Tag Archives: Turkey
Interview: Ali for (and from) Germany
In the wake of Germany’s World Cup victory, much has been said about a renewed sense of German patriotism and its implications. While some have feared a connection to Germany’s dark past, others have welcomed the discourse as a chance to shape a new sense of belonging within the country’s evolving demographics. We’ve already written something about it here. But what a discussion on national identity means on the personal level is another story. Or rather many stories. Here’s one…[Read more!]
Interview: The Taxi Driver
Orhan was 5 when his father moved to Berlin in 1972. It was only one year before West Germany would halt guest worker recruitment from non-European countries to fill labor shortages after World War II. His mother followed 7 years later with his youngest sister and they lived in Rudow in southeastern Neukölln – where they still live over 30 years later. “They got jobs as cleaners in an office,” Orhan recounts, “but they were fired!” he adds, snorting in laughter. I look up from my notepad, surprised…[Read more!]
Lens: An Ode to the Maybachufer
From Berlin’s “problem district” to more expensive than spießig Charlottenburg: Kreuzberg’s made quite the transformation over the decades, but migration continues to shape its identity and reputation as a district. The bulk of Kreuzberg’s diversity stems from the ’50s and ’60s, when guest workers were recruited by West Germany to fill labor shortages after World War II*. Kreuzberg’s dilapidated housing became home to guest workers, primarily from Turkey…[Read more!]
Beyond Berlin: the Istanbul Connection
Istanbul gives Berlin its baseline. In kind, Berlin is richly integrated into the complexity of Istanbul. For no relationship is ever purely one-sided. And so a Berlin : Istanbul connection, which moves beyond Gastarbeiter music and Fatih Akin films, is what one can find after six days immersed in the shapes and silhouettes of this city of 13 million…[Read more!]
Happy Weekend: “It’s not about integration”, or isn’t it?
Tonight at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, İmran Ayata und Neco Çelik will present the opening of their newest play, “Liga der Verdammten” (League of the Damned), tackling the dynamic configuration of players and fans in Kreuzberg’s very own “Multi-Kulti” football league, Türkisempor. Originally formed by Berlin’s marginalized ‘guest workers’ just 35 years ago, its reputation proceeds it, as do the stereotypes…[Read more!]
Interview: Ali, Zoe, and the Gentrification Debate
Meet Ali and Zoe.
You may have heard of them. Zoe takes pictures of Ali while walking down the street and posts them on her tumblr called What Ali Wore. They share a special connection, one reflective of a city in flux and a district in crisis. He, the assumed-Gastarbeiter (politically-charged term for ‘guest worker’) fighting against stereotypes and categorizations since arrival // she, the ex-pat fighting off armies of criticism for displacing the very people one considers a neighbor: difficult situations that have arisen not out of malice but out of circumstance, no matter the scale…[Read more!]
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