Everyone lives - everywhere in the world and in their own way. Housing is a basic need and also touches on issues of economics, culture, architecture, politics and sometimes even literature. Doris Dörrie's book "Wohnen" has now made it onto the Spiegel bestseller list.
Most people in Germany are not indifferent to how they live. It's usually not just about practical aspects such as apartment size, location, rent or purchase price, number of rooms, balcony or terrace, surroundings, neighbors, etc. Your own space for development and design is particularly protected, the most private space of all.
Everyone could probably tell us something about their own home that goes far beyond the practical. "Doris Dörrie, the celebrated filmmaker and author, recounts her life as a dweller and asks how and with whom we want to live - an infinite variety of living opens up". This is what Hanser Verlag, the publisher of the book, writes on its website. Anyone who, like Doris Dörrie, has developed a special eye for space in the search for suitable locations knows what effect spaces can have: They can express freedom and peacefulness or constrict and oppress.
Hanser Verlag writes: "Doris Dörrie is an unwilling dweller. She never wanted to settle down, establish herself, put down roots. (...) And in her work as a filmmaker, she becomes an expert in the creation of artificial living environments". One question keeps coming up for Dörrie: "Where has the space for women actually gone in all these houses and apartments? Could it be that the housewife has become just a woman in a house with others? Doris Dörrie is determined: "She wants to find her very own way of living". When asked what is more important, living or living, the author replies: "For me, there is no life without living. Not living means being unhoused and unprotected".
The book was published as a hardcover by Hanser Berlin on April 15, 2025, has a manageable 128 pages (ISBN 978-3-446-27963-6), costs 20.00 euros and is highly recommended - also as a gift!
Photo: © Gregor Quendel, Pixabay
