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.

  • Workshop on Archival Resistance and the Purpose of German Studies

    What might the purpose of German studies be in the face of global gloom and doom? On September 26, 2020, the Multicultural Germany Project (MGP) addressed this question in a workshop organized by Kumars Salehi, Michael Sandberg, Jonas Teupert, and Deniz Göktürk in conversation with Annika Orich (Assistant Professor of German at Georgia Tech, alumna of the…

  • Das Comeback der Promis ist ganz Pop

    The following post was adapted from schook, a blog by students in the Fall 2019 seminar “German Pop Culture” at UC Berkeley. In this piece, Lianette Alnaber analyzes the motif of the hip-hop comeback in the first video in three years by Afghan-German rapper SSIO. SSIO, ein deutscher Rapper afghanischer Abstammung, hat am 26. September und…

  • Apache 207 und seine goldenen Nike-Rollschuhe

    The following post was adapted from schook, a blog by students in the Fall 2019 seminar “German Pop Culture” at UC Berkeley. In this piece, Lianette Alnaber examines the significance of consumer branding in constructing the persona of Turkish-German rapper Apache 207. Apache 207, ein deutscher Rapper und Sänger mit türkischen Wurzeln, ist in den letzten…

  • Hip-Hop: Afroamerikanisch und Global

    The following post was adapted from schook, a blog by students in the Fall 2019 seminar “German Pop Culture” at UC Berkeley. In this piece, Ray Savord examines the aesthetic and political development and impact of hip-hop since its inception, noting how the worldwide influence of black American culture has brought out new sounds in…

  • Rapper sein, der neue Pop-Trend?

    The following post was adapted from schook, a blog by students in the Fall 2019 seminar “German Pop Culture” at UC Berkeley. In this piece, Kian Jansepar unpacks the thematic complexities of German rap as the scene negotiates its relationship to gangster imagery alongside its growing popularity. Vor einem Jahr, wurde die beliebte TV Serie…

  • Transit

    With actors Frank Rogowski and Paul Beer. Premier German auteur Christian Petzold’s adaptation of the 1942 Anna Seghers’s novel follows Georg (Rogowski), a young Jewish man who flees the Nazis to France with the identity and papers of a dead author, only to meet and fall in love a woman searching for her missing husband…

  • Zuhaus unter Fremden

    With actors Herbert Grönemeyer, Aysun Bademsoy and Meray Ülgen. In this early made-for-TV engagement with migration and multiculturalism, a young Turkish-German woman, Ayshe (Bademsoy), meets and falls in love with Bernd (Grönemeyer), but is at odds with her father (Ülgen) over not just her love for a German man but over her preference for Germany…

  • Yasemin

    With actors Ayse Romey, Uwe Bohm, Sener Sen, Ilhan Emerli Jan (Bohm) joins a judo class and, on a bet, pursues his Turkish-German classmate Yasemin (Romey) romantically. Yasemin is uninterested and has her own problems, first and foremost the strict opposition of her father Yunuf (Sen) to her wishes to go to college. As her…

  • Wolfsburg

    With actors Benno Fürmann and Nina Hoss. Smug, reckless car salesman Phillip Gerber (Fürmann) runs over a young boy in a tragic moment of carelessness, and flees the scene. He follows the boy’s condition until learning of his passing, but doesn’t tell the boy’s grieving and vengeful mother, Laura Reiser (Hoss). Links: IMDB, YouTube (Trailer)…

  • Wir sitzen im Süden (Based Down South)

    color, Germany/Turkey, Martina Priessner, 88 Min, 2010 Four Turkish-Germans born who grew up in Germany and now live in Istanbul share their different stories and divergent paths that all brought them back to their ancestral homeland: one through deportation, two forced by their parents, and only one, Ciğdem, who came to Turkey of his own…