{"id":75378,"date":"2025-06-03T08:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T06:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/?post_type=magazin&p=75378"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T16:24:52","slug":"night-time-in-the-village","status":"publish","type":"magazin","link":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/en\/magazine\/after-dark\/night-time-in-the-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Night-time in the village: shisha in the barn, joyrides through the middle of nowhere"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\n\tAfter dark<\/a><\/div>\r\n

\r\n Night-time in the village: shisha in the barn, joyrides through the middle of nowhere <\/h2>\r\n\r\n
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Where nothing seems to happen in the evening, yet everything does: young people in a village in Lower Saxony after dark.
\nBy Jonathan Bar-Am<\/a>, Annica-Farina Badowski<\/a> (text), Lena Kunz<\/a> (photos)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

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\u2018Nightlife here is just completely different from the city,\u2019<\/strong> says Lena. The 24-year-old student grew up in M\u00fcnchehagen, a small village between Hannover and Osnabr\u00fcck. \u2018There are no clubs or bars. We always met at the edge of the woods, in playgrounds or in someone\u2019s garden.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brick houses, paddocks, a McDonald\u2019s and yet more small brick houses. We are on our way to M\u00fcnchehagen to meet young people growing up in the countryside \u2013 just as Lena once did. For three villages and half an hour\u2019s drive we haven\u2019t seen a soul, and this on a Saturday evening. We drive past the \u2018Deutsche Eiche\u2019; the inn is dark. A few metres further on, the \u2018Deutsches Haus\u2019 \u2013 closed too. We park next to a tractor. Two more vintage tractors stand in the garage. The loft above is fitted out with a sofa corner, a minibar and a TV. On YouTube, tractors are pulling each other through a muddy field. \u2018That\u2019s just how it is here in the village!\u2019 We\u2019re greeted with laughter and offered a beer.

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The \u2018Schuppen\u2019 is a central meeting place<\/strong> for young adults in the village. Birthday parties and other parties are often held here at weekends.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n

\u2018We used to always look for somewhere,<\/strong> anywhere we could hang out \u2013 some bench or hut built out in the fields. Maybe you\u2019d have a little party or something, have a drink and a barbecue together. But now there\u2019s the Schuppen,\u2019 Jannik explains. A converted farm barn straight out of a picture book. That \u2018we did it all ourselves\u2019 shows \u2013 and not only in their proud faces. The table football, pool table and slot machine could indeed hold their own against any student pub in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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