Even if the case numbers are rising again at the moment: We soak up the convivial evenings in the restaurant, the inspiring concert visits and the garden parties at friends' houses like a dry sponge. For a long time we have longed for such experiences outside our four walls. For a long time, television, computer and mobile phone were our only windows to the outside world. During this time, reportages were particularly popular. They took us to places we could not visit ourselves. They let readers experience first-hand how a nurse looks after his Corona patients, how things are done in a vaccination centre or how a diving instructor keeps his head above water on a deserted beach in Thailand. Reportages let us feel the sweat under the nurse's protective clothing, let us eavesdrop on a banter between a civilian guard and an elderly vaccination volunteer and make us witness bitter tears that the diving instructor cries while selling his boat in hiding.

Nothing left to chance

Although the reportage is an informative text based on facts, it should also contain subjective perceptions of the author. Thorough preparation is needed to turn the experience report into a success story. If, for example, the focus is to be on a restaurant owner who is struggling with existential fears due to the lockdown, the question must be asked whether a walk through an empty restaurant is enough. Of course, it is symbolic when there is a thick layer of dust on the tables and the owner wistfully strokes the empty pots. But the reportage only becomes exciting when he brings out his bills that he can't pay or when a customer talks to the owner about old times. Such scenes should not be left to chance. At best, you ask the restaurant owner about unpaid bills in the preliminary conversation and stage an encounter with a regular customer. When visiting the restaurant, all the author's senses must be sharpened: What does the restaurant look like? What sounds does he perceive? Does it smell stale?

The suspense

The introduction to the reportage should arouse the reader's curiosity, for example with a quote: "'This silence breaks my heart,' sighs Max, owner of the restaurant 'Zum goldenen Esel'". Or with a particular scene: "Max enters the empty restaurant and lets his shoulders slump. He lets his gaze wander over the chairs perched seat-down on the tables, trying to drown out the uncomfortable silence with the clink of his keys." The core of the reportage sets out the background and facts surrounding the issue. How many restaurant owners feel the same way as Max? What support can they count on? A reportage often ends with a conclusion by the author, a look into the future or a reference to the beginning of the text: "As Max steps out of the silence of the restaurant, the sounds of traffic pelt him. He turns the key in the door lock, lets it disappear into his back pocket and tightens his shoulders. It's still there, the confidence that life will soon return to his restaurant."