The Guest Worker Myth: How Turkish Immigrant Communities Rebuilt West Berlin (1960s - 1980s)
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Date
2020-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
In the 1960s and 1970s, West Berlin was at the center of the world's attention. Plagued by Cold War divisions, all eyes were focused on the city's seemingly miraculous physical and economic renewal. Modern housing compounds by world famous Bauhaus émigrés drew visitors and press attention, and the currency reform of 1948 had seemingly sparked an economic miracle (Wirtschaftswunder). However, there is an essential story that is often only a footnote in this history of urban renewal: the so-called "guest workers" (Gastarbeiter). From the 1950s until 1973, Germany recruited thousands of foreign workers from countries like Spain, Yugoslavia, and Turkey to temporarily increase their production capacity. The workers were hired upon a rotation principle – after just a few years, they were to return home and make space for new recruits. Living in dormitories under strict curfews and restrictions, a far cry from the city's modernist housing complexes that advertised freedom and democracy, the Gastarbeiter were seen as easily replaceable participants in the German economic miracle. This thesis elaborates on the story of West Berlin's transformation from the 1960s through the 1980s by complicating conventional macro-narratives of urban transformations. It moves beyond West Berlin's origin myths in order to acknowledge Turkish immigrants as central and active agents in West Berlin's evolution. Drawing on archival research in Germany, each chapter approaches West Berlin's story from two perspectives. First, I discuss big picture changes in the city, addressing flashy building expositions and ambitious top-down policy initiatives. With this framework in place, each section then zeroes in on the lives of Turkish guest workers living in the city. From the long train ride to Germany, to the founding of so-called "backyard mosques" (Hinterhofmoscheen) and small businesses, these sections round out the story of Germany's island of democracy in the East. It is impossible to fully understand the larger-scale changes happening in West Berlin without investigating the influence of the Turkish immigrants in the city, and vice versa.
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immigration, German history, guest worker, Turkey