Where many people live in one place, that place is easy to see.

There are tall buildings, interchanges, TV towers and lights in the night.

Large dots mark cities on the map.

They say: what lies here is important.

And that's how many townspeople talk.

But many people live in many small places.

As a result, they can only be seen on closer inspection.

It is particularly worth looking at in the west.

The cities are close together there, Dortmund, Essen, Cologne, Düsseldorf, and they grow into the surrounding area.

Lots of big dots on the map.

Anyone who still keeps their distance wants it that way.

He is not left behind, not forgotten, but deliberately in the village.

Such a village is in the far west, even more west than Aachen, in the municipality of Selfkant.

It is not even four hundred inhabitants strong:

Friederike Haupt

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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The village of Isenbruch stretches out under a flat sky as if under a blanket.

All around are flat fields, emerald green corn, golden yellow stubble of wheat that has already been mown.

White and brown cows look after cyclists.

Cyclists look after cyclists.

The joys of life only quietly advertise themselves.

In the well-groomed gardens the apples are already turning red, and on the walls of some houses dots of sunlight cast by the water in the swimming pools dance.

But soon it will be loud for a few days.

Then there is the summer fair.

Cast-iron stands await on flagpoles in the front gardens, and the marquee at the entrance to the village has been resplendent for a few hours.

In front of them two men who are more important here than Chancellor and Federal President: Schützenkönig Thorsten and Schützenbrüder Jens.

Jens has cycled here

Jens was born here.

Thorsten was born somewhere else, but he married Birgit, who was born here, and has honestly earned the trust of the local people with plenty of beer, which he has donated over the years, and his football coaching charm.

Incidentally, he is also a real football coach, on a voluntary basis, and football watcher, of course, yes, also women's football.

He watched the EM final with Birgit and her eleven-year-old son, but only the first half, then they were invited to people's homes.

There's always something going on.

Like Jens, Thorsten is a member of various village Whatsapp groups.

One, for example, is from the Schöttehuus, that's the name of the Schützenhaus in Platt, which the younger ones also speak here.

Another group is currently preparing the highlight of the summer fair, the so-called Klumpeball.

Klumpen are the clogs you know from the Netherlands, and the Netherlands begins right behind the village.

In any case, thirty or forty villagers meet before the lump ball and paint their lumps together, in which they then go dancing in the marquee.

Every year there is a motto, this time "Sunshine Reggae".

Don't worry, don't hurry, take it easy.

Fits here quite well.