Ein Wohnzimmer

Although I never wanted to live on my own, for the past year I’ve been renting a small, 20-square-metre flat. I had to move out of my previous flatshare because the owner wanted to move in themselves, and this tiny studio was the only option I could afford in Munich.

I’m the child of immigrants; for the first two and a half years after moving to Germany, I lived with my parents in a 32-square-metre flat. Even after that, I never had enough space in my living quarters to invite groups over. I was always the guest, never the host. It wasn’t until I moved into my previous flatshare, where we actually had a shared living room, that I could throw parties, arrange gatherings and finally be a host myself and create a sense of community. But, in my new flat, that’s impossible again: the place is far too small for people to gather.

I’ve tried to find other places – outside in nature, in bars or cafés – but those are too expensive to be long-term solutions. In addition, such venues aren’t really ‘mine’ because I’m still a guest in them myself. Since I last moved, my circle of friends, which was never particularly tight to begin with, feels even more scattered. It’s as if the loss of that living room, a central meeting place which stood for ‘my community’ – for my friends and me – has caused that sense of community to vanish.