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.

  • Liberalität ist anstengend

    In the April 3, 2010 issue of Der Spiegel there was an article interviewing Bundesverfassungsrichter Di Fabio about the increasing controversy about freedom of religion within Germany concerning the Muslim communities.  He claims that the modern concerns about religion, and the increasing involvement of the more secular communities within this debate, stem from the prominence…

  • The German Way Expat Blog

    The German Way Expat Blog is a website with entries written by four Americans living in Germany and raising families. Some topics addressed include the raising of multilingual children and the integration or non-integration of expat communities, though the website also covers a wide variety of topics ranging from politics to history. This blog is…

  • Homesickness

    Homesickness by Ingo Cesaro they gather in waiting rooms and on train platforms like migratory birds in autumn loudly gesticulating as the great journey were about to begin they embrace when the long distance express leaves the station without them and weep their way back into cold reality

  • Berlin appears divided over the presence of US nuclear warheads

    This Article discusses the recent nuclear treaty signed by the United States and Russia. As the world moves towards a reduction of their nuclear arsenals, a debate has arisen in Germany as to when the remaining ten to twenty nuclear weapons in the country should be taken out. Some argue they should be removed immediately as…

  • Brothers Keepers’ Song “Triple Rois”

    The song “Triple Rois” (Drei Koenige/Three Kings) contains the voices of three distinct cultures speaking from three distinct vantage points, yet all sharing the same message. This song speaks mainly to the disenfranchisement and alienation felt by those who do not feel that they fit into the dominant cultural paradigm of their country of residence.…

  • Two conversations pt. 2: Merkel rebuffs call for Turkish schools in Germany

    Soon after the Turkish Prime Minister’s call for fully-Turkish secondary schools to be established in Germany, German Chancellor Angela  Merkel has come out to reject the PM’s plans, calling for integration through learning the German language and German customs. Many Turks in Germany have also denounced the Turkish PM’s plan, saying that it would hinder…

  • Muslim groups consider boycott of German-Islam conference

    The German-Islam conference, last held in 2006, was a step made by the German government to better communicate with the Muslim community in Germany, giving them a platform to speak about their problems about poverty, integration, unemployment, poor academic performance of Muslim children and more. However, the German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has decided…

  • Two conversations pt. 1: Turkish schools in Germany would ‘show respect’ for culture

    Recently, the Turkish Prime Minister has suggested establishing fully-Turkish language teaching secondary (high) schools in Germany. The article is an interview conducted between Deutsche-Welle and Ulrich Raiser, a member of Network Migration in Europe, an EU partly-financed think tank. Mr. Raiser thinks that the main goal of having Turkish schools is to better integrate Turkish…

  • Traveling exhibition in Berlin sheds new light on Islamic art

    This summer Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau exhibition hall will be hosting his Royal Highness Aga Khan IV private collection of Islamic art. According to Luis Monreal, director of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, each piece was chosen “to present some of the fundaments of Islam: the value of the written word, the Quran, and the importance…

  • German Youths become Islamic Extremist Expats

    According to Germany’s Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA), a colony of German Muslim extremist youths has taken hold of the Afghan-Pakistani border. These young people are recruited in Germany and then sever all ties with their homeland and head for a place where they believe that the “Koran stands above everything.”  These youths are…