“Hopefully, there is a lot of human-being in me“

This past November I attended this event with a couple of friends and met the wonderful journalist Nhi Le, who then introduced me to someone at the Heinrich Böll Foundation organisation team. Fast forward, I was hired to report on it. Here, you find an English translation of the original article: “In mir steckt hoffentlich ganz viel Mensch-sein,” published January 9th, 2020 on Heimatkunde.

Thank you again for this Nhi (and thank you Michelle for the small edits in English!) and to everyone else, enjoy reading:

On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Kulturprojekte Berlin, in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, organised the reading and panel discussion, "Ostdeutsch-Plus - Die DDR Migrationsgesellschaft seit dem Fall der Mauer” (engl: “Eastgerman-Plus - The DDR immigrant community since the fall of the Berlin Wall.”)

Journalist Nhi Le, director Atif Mohammed Nor Hussein, filmmaker Julia Oelkers ("Eigensinn im Bruderland"), author Stefanie-Lahya Aukongo ("Kalungas Kind - Wie die DDR mein Leben rettete") and founder of the (in)visible network for Women* of Color Magdeburg Laura Schrader spoke with host Özcan Karadeniz about the memories and feelings they associate with the time during the fall of the Berlin Wall.

A lot of attention has been given to East Germany in light of the 30 years since the fall of the Wall, but the questions arise: Who is East German and which voices are being heard? Often, one-sided perspectives are heard and it is mostly white East Germans who are the subject of media attention. Immigration was and still is an integral part of social development in both West and East Germany. The East German immigrant community is characterised by complex experiences before and after the fall of the Wall.

Specifically after unification, immigrants had to struggle with multiple racist exclusions and riots, which were intensified by political mobilisation. For former contract workers, the fall of the Wall marked a turning point in their future lives. Today, the historical debate can only be viewed and understood in the context of the all-German immigrant community. Perspectives for participation and belonging must be presented in the pan-German context. Under this aspect, it was all the more important to give the speakers a platform with this event.

At the beginning, Stefanie-Lahya Aukongo read excerpts from her autobiography, “Kalungas Child - How the DDR saved my life” (engl.). In it, Aukongo talks about her childhood experiences as a Black German in former East Germany, how she perceived the world and how she was unable to give injustices a name. In one example, she talks about her Black childhood friend who was teased and beaten up by other school children. Those and similar incidents made her feel, early on, that she and her friend were treated differently. Despite those experiences, she found an artistic outlet to express herself, and writing was her first medium.

The filmmaker Julia Oelkers created the web documentary, "Eigensinn im Bruderland” (engl. self will in the brother nation). Excerpts showed immigrants from countries such as Ethiopia, Chile, Mozambique, Turkey and Vietnam, who discussed about their own experiences. In intimate (personal) interviews, they explain how they emigrated to former East Germany with much hope and a positive attitude as a result of bilateral agreements between the socialist states. Some arrived as contract workers, some as students, some as labourers and some as political refugees. Although many of them were promised an education, the immigrants later found themselves in canteen kitchens and factories. They did not study here, but worked in production facilities.

"Before, I thought: I am here on behalf of the government. This is about solidarity and mutual support between the two countries. [...] Then, after the two-month German class, they said: We'll put you in the kitchen. Being a cook during this time, in 1981, in Vietnam, that's not a profession," Mai-Phuong Kollath describes her disappointment in an interview.

"There was no such thing as racism in East Germany.”

The director and German-born Atif Mohammed Nor Hussein does not see himself as an immigrant, because he was born and raised here. As a Person of Color, however, he soon realised that he was treated differently from his fellow Germans. His mother showed him at a young age how the military service for a Person of Color is structured. There would be no career opportunities in the German military service for a boy who looked like Hussein.

"As far as [racism] was concerned, we were equal among equals, but then you realised something was wrong. Why am I excluded, why do these stories happen? Of course, I often looked for the guilt in myself until I realised that it wasn't my fault, but that came very, very late. There was no such thing as racism in East Germany," Hussein describes his experience in conversation.

