When young folk go out at night in Freiburg

Solidarity and sociability are the key things when young people go out of an evening in Freiburg. It is important to them that the city has attractive but affordable places for friends to meet no matter how late the hour. After the wish for more variety, nighttime security in Freiburg is the most important issue, especially for women. That means the assessment of how safe and reachable a place is are the determining factor in the decision to go to - or stay away from - places at night.

These are the most important findings to come out of an online survey of some 1600 young people by Professor Dr. Tim Freytag and his working group at the Institute of Environmental Social Sciences and Geography as part of the research project “Nacht-Orte” (nightspots). Along with Freiburg students at the university, the teachers’ college and other institutions, many young working people and job trainees, as well as senior high school students, answered the questionnaire.

“More than three-quarters of the respondents say they don’t go out of an evening more than once a week - and then, usually in a small group of three to six people,” Freytag says. They mostly go to bars and cafés, but clubs, discos, cinemas, event venues and restaurants are also popular locations. These young peoples’ evening activities are highly concentrated on the center of Freiburg and the adjoining districts.

There is to be a follow-up survey in June and July 2019. This way it will be possible to work out the typical patterns of young peoples’ evening activities in the winter and summer months and to focus more clearly on the use of public spaces in the evenings and at night.

Background information
The “Nacht-Orte” project is sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD); in it, Tim Freytag and his team of Human Geography researchers are collaborating with colleagues at the University of Montpellier III – Paul Valéry in France. Both cities are conducting research into popular nighttime locations and how cities promote nighttime activities. The project ends on 31 December 2019.