By Nina Heisel, Publishing Manager, German speaking territories, Cologne, 14 September 2004

I’ve been back in Germany for just over a year now, and in our newly opened Cologne office for just over a month.

Until recently our department was spread out, with the main team in our head office in London, my colleague Isabelle Helle working from home in Bonn and me sharing an office with journalists from BBC World and The Guardian in Berlin.

As much as I miss Berlin and my colleagues there, I enjoy being in a small, dynamic office in a geographically strategic position.

Cologne is well known for its ‘Rheinischen humour’ and during the carnival season it is one of Germany’s craziest cities.

Germans are supposed to be organised, serious and just not funny, but in February you can walk into your local bank and see everyone dressed as garden gnomes, offering you a glass of Kölsch.

The ‘season’ starts on November 11 but the real carnival with the processions is in February.

Wearing leather pants

From Carnival Thursday until the next Wednesday offices are closed and it is impossible to get hold of anyone – they are all in the pubs drinking and singing.

Unfortunately, every year Carnival coincides with 'Showcase', the TV screening event in Brighton. And every time WDR, one of our main clients, refuses to attend on all days so they don’t miss the special season in Cologne.

Munich’s Oktoberfest is further proof that it’s not all serious in Germany.

I used to think that only foreigners enjoyed this rather dull sounding celebration, at which litres of draught beer are consumed and pork knuckles eaten. All the years I lived in London I refused to join my friends who flew to Germany for Oktoberfest.

I believed Munich people avoided it until this year when I received an invite. Business people felt neither embarrassed to be wearing leather pants nor to dance drunkenly on the tables, together with Japanese, Americans, Italians – and the locals.

When I moved from London to Berlin in 2003 to be closer to the market and our publishing partners, BBC World offered me a desk in its office in Berlin Mitte, opposite the famous Charite hospital.

Cocktails on the River Rhine

On my second day a bus was hijacked nearby, cameramen ran in and out of the office, and there was chaos. Luckily the bus was soon freed and the hijacker arrested.

This is my second stint in Cologne (I also lived here before I moved to London), and my new environment is different from Berlin. Two new people join this month, but at the moment just two of us share an office with a view of the ‘Mediapark’, in which we are situated.

Germany has changed since I left in 2000 and has been hit hard by the economic situation. Many publishers have disappeared, and both the music and advertising sectors – and with that the magazine market – have had bad times.

But our TV business has been stable. Actually it has increased, with factual programmes becoming hit sellers.

Now it seems the markets are recovering. Almost all our key clients attended a cocktail party on the River Rhine to celebrate the opening of our new office.

It felt like people were more positive again and more proactive.

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