Once our former foreign minister asked me: What would one actually consider as Willkommenskultur? I thought: he is a really smart and thoughtful person and he has seen the world, so what can I say?
I recalled a situation a few years ago when I arrived at the airport. I don’t remember why I landed at the Frankfurt airport. Usually I don’t have much to do there, and actually my only relationship to this city is, that I was born there, but don’t remember anything. We moved from there when I was two years old.
When I showed my passport to the border guard he took a brief look at it and said in his regional dialect: Welcome home!
I was pleasantly surprised. No one said that to me before, and I don’t speak this dialect either.
He made me smile. It was nice. For me, and I think for the border guard and our foreign minister as well.