Ein inklusiver Bauernhof für kranke Kinder und ihre Familien

What does “unter Strom stehen” mean in German?

Describing parents of seriously ill children, this farm’s founder says they are sehr angespannt und stehen unter Strom — “very tense and under a lot of pressure.” Unter Strom stehen literally means “to stand under (electrical) current,” the same phrase used for a live wire. Applied to a person, it vividly captures being wound up, wired, and running on adrenaline rather than rest.

The electrical metaphor runs both ways in German: jemanden unter Strom setzen means “to get someone worked up,” while the calmer opposite is entspannt sein (“to be relaxed,” literally “un-tensed”). Here, the farm exists precisely to let those “live-wire” parents hand their children’s care over for a while and, for once, switch off.