Heimat, German Word, Home, Homeland Holiday Postcard

Why can’t we just translate Heimat as ‘homeland’? Because one’s Heimat is not necessarily their homeland – it’s not even necessarily a country. It can refer to a specific region, city or county. Heimat is the place where you feel the most at home, and that could be the place you grew up in, or it could be somewhere you have lived for a long time. The concept of Heimat seems to be a very emotional one; it is more about feeling at home than being in your physical home. Max Frisch, the famous German playwright, claimed that the word Heimat was unübersetzbar – untranslatable.