TRANSIT BLOG

TRANSIT Blog was formerly part of the Multicultural Germany Project (MGP), which we are now merging with Transit Journal. Founded in 2001 by the German Department at UC Berkeley, MGP served as a research collaborative and continuously updated archive of migration, supported by the tireless energy and willpower of our very own Deniz Göktürk and UC Berkeley’s graduate students. Our blog includes reactions to current events and news, research materials, and teaching resources. Maintained mainly by students at Berkeley, the blog provides a window into our activities and campus discussions. We hope that TRANSIT Blog continues to serve as a resource and forum for both aspiring and continuing professionals in German Studies and its adjacent fields; we welcome contributions of short thought-pieces of ca. 1000-1500 words year-round. If you would like to contribute your own blog post or other materials (in English or German), please contact us at transitjournal@berkeley.edu.

  • Eric Breininger’s Death: The Memoirs of a German Jihadist

    This article discusses memoir of the German-born Jihadist Eric Breiniger, who was recently killed in Pakistan, and whose memoir was recently published on a Jihadist website. The well-written, although not a hundred percent confirmed, memoir of the terrorist tells of his conversion to Islam and quick radicalization, despite growing up ‘normal’ in Germany. The most…

  • Dispelling the Myth of ‘Parallel Societies’: Are Berlin’s Muslims a Model for Integration?

    This article discusses the new report by the Open Society Institute, “Muslims in Berlin,” a study that focuses on Berlin’s Kreuzberg district and tells of a fairly positive story of integration. Far from being a parallel society, and contrary to many assumptions, Muslims in Kreuzberg make daily or weekly contact with their non-Muslim neighbors and…

  • Feo Aladag’s “When We Leave”

    Originally Die Fremde, Feo Aladag’s Turkish-German drama When We Leave won the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. The star of the film, Sibel Kekilli, who won an award for her role in Fatih Akin’s Head-On, also won a Founders Award for Best Actress in…

  • Germany faces youth employability crisis, says new report

    This article discusses a recently released report in Germany, which details the employment issues facing German youth. In recent years there has been an increase in the amount of high school dropouts in Germany. Additionally many of those who graduate, are still not prepared to enter the workforce. The German Education minister Annette Schavan said 755…

  • German Expatriate Forum

    The German Way Forum provides a means of communication for expatriates. Many of these expatriates who have questions or other issues can simply post to the blog, and wait for others who are more knowledgeable to answer their queries. Whether it be problems with the language or everyday life, the German Way Forums seeks to…

  • CDU Turkish Minister Appointment ‘Flops’

    Aygül Özkan, the first Muslim woman with Turkish origin appointment for state minister in Lower Saxony from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) , caused an uproar on Monday when she suggested that crucifixes should be banned in classrooms. Özkan is the first immigrant ever appointed to a state cabinet. Her recent appointment seemed to reflect…

  • motown auf deutsch.

    The Supremes, The Temptations, and Marvin Gaye are a few of the most legendary Motown artists.  Many of us are familiar with their hits from the ’60s and ’70s…but could you imagine these same hits being recorded in German?  Yes, such recordings do exist.  Decades ago, before English began to saturate the entertainment industry even…

  • Friendship!

    “Germany, huh? So you’re Nazis” “No, we’re not Nazis. We’re communists. Ja, free communists.” This tongue-in-cheek exchange between two friends, Tom and Veit, and the American immigration officer in New York characterizes the humor and events explored in Markus Goller’s 2010 film, Friendship! The story is simple: after the Berlin Wall falls in 1989, two…

  • Bayern-SPD fordert deutsch-tschechische Universität

    The article “Bayern-SPD fordert deutsch-tschechische Universität” details the Bavarian SPD’s call for the establishment of a transnational technical university that would serve students of the neighboring nations of Germany and the Czech Republic. The university would be located in eastern Bavaria near the Bavarian-Czech border, and would be modeled after the German-Polish Universität Viadrina in…

  • Neighbors in German Capital in Uproar over Iraqi Building

    Berliners of the Dahlem district have already filed “not-in-my-backyard” legal complaints against an allegedly self-proclaimed new Iraqi embassy.  Many fear that creating the equivalent of a new embassy for such a politically sensitive country in the posh neighborhood of Dahlem will increase violence in the area and drive up real estate prices.  The full article…