Together with a friend, the young woman, who will soon be of age, walks from the train station in Bad Nauheim in the direction of the ice rink.

Both are looking forward to the ice hockey game against Regensburg.

But on the dark path through the park next to the Great Pond, a queasy feeling creeps up on her.

On the way back after the game, the two have a similar experience, although there are hundreds of fans on the way.

The few lanterns hardly illuminate the path.

In addition, the two have in mind the fights instigated by hooligans from the Eintracht Frankfurt environment after an ice hockey game shortly before Christmas.

Thorsten Winter

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for central Hesse and the Wetterau.

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At a traffic light, they meet two guys in dark clothes.

Maybe nice guys.

Who knows.

"Come on, let's go to the other side," says one woman to her friend.

The basically self-confident and not very fearful young women cross the street.

Back at the train station, her mood darkens again.

Shortly after 10 p.m., they find the building brightly lit, but also locked.

They only find their way to the tracks because they happen to be able to ask someone for directions.

"Feeling of security affects behavior"

The two young ice hockey fans share such experiences with many other people in the Wetterau.

On the one hand, this is shown by a study by the Justus Liebig University in Giessen on the subject of “places of fear” for the city of Bad Nauheim.

The most recent meeting of members of the District Prevention Council produced a similar finding, as reported from the District House in Friedberg.

The head of the public order office in Bad Vilbel reported there, referring to surveys, that people most often perceive the train stations and underpasses as well as parks as unsafe.

According to the police, violence or other assaults do not occur very often there.

But whether people feel safe on the streets, squares and green spaces of a city does not only depend on the actual crime rate in the respective location and the risk of becoming a victim.

Everyone's sense of security plays an important role.

"Our own sense of security affects our habits and our behavior," says the Marburg social psychologist Johannes Maaser.

According to the psychologist Anna Wickenkamp, ​​women in particular report feeling unsafe in public spaces and therefore even choose other ways to avoid areas that are perceived as unsafe.

The fact that cities and municipalities illuminate the streets less than usual and not as brightly due to high energy prices reinforces the tendency to be more cautious.

The district's women's representative, Kornelia Schäfer, also demands lanterns for footpaths and not just for streets.

Your colleague Maaser suggests creating community gardens in parks.

They could also ensure more activity in the evening hours.

For District Administrator Jan Weckler (CDU), the sense of security also has a political component: those who feel insecure are more susceptible to statements by populists who provide seemingly simple solutions to difficult questions.

Fewer crimes than the country average

Bad Nauheim's head of public order, Peter Krank (independent), sees a correlation: "Anxious places are more likely to be affected by vandalism and littering, which in turn leads to a higher personal feeling of insecurity." Statistically, however, the personal sense of security differs significantly from the actual crime rate in such places.

In the spa town, the police recorded fewer crimes than the average in the country - but this is not reflected in the sense of security of many young people and adults.

The study by the University of Giessen shows which places in Bad Nauheim citizens perceive as unsafe.

The researchers wrote to 3,800 people aged at least 14 who had their first or second seat in the city and received 876 replies.

40 citizens named the Kurpark as a place where they felt unsafe in the dark, 39 the train station and 29 the market square.

Just under two-thirds of those who felt safe in their neighborhood during the day said they felt the same way at night.

As a result, the city will improve the lighting - taking into account resources, i.e. energy and money.

As a spokeswoman adds, half of those surveyed are bothered by aggressive drivers, not least the car posers.

According to Krank, the city wants to remedy the situation with noise sensors on streets, among other things.

In the future, sensors will alert the security police or the police in the event of excessive noise.

Other sensors should report overfull garbage cans in parks or help the municipality to better control traffic.

In terms of digitization, Bad Nauheim is significantly further than the other larger municipalities in the Wetterau, as can be seen from the latest smart city ranking list by the management consultancy Haselhorst.

There, the spa town also performs better than Frankfurt.