How often do you cross the border? About three to four times per week. I live in the Jekerdal valley and often go for evening bike rides taking me through Kanne and Barchon. Sometimes I travel to Luxembourg for work, or I’ll nip over to Germany to buy bread – I’m German, after all, and we prefer our own bread. It doesn’t really feel like going abroad, though. The EU feels like home to me, although less so since the German police reintroduced border checks.
What’s on your bedside table? Cycling route guides. We recently spent four weeks cycling from Venice to Trieste – in stages, of course, and sometimes taking the train. I enjoy reading up afterwards on the villages we passed through.
What news makes you angry? Oh, where to begin? The other day I was angered by some thoughtless comments the German Chancellor made about the conflict between Israel and Iran. He claimed that, under international law, Israel had the right to attack Iran in self-defence. That’s simply not true. I’ve just read three articles by professors arguing the opposite.
Favourite film? Before the Rain by Macedonian director Milčo Mančevski. It’s set in Macedonia during the armed conflict between the Albanian and Slavic populations. The timeline is nonlinear, with the ending circling back to the beginning – it’s very cleverly done. And the landscapes are stunning, beautifully filmed.
"My children had it very tough – we never flew anywhere for holidays"
Is there anything you’ve done that you wouldn’t let your children do? [Winks] My children had it very tough – we never flew anywhere for holidays. That’s what happens when your dad’s a climate fanatic. Even now, in their twenties, they still don’t travel by plane. It’s not easy, though, when everyone around you does. Even here at UM, work trips are often made by plane. We once proposed that any trip under 8 hours should be made by train. But then came the excuses: it’s too expensive, does it really make an impact, is it safe? There’s a deeply ingrained belief that you have to be able to get to a conference quickly.
If you could change one rule for cross-border workers, what would it be? I’d simplify the rules around social security and taxation for cross-border workers who work from home. This has been a focus for us at ITEM as well. The current rules are incredibly complex due to double tax conventions and differences in national regulations.
"Now I live in another country, but I’m not sure it makes much of a difference"
What were you like as a child? Quite ordinary and average. I grew up in a small village of around 2,500 people in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, where the Black Forest is located. I had a happy childhood. I didn’t necessarily want to leave, but there were no job opportunities for EU experts. Now I live in another country, but I’m not sure it makes much of a difference. I think the real divide is between village and city life. My brother and sister both live in Berlin, which feels like a completely different world from our hometown – possibly even more so than Maastricht does. It takes 45 minutes to get from my brother’s to my sister’s house in Berlin. From Maastricht, that would take you all the way to Liège or Aachen.
What would you like to do again? A cycling holiday like the one we did in May. It was our first time doing something like that – it must be the Dutch influence – and I wish we’d started earlier. It was fantastic, not just the trip itself but also the spontaneous aspect of it. If we liked a place, we’d just decide to get a hotel there.
Do you ever pray? No. I was an altar boy as a child, and I’m culturally Catholic, but I don’t believe anymore. I do think it’s important to know what a religion involves; it helps you decide whether it’s for you. Some people become more religious as they age, but my mother became more critical, partly because of what she saw in the village – the role of the local priest and the power he claimed for himself. It wasn’t right.
"I feel most German when I do everyday things like eating German bread or watching Tagesshau"
My partner can’t stand it when I… load the dishwasher the wrong way.
I feel most German when… I do everyday things like eating German bread or watching Tagesschau instead of the Dutch eight o’clock news. That’s how it is for many immigrants – you continue living in two worlds.
In ten years… I’ll be retired, I’m afraid, but I doubt I’ll be sitting around doing nothing. There’s still a lot for us to do as citizens when it comes to things like the EU, the climate, democracy. How do you engage the silent majority in politics? How do you communicate what the EU stands for, or that having open borders is a good thing? Cross-border regions seem to have very little lobbying power. These German border checks are terrible for the region, but we couldn’t prevent them from being reintroduced. There’s still plenty of work to be done. Will I still be living in Maastricht? Most likely, though perhaps with a holiday home in Baden-Württemberg.