These injustices did not have names in public or in the media, there was no vocabulary; the speakers, who all grew up in a predominantly white environment, agree on that. Laura Schrader has mixed feelings, especially when it comes to the time during the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the celebrations. Of course, the energy is contagious, everyone wants to join, share the hope, but she wonders: "Who is this we? Who are the people? Who belongs to them? Who is being considered? Who is being chosen?"

"When I brought things up like somebody said something stupid, it was always played down. I wasn't perceived as a Black person even by my white community. My experiences were not perceived as experiences of racism," Schrader describes. Growing up as a young PoC in a white environment is difficult to see oneself. Therefore she founded (un)Sichtbar - Netzwerk für Women* of Color (engl. (in)Visible - Network for Women* of Color) in Magdeburg in 2017 to create a space for solidarity.

"The initiative is aimed at women* who were born and raised in Germany or have only lived here for a short time; who call themselves Black, Afro-German or Women* of Color and want to become politically active." From invisibility to visibility, this group is working out strategies to receive more representation in the media, committees, schools etc. to fight against racism. The unity and solidarity between people who have experienced racism is something very essential. Here, a space can be created that encourages thoughts, feelings and experiences to be addressed and shared and thus mutually strengthening.

"We exist here, we belong here and we were born and grew up here, we won't be pushed away, where to?”

Schrader sees hope and courage in the next generation, which uses social media as a tool to draw attention to racism and the hurdles it presents. She is impressed by the self-confidence of young people who use a variety of methods and channels to position themselves. Above all, however, there is a need for spaces such as the panel discussion, or even safer spaces in which People of Color do not have to explain themselves, in which their experiences are not questioned and in which it is understood that discrimination is a reality.

For Stefanie-Lahya Aukongo, empowerment means critically questioning prevailing realities. Finding oneself [your own voice] is also extremely important for the writer. To the question, "How much GDR is inside of you", she answers: "Hopefully, there is a lot of human-being in me [...] as a person who is East German, who is big, who is Black, who has a disability, who experiences trauma [...] I can show myself in a positive way and make sure that other people can connect with it and say: 'Hey, if she can do it, I can do it, too’. For Aukongo, the question is how can we discuss issues such as racism and discrimination with love and passion.

To her, East Germany is no longer a place where Aukongo feels completely at home. Therefore, she says, it is legitimate to look for places where she feels good as a person of color. This decision for her own well-being need not be explained or justified.

"Racism was always there, even in East Germany, and still is today”

For the journalist Nhi Le, the perspectives of immigrants, People of Color and Black people are still not sufficiently addressed in reporting and the media landscape. On the subject of East Germany, it is mostly white Germans who write, produce and are being interviewed. Here, we could also speak of erasure.

"As if [our] perspective does not exist at all. [...] I am questioned as to why I address racism and right-wing extremist structures in my reporting. You don't even have to be affected by it to notice that a social co-existence is being attacked here, even a democracy in general. There must be a sensitivity there. When you put a finger into the wound, most people don't want to listen. There is still a lot to be done," explains Le.

Le thinks the audience who gathered that evening to attend this special panel discussion was great, but this exchange is not part of the overall social debate. People who are involved in this work are already interested. She criticises the event character of the media, whose reporting is not sustainable. "Regardless of every state election, every anniversary, it is still a reality of daily life," says Le. "Before we take any action, we must first realise that we have a racism problem. I have the feeling that here in Germany we are not ready yet.”

Schrader has a similar view. For her, it sometimes seems as if “here, we often take three steps in the right direction and then four steps back again." A slow, very bumpy progress for the daily fight against racism in Germany. Aukongo adds that there has to be a discussion of people affected by racism who explicitly say and name what racism is. There would be a very shifted understanding in general. "This power of definition must be given back to the people who experience it."