Meet Frank Vogel from SHAPE's Military Police. We asked him a few questions about his country and about Germany's National Day.

Read his answers below:

1. What do you miss most about home?

I would have to say my family. Due to the COVID 19 Pandemic, I had to comply with a variety of constantly changing travel regulations. These regulations made it very difficult to visit friends and family, even though my travelling distance is very short in comparison with other nations.

2. What have you found rewarding about working in such a multinational environment as SHAPE?

My assignment to SHAPE has not been my first experience working within an multinational environment. That said, it still is a great opportunity to exchange experiences, cultural diversities and expertise among my fellow multinational comrades. Simultaneously, one of the most rewarding parts, is the opportunity to gain friends among the multinational community. As a person who was raised tri-lingual, the experiences made at SHAPE prove to me again that language remains the key to opening doors and to establish relations.

Something really interesting and common I had to learn, was the fact that many people out of our multinational community associate typical Bavarian traditions, delicacies and clothing with Germany. For fact, traditional clothing like the famous "Lederhose" and the "Dirndl" ( female equivalent), have their origin in southern Germany and are less common in the other parts of Germany. Germany has enormous domestic diversity, with many different traditions, cultural aspects and dialects which are not associated with the Bavarian tradition at all.

Germany, in many ways, has a very different but unique commemorative mentality. Therefore, at least talking for myself and my family, we would not really plan a special way to celebrate this national holiday, we choose to enjoy it as an additional day to recover. Nevertheless, this is not meant as a discretisation of our national holiday. The German people are very well aware of the importance of this day and the impact the events had for our country, which occurred more than 30 years ago. The reunification of our country gave many Germans back their freedom, dignity and identity. For many families, the reunification of Germany was also a reunification with loved ones and family members, which they had not seen for many years.