!

So that is a little background on Freiburg. In the next few weeks we'll add more background on the church, the Phamily and the ministries.

onHISturf

dvp