Hi everyone!
My name is Alex, I'm originally from Cologne in western Germany, but travelled a lot in the recent past. I studied social sciences with different Erasmus Stays abroad (France, Greece, Spain) and became especially interested in political philosophy and critical thinking.
Therefore I also try to see the world and the people I meet on Couchsurfing as a helpful guide to exchange ideas to live better and to make the world a better place.

Interests

Philosophy, Cycling, Languages, alternative ways of living besides being stuck in a office job pushing numbers, I’m also a absolute cat lover :)
I had serious ambition to move to France in the past, not only because the language is appealing but also because their attitude about work, pleasure and authorities is more progressive than in Germany in my point of view.

• politics
• reading
• english
• friends
• learning languages
• sustainability
• french

Music, Movies, and Books

I’m not really à film person, but I like stories which promote critical thinking about the world.

I can recommend you some podcast I listened to ;)

As previously mentioned I’m interested in social sciences and philosophy; to be more precise an interdisciplinary attempt to detect hidden structures of power in modern societies:

My personal selection,

Dialectic of enlightenment; Theodor W.Adorno, Max Horkheimer (1944/1947)

Minima Moralia: Theodor W. Adorno (1951)

The meaning of Herbert Marcuse, Robert Marks

There is more I could recommend if u also speak German.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I slept multiple times on the beach with stars in the sky in Mediterranean regions, cycled to the Dutch coast with friends in 2015 and hitchhiked in many different countries

Starting in April 2025 i started cycling around the Baltic Sea by myself, crossing 6 different countries until July 2025. In the wildness of Scandinavia i saw mooses, toxic snakes, deers and foxes, slept outside in wooden shelters and was impressed many times by wide untouched nature. Things weren’t always easy far away from home in regions with super low population density, but meeting new people along the round helped to charge the social battery.

Teach, Learn, Share

Three short facts:

1) I banned all sorts of social media like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube successfully from my phone. Social media might be the biggest scams in modern society, they waste a huge amount of time and dont create long term gratification.

2) Italien cuisine, their sense of aesthetics in fashion and architecture as well as the Mediterranean vibe of spending a lot of time outside with your friends in every generation are highly attractive to me; unfortunately I don’t speak Italien though :/

3) the purpose of capitalism isn’t the satisfaction of human needs, but the accumulation of abstract capital. people are forced to produce to much bullshit no one needs, which harm characters as well as human relationships in ways which aren’t always visible. Maintaining the capacity to distinguish between what is important and what can be ignored shouldn’t be underestimated.

„Once the wrong one has been determined, it is already the way to something better.“ (TWA)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Germany, Greece, Spain