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.

  • German chancellor defends Afghanistan mission

    This article discusses German Chancellor’s Angela Merkel’s insistence that Germany remain committed to fighting the war in Afghanistan. The recent deaths of seven German soldiers has increased pressure within Germany to withdraw from the region. Merkel said that pulling out would be “irresponsible” and leave the country in shambles. Within Germany there have been many…

  • Designierte CDU-Ministerin gegen Kruzifixe an Schulen

    One of the CDU’s ministers in Niedersachsen has ordered all crucifixes to be removed from public schools; just like the ban of headscarves, public schools are meant to be neutral and religiously unaffiliated.  However, she now faces increasing criticism from her own party.  The CDU stands for Christian values and should not authorize their removal.…

  • “Auslaender sollen unsere alten Leute pflegen” (“Foreigners should tend to our old people”)

    The article “Auslaender sollen unsere alten Leute pflegen” (“Foreigners should tend to our old people”) talks about how German nurses are calling for help from abroad. The number of skilled nurses is too low for the current conditions. This is due not only to an aging population, but also because qualified nurses are emigrating. Therefore,…

  • Fatih Akin’s Soul Kitchen

    Unlike Head On and The Edge of Heaven, Fatih Akin’s most recent film Soul Kitchen is a comedy. The film focuses on Zinos, a restaurant owner who is forced to employ a drunken chef played by Head On‘s Birol Unel. The chef insists on cooking “real” food, and while this appeals to Zinos he loses…

  • Mean streets and macho violence on Berlin stages

    In many smaller theaters in Kreuzberg and Neukoelln, a different type of play is starting to take hold. Instead of classic or even contemporary works, these new works being displayed can be called “street works.” These productions focus on the problems that are going on in many immigrant neighborhoods, such as violence, alcoholism, family and…

  • German State Appoints First Minister of Turkish Origin

    Aygül Özkan, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party, was recently appointed the minister of social affairs. Özkan was born in Hamburg and is the daughter of Turkish guest workers who arrived in Germany in the 1960s. Özkan does not want to be seen as a “token immigrant” in the world of politics,…

  • „Wulff holt türkischstämmige Ministerin ins Kabinett“

    The article “Wulff holt türkischstämmige Ministerin ins Kabinett” details the new Executive Cabinet in Lower Saxony’s CDU lead government. Christian Wulff, who has been the prime minister of Lower Saxony since 2003, has created a new cabinet that includes for the first time an ethnically Turkish minister, Aygül Özkan. Noticeably, the new cabinet also includes…

  • Poetry Without A Face

    Full Story Here Since the age of 12, Hissa Hilal has been writing poetry, although secretly in the years of her childhood. A Saudi Arabian woman, she is not allowed to sit in public without her husband or another family-related male, is prohibited from driving, and must cover her entire body and face with the…

  • Erdogan urges German Turks not to integrate

    This article is very interesting because the Turkish government, and particularly the Turkish prime minister urged Turks living in foreign countries not to integrate. He was also quoted as saying assimilation was a “crime against humanity” during a speech in 2008. It is interesting to speculate what affect this sort of rhetoric will have on…

  • Germany’s Turks don’t need Papa Erdoğan or Mutti Merkel

    This article is interesting because it touches upon the fact that both the German and Turkish governments argue about how to best serve the Turkish immigrants in Germany without really knowing exactly what that entails because both sides are so far removed from the realities of being Turkish in Germany that the only thing they…