CHAPTER 5
Wendeverlierer? Machos? Stasi-Zuträger? Zum Bild türkischer Einwanderer in ausgewählten Spiel- und Dokumentarfilmen über den Zusammenbruch der DDR
Victims of the transformation process? Machos? Stasi informants? The image of Turkish immigrants in selected films and documentaries about the collapse of the GDR
Krzysztof OKOŃSKI*
*Dr. habil., Kazimierz-Wielki-Universität, Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften, Lehrstuhl für Kulturwissenschaftliche Komparatistik, Bydgoszcz, Poland
ABSTRACT (ENGLISH)
The history of migration from Turkey to Germany is presented in film, literature or in pop culture mainly focusing on the experiences of Turkish immigrants in West Germany. This perspective is self-evident and reflects historical reasons such as signing the labour recruitment agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Turkey (1961). On the one hand, immigration in the last 60 years has shaped various social, economic, political and cultural aspects of the German reality; on the other hand, numerous films and novels can be used to reconstruct the life of German Turks. Nevertheless, we can observe the interest of German artists of Turkish origin in specifically German themes anchored in Germany’s past or present. If there are any overlaps with more recent German history, then they are usually described from the perspective of the immigrants (or their children) who were subject to the processes of social adaptation in West Germany. Apart from a few exceptions (Yadé Kara and Emine Sevgi Özdamar), the former GDR or the fall of the Berlin wall remain terra incognita for the German- Turkish culture. In this article, the image of Turkish immigrants in the context of the last days of the GDR is analyzed on the example of the following films: Deckname Blitz - Der Spion vom Teufelsberg by Harriet Kloss (documentary, Germany, 2003), So schnell es geht nach Istanbul by Andreas Dresen (film GDR, 1990) and Duvarlar-Mauern-Walls by Can Candan (documentary, USA/Türkiye 2000).
The history of migration from Turkey to Germany is presented in film, literature or in pop culture mainly focusing on the experiences of Turkish immigrants in West Germany. This perspective is self-evident and reflects historical reasons such as signing the labour recruitment agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Turkey (1961). On the one hand, immigration in the last 60 years has shaped various social, economic, political and cultural aspects of the German reality; on the other hand, numerous films and novels can be used to reconstruct the life of German Turks. Nevertheless, we can observe the interest of German artists of Turkish origin in specifically German themes anchored in Germany’s past or present. If there are any overlaps with more recent German history, then they are usually described from the perspective of the immigrants (or their children) who were subject to the processes of social adaptation in West Germany. Apart from a few exceptions (Yadé Kara and Emine Sevgi Özdamar), the former GDR or the fall of the Berlin wall remain terra incognita for the German- Turkish culture. In this article, the image of Turkish immigrants in the context of the last days of the GDR is analyzed on the example of the following films: Deckname Blitz - Der Spion vom Teufelsberg by Harriet Kloss (documentary, Germany, 2003), So schnell es geht nach Istanbul by Andreas Dresen (film GDR, 1990) and Duvarlar-Mauern-Walls by Can Candan (documentary, USA/Türkiye 2000).
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