Barcelona on the Costa Brava is rightly regarded by many holidaymakers, business travellers and locals as the most beautiful city in Europe and perhaps the world. It is the centre of the region seeking independence, Catalonia (Catalunya), and the cultural as well as political hub of northern Spain. Open-minded, colourful, a cultural and fashion mecca. As a major intra-Spanish rival to Madrid, the people of Barcelona like to see themselves as a counterpoint where many opinions in Spain clash. The Catalonia region also often does not feel like Spain, as the constant demonstrations in the capital Barcelona demonstrate. Some traditionally Spanish practices such as bullfighting are now even illegal here.
Many Germans, Austrians and Swiss are drawn to Barcelona — whether for a semester abroad, business trips, holidays or permanent residence. The city even hosts a German school where the Abitur can be gained according to the German curriculum. Accordingly, German-speaking clients occasionally look for a German-speaking detective in Barcelona. At Kurtz Detective Agency, in addition to the proprietor Patrick Kurtz, two other detectives work in our partner office in Barcelona; they know the city inside out, maintain contacts with locals and speak Spanish. We are happy to make this expertise available to you if you are seeking reliable detectives in Barcelona for private investigations: +49 221 4558 0377.
With over 1.6 million inhabitants in the city and almost 5 million in the entire metropolitan region, Barcelona is not among the world’s super-metropolises, yet nowhere else in Europe — except perhaps Paris — displays such a high population density. Catalonia, alongside the Basque Country and Galicia, is one of the three historically autonomous regions of the Spanish state, which does not change the fact that it must make significant internal redistribution payments within the solidarity community to support economically weaker regions (similar to the German Länder financial equalisation). Until the Catalonia conflict of 2017 — an episode marked by numerous false reports and misjudgements — highly industrialised Catalonia was the economically strongest region of Spain, which is why our corporate detectives are occasionally engaged for business-related investigations in Barcelona. The redistribution payments required are certainly a major reason for the considerable number of inhabitants in the region who favour independence from Spain.
Catalonia’s cultural identity and particularly Barcelona’s suffered greatly under Franco’s dictatorship (1939–1975), which banned the Catalan language and generally repressed the Catalans — a retaliatory measure by Franco for the resistance to his coup in Barcelona. After Franco’s death and the introduction of democratic structures, Catalonia recovered remarkably quickly from cultural suppression and promptly reasserted its own identity. Catalan has returned to education and politics, and in everyday life it never truly disappeared. Many Catalans view the region as a distinct nation and demonstrations for independence occur regularly. The city is proud of its Modernisme-influenced architecture, notably the partly brilliant and in any case highly extraordinary works of Antoni Gaudí.
In Germany there is a fairly positively toned stereotype of the proud Spaniard. The Catalans are certainly a proud people as well, and this aspect should definitely be taken into account by locally knowledgeable detectives when conducting investigations.