Book Review: Along a Dangerous Road
Posted in conjunction with the course Multicultural Germany in fall semester 2015. Author: Evelyn Roth Along a Dangerous Road – “Der Schlaf in der Ténéré hinterlässt eine unzerstörbare Spur im Körper. Eine Erinnerung für das ganze Leben“ (Sleeping in the Ténéré leaves its mark within one’s body. A memory that will last a life time)”[1]. The same thing can […]
Multicultural Germany Course: Week 5 Summary (Sept. 28 & 30)
This last week in class, we discussed the idea of German collective memory and screened the film Almanya – Welcome to Germany. The week’s discussions started with how the term “melting pot” was used to describe US culture in the early 1900s. The picture found on the Wikipedia page for the term (The Melting Pot) […]
Multicultural Germany Course: Week 4 Summary (Sept. 21 & 23)
Who defines identity? Germany’s struggle with inclusivity. This last week in class, we discussed the limits of Germany’s capacity to take in immigrants and what it means to be German. Proponents of reducing the number of foreigners in Germany believe that the “boat” of Germany’s capacity for incorporation of foreigners is “full.” To these native-born […]
The End of Migration As We Knew It
On October 4, 2015, a panel on “Ethnography and the Study of Diversity in Germany” held in Washington, D.C., questioned paradigms of research on transnational migration and diversity, focusing on the impossibility of containing these categories within nation-based frameworks of analysis. As part of a series of five panels on “Ethnography and German Studies,” organized […]
Multicultural Germany Class: Europe and Beyond
As the Spring 2014 semester is coming to an end, this will be the last post in our series of student reflections on the UC Berkeley undergraduate seminar “Multicultural Germany.” This week’s summary is by Tanja Mehlo: In the last week of class, we continued discussing Europe and its internal and external borders and how these borders are used to […]
Film Reviews: “Auf der anderen Seite” (The Edge of Heaven)
As part of their work in the Multicultural Germany undergraduate seminar at UC Berkeley, students in the course have reviewed recent German films relating in various ways to topics of migration, multiculturalism, and contemporary German identity. Ying Ruan and Ann Huang both reviewed Fatih Akin’s 2007 film “Auf der anderen Seite” (The Edge of Heaven). Review by Ying Ruan: The movie follows […]
“Auf der anderen Seite” Review by Traci Fitzharris
Auf der anderen Seite revolves around death; in fact, the movie is separated into chapters titled “Yeter’s Death,” “Lotte’s Death,” and “The Edge of Heaven.” The final chapter, lasting only the last half hour of the movie, is the only segment that does not involve the death or near-death experience of a main character.
“Auf der anderen Seite” Review by Ying Ruan
Auf der anderen Seite is a German-Turkish drama directed by Faith Akin in 2007. The movie follows stories of six people from either Germany or Turkey, presenting political and social issues faced by elder and younger generations of Turkish, Turkish-German and German people. The various backgrounds of characters lead to a sophisticated situation depicting Turkish […]
“Auf der anderen Seite” Review by Ann Huang
In his drama Auf der anderen Seite, released in 2007, Fatih Akin depicts the fatefully interwoven lives of six individuals: two mothers, two daughters, and a father and his son. Each filial pair, distinct in its respective place on the identity spectrum between German-German and Turkish-Turk, begins the narrative with parallel paths. The eventual convergence […]
Multicultural Germany Class: European Borders
This post is part of a series in which students reflect on their discussions in the UC Berkeley undergraduate seminar “Multicultural Germany.” This week’s summary is by Melissa Carlson: This past week, we started opening up our discussions on immigration, identity and membership to talk more about how those topics apply to Europe as a […]