It's not just tiredness when Iris Roth and Til Assmann meet for a second video call at the end of May.

It's a déjà-vu: summer is just around the corner, the number of infections is falling and Germany is slowly returning from lockdown - and yet there is a leaden veil over it all, a now well-known uncertainty that leaves a question mark behind any plans puts.

Simon Hüsgen

Editor on duty at FAZ.NET.

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    The 53-year-old from Bremen and 59-year-old from Frankfurt met for the first time in May 2020 as part of “Germany speaks”. At that time, the corona pandemic only hit the country about two months ago. Seven days earlier, Germany had returned from the first lockdown with the opening of hairdressing salons and schools, and one day after the conversation the first restaurants and bars opened again. The mask requirement in shops and local public transport was only a few weeks old and the federal government was fighting for the implementation of the Corona warning app. At the same time, the pictures from Bergamo, which was particularly hard hit by the pandemic, where trucks were carrying away the coffins of Covid dead, were present in almost every discussion.

    The coronavirus was also the dominant topic in the “Germany speaks” debate in spring 2020; all seven questions that the applicants had answered in advance dealt with the effects of the pandemic and its political consequences. Roth and Assmann found each other because their answers to this questionnaire were completely contrary to each other. But even during the conversation at that time it became clear that the opposition of the discussants did not go as deep as their answers suggested. Difficult questions on complex topics can hardly be answered with yes or no, was the conclusion of the one and a half hour conversation at the time. And: "Before the pandemic, we were too tired, too fat, too full to react quickly and correctly"

    So what remains after a year of pandemic?

    How has the view of the consequences and management of the crisis changed at the time?

    And did the pandemic actually open up opportunities, as Assmann hoped last year?

    "You can quickly get lost in these restrictions"

    As for so many, it was an exhausting year, explains Roth right from the start. “It takes a lot more organization and initiative. You can quickly get lost in these restrictions, ”says the Frankfurt resident, describing the challenges of the past twelve months. She herself got through the pandemic year reasonably well, but she had the impression that many people had fears that were deeper than the mere fear of being infected with the virus. She has the feeling "that Corona has shaken the basic trust of many people in the personal and perhaps even existential areas," says the psychotherapist. And that although most people in Germany were still well cushioned.