“BoCHUM” is ultimately a tribute to my adopted home town. Beginning with the lyrics of Herbert Grönemeyer’s 1984 cult song “Bochum”, a concise list of events and places that are more than worth visiting follows and ends with an appreciation of the city and its people before the text repeats itself in the opposite direction. The red outline of the city and the stylized miner ‘reinforce’ the theme and the final syllable ‘chum’ (British English) emphasized in the title, which in German colloquially means something like ‘Kumpel’, ‘Spezi’ or ‘Kamerad’ (equivalent to the American ‘buddy’), underlines my appreciation.

Bochum English lyrics
Sun still fighting through smoke and steam. Life here’s better than you could ever dream. Life here’s better, life here’s better.

I know you’re no beauty, for work’s lined your face. You don’t like wearing make-up, you’re an honest place where the human race isn’t always in competition. Your heartbeat’s of metall, it hammers out through the night. The foundation of prosperity, you’re a working town. Don’t let them put you down, you bloom in your own way.

Bochum I call you home, Bochum you’re in my bones, oh, Glück auf—my home.

You’re not a neon playground, there are no fashion shows here. You’re not a postcard for the tourists, here it’s the heart that counts, not the size of the bank accounts, you’ve never sold yourself away.

Bochum I call you home, Bochum you’re in my bones, oh, Glück auf—my home.

May your smile shine on forever through the cold dust it gleams, be proud of your tiny gardens, proud of your traffic lights, proud of your chimmney stacks, proud of your football team.