How to config nikoa for multi-lingual websites

I love the python programming language, and i really like static site generators, but nikola, the static site generator writtin in Python, was not love at first sight for me.

While i liked the concept of nikola, the clear-written, good looking documentation (written -of course- with nikola) and the apparently active community behind it, i struggled to fully understand the concept of how to make a bi-lingual (or multi-lingual) homepage with it.

In the end i managed it more by luck and intuition than by understanding, so I provide my findings with the hope others may struggle less long than I did to get their desired ouput.

use case: homepage with blog

I wanted a homepage with one main language (German) and some (but not all) pages translated into English. I also wanted a blog where some postings are in German, some are in English, and some -but not all- postings are translated in both languages.

first steps

Heading th the nikola homepage, i followed the install instructions and the I want a homepage, not a blog article.

in the end, my 'pages' folder