Sun and beach chairs covered with sand.
Behind the scenes of Norderney Germany’s East Frisian island of Norderney is looking for a new island blogger. Sounds tempting! But what really motivates young people to move to an island with 6,000 residents, four hours’ drive away from a town with more than 100,000 inhabitants? Discover Germany asked the vacating blogger and some of his possible successors. TEXT: HANNAH KROLLE I PHOTOS: DIEKE GÜNTHER
'One island. 52 weeks. Countless moments of happiness. Blog about Norderney!' With these words, the 'Staatsbad' of Norderney attracted 335 applicants from all over the world to become the future blogger of the island. Equipped with a camera, pocket money and an apartment, the winner moves to the East Frisian island for a year and blogs about his experiences during a parachute jump, a wellness treatment or water sports. Establish contacts, make friends and do a lot of sport – these were Dieke Günther’s personal resolutions when he started 64 | Issue 78 | September 2019
his year as the blogger of Norderney. At the time, he was 18 years old and had just graduated from high school. Having grown up in Südbrokmerland, a municipality on the North Sea coast, Dieke first got acquainted with the place, which would become his future home, on a school trip. Speaking the local accent himself, he applied with a video message and succeeded in asserting himself against 70 competitors. Soon after, the young man found himself living on the island and starting to write his blog. In simple, catchy words and with the help of appealing pictures, he describes his
feelings during a mud treatment in the local thermal bath, the breathtaking view over the island during a parachute jump, or the easiest way to cover beach chairs. Each entry starts with the slogan “He! Ik bün't, Dieke!”, which means “Hey, it's me, Dieke!” in the typical North German dialect. Dieke ends his job this summer and the Staatsbad is in search of a successor. The 12-member headed team of the editorial department of Checkpoint Berlin, a satirical newsletter of the Tagesspiegel, about Berlin politics, economy and society, applied to become Norderney's future blogger with a song. A cup of coffee in hands, sunglasses on and accompanied by cello and guitar, they sing: 'Wir kapern jetzt Norderney, Berliner Schnauze dabei, wir drehen jedes Sandkorn um, wir schnüffeln dann im Rathaus herum' ('We're capturing Norderney, Berlin muz-