Book reading "Einfach losgehn!" with NDR reporter Heike Götz

Heike Götz, known to many as the NDR presenter of "Landpartie", has been going on pilgrimages with her husband for years - in Spain, Germany and Japan. Slowly discovering her own homeland on foot is particularly close to her heart. She comes from Grimmen, lives in Hamburg, and the Via Baltica, a North German Way of St. James from Usedom to Bremen, runs through both cities.

She has walked this 600-kilometre route both for the NDR show "Pilgern im Norden" and privately. In her book, she describes this route in a very personal and authentic way: through Hanseatic Cities of Greifswald, Rostock, Wismar, Lübeck and Hamburg as well as through the varied nature of northern Germany.

Pilgrims are currently experiencing a renaissance. In addition to a spiritual search for meaning, many people are motivated by a thirst for adventure, simplicity, sporting appeal or the desire to rediscover their own homeland - intensified by corona, climate change and the need for a simpler lifestyle.

The Via Baltica is a newly marked, historically inspired path that is maintained by volunteers and supported by numerous pilgrim accommodations. Götz describes pilgrimage as a project of the heart, characterized by encounters, hospitality and the reduced life out of a rucksack. Her travelogue invites you to get to know northern Germany in a new way or to recall your own pilgrimage memories.