The couple from Buxtehude near Hamburg have their training and experience from the German healthcare system. But this is no obstacle to working in Denmark.
– I got my Danish authorization in December, and have already had clients here in my clinic, says the midwife, who is also trained in Chinese medicine, as a doula, massage therapist and soon reflexologist.
Work from home
Both she and Fabian have opted out of the busy healthcare system. They are private practitioners and both work from home in their own companies.
Right after moving to Denmark in 2021, they both started language school. Because even though German and Danish are related, it is not just the same as translating trade terms and entrepreneur language.
– The most difficult thing about starting up as a freelancer here in Lolland has clearly been the language. It is sometimes a bit difficult to understand what the bank means and what they need from documentation. But we have figured it out, says Anja Böckel, who runs the clinic “Anja’s Nest” at her home address in Vejleby in Lolland.
Danes are more laid-back
Otherwise, the married couple think it has been relatively easy to start up as entrepreneurs in the neighboring country.
– We like Denmark, and we like Lolland. People are a bit more “laid back” here than in Germany. It is not at all difficult to get into their lives, and it may well be in Northern Germany. It took me ten years to break down those walls, laughs Anja, who was born and raised in Koblenz in southwestern Germany.
There are no walls in Lolland, where the network has grown, and the Danish customers have already found their way to the clinic after a few months.
Clients in the international community
Anja Böckel hopes that it will also be possible to find customers in the international community, which is growing rapidly in Lolland these years.
– It’s good for my business. In Denmark, there is no tradition of having a private midwife before and after you have a child. But in other EU countries it is very common, she says.
Both Anja and Fabian are happy about the tunnel construction, which will now connect their new homeland with the old one.
It will happen in ten years
– It is so exciting, what will happen in just ten years with the connection. I hope it will develop Lolland very much in a positive direction. In any case, we are looking forward to it, because it will also make it easier for us to travel to Germany and have our children come here, says Anja, who has just had her first grandchild on the other side of the Fehmarn Belt.
The couple’s two children living at home have taken the move to Denmark in stride. The 17-year-old son wants to train as a carpenter, and the 13-year-old daughter goes to Lolland International School.
– It was absolutely perfect that it had started, just as we wanted to move to Denmark. It couldn’t get any better, says Anja Böckel.
