Fruits and vegetables, tomatoes and cucumbers. Anita and Jürgen Dietz don’t have great expectations when it comes to their weekly shopping. The budget of German emigrants in Antalya on the Turkish Mediterranean coast is extremely small. They want to spend the equivalent of six euros on their food for the entire week. At the bazaar, mind you.

Inflation in Turkey has made an ordinary supermarket unaffordable for the 71-year-old and her husband, who is one year older than her.

“Now you can say: These are German prices”

The reason is Turkish hyperinflation, as the two pensioners in the current issue of “Goodbye Germany!” (VOX) explain.

Health insurance, electricity and water costs, medicine prices, rents – everything is rising, every week. It’s now so extreme “that you can say these are German prices,” complains Anita. “But our pension doesn’t increase.” This amounts to 1,500 euros for both of them and is transferred from Germany.

“It’s no longer the life we ​​had”

“If you think about it – making compromises in every way at that age: then I don’t know why we came here. It’s no longer the life we ​​had.”

In front of the VOX camera, tears come to the eyes of the pensioner from the Fichtelgebirge several times – as does her husband.

For the son of the “Goodbye Germany!” couple, Germany is “like Mordor”

15 years ago the couple decided to emigrate to Turkey. Jürgen had lost his job as a lecturer in media design and had the idea of ​​working as an action tour guide for adventurous tourists. For a long time this resulted in a good extra income for the small pension.

But at 72, the hardened emigrant is not only reaching his physical limits in the speedboat. In 2014 he survived a heart attack.

“Back to Germany, Hartz IV, prefabricated housing?”

In front of the “Goodbye Germany!” cameras, son Andreas arrives for a crisis discussion. The 53-year-old works as a call center agent in Antalya and can only afford a room in a shared apartment. However, he believes that his parents are thinking about returning is fundamentally wrong: “What would be the alternative?” he asks. “Back to Germany, Hartz IV, prefabricated housing?”

He has concerns “that they will die over there.” For him, his foreign homeland is “like Mordor” – “an absolute no-go”. He would rather live in a trailer on an olive plantation “than have to go over there.”

“We’re not the youngest anymore. We’ve built a life here”

For dad Jürgen, moving to Germany would also be “the worst case,” as he admits. “We are anchored here,” confirms Anita – and yet she knows: “There has to be a change. We won’t have any other choice… that’s difficult,” her voice falters.

“We’re not the youngest anymore. People have built a life here.” They came with an inflatable bed, a table and two chairs. “Do you start all over again when you’re over 70? I don’t know.”

“We know that we are protected for two years”

There is positive news from the German landlady. They want to contractually fix the barely bearable rent increase of 50 euros for two years. A kind of grace period for the retired couple: “We know that we are protected for two years.”

But the worries remain, as Anita makes clear at the end of the report: Antalya has become her home. “The thought that we have to leave here for some reason really hurts.”