‘Go west!’ New Perspectives on Recent from to

Dietmar Osses

Abstract University Bochum2. Individual life Te crisis and breakdown of eastern stories of immigrants from Eastern Eu- European states in the 1980s and 1990s rope formed the basis of the project. A brought an unexpected number of im- set of 30 oral history interviews opened migrants to Western Germany. In these up a broad spectrum of individual and years, nearly 4.5 million people went collective experiences. In the exhibi- to the Federal Republic of Germany as tion, eleven life stories gave insight in political , asylum seekers or re- expectations and experiences of the im- patriates. Tey came mainly from the migrants concerning migration, home, former Soviet Union States, , belonging and identity. and the former States of Yu- goslavia.1 Te history of migration f ows be- Go west: Te project tween Germany and these states vary With the project ‘Go west! Immigration greatly. A closer look on the diferences from Eastern Europe to the Ruhr’ the and on the similarities between these Westphalian State Museum of Indus- groups of immigrants and a comparison trial Heritage and Culture focused on of the historical backgrounds and polit- the immigration from diferent coun- ical implications as well as on individual tries of Eastern Europe to the Ruhr decisions of the immigrants can open during the last 30 years. From the end up new perspectives on this period of of the1980s to 2005 about 2.3 million immigration to Germany. immigrants from countries of the for- Tis article presents the results of a mer Soviet Union came to Germany, temporary exhibition at the Westphalian about 2 million people from Poland, State Museum of Industrial Heritage more than 430,000 people from Roma- and Culture – Hannover Colliery in nia, some hundred thousands from the Bochum which was complemented by former States of and another a co-operation project with the Ruhr 200,000 Jewish immigrants. 82 AEMI JOURNAL 2013

Fig 1 Immigrants Emir and Krisitna exploring the exhibition Go west

Te history of this immigration has the museum decided to develop a co-op- not yet been told. In comparison with eration project with two special courses other groups of immigrants and in con- at the university to prepare an exhibi- trast to the high number of nearly 4.5 tion in the museum. Te participants million immigrants from Eastern Eu- of the courses covered the main emigra- rope, they often seem to be invisible in tion countries: the former Soviet Union German society and everyday-life. So States, Poland and the former States of one of the main aims of the project was Yugoslavia. As the Romanian language to tell this story of these immigrants, to is not a Slavic language, the museum give them visibility and a voice. decided just for practical reasons to deal An important impulse for the project with the Romanians in a later project came from the Slavic department of the and concentrated on the Slavic-speaking Ruhr University in Bochum. Over the people for this time. last 10 years the quota of native Slavic Apart from one single person, all of speakers among the students increased the students were native speakers in a from under 5 percent in the late 1990s Slavic language and had personal mi- up to 95 percent nowadays. All of them gration background. So in the end, the have a personal or familiar migration frst step of the courses, research on the experience and most of them are highly history of migration between Germany interested in the history of migration and Eastern Europe’s states, led the stu- from and to Germany. For this reason dents to research and discover their own DIETMAR OSSES 83 history and the history of their families. as the land of the free: Furthermore, due to their own im- Emigration from Germany in the migration experience and their close 18th and 19th century connections with diferent immigrant From the beginning of the 18th century communities, the students could eas- up to the end of the 19th century Ger- ily open access to a broader part of the many was a country of emigration. In communities and to immigrants of all this time, Germany was not a united ages. state but shattered in dozens of king- So in the end the project managed to doms, duchies and counties. Following obtain memories and objects from more the principle ‘cuius regio, eius religio’, than 20 people, which could be shown the religion of the people depended on in the exhibition ‘Go west! Immigration the particular monarch. Freedom of re- from Eastern Europe to the Ruhr’, pre- ligion was seldom granted, personal and sented in the Hannover Colliery - West- economic freedom was strictly limited phalian State Museum of Industrial by landlords, gilds and crafts. Heritage and Culture in Bochum. In 1763, Catherine II, the Tsarina With the personal experience, stories of Russia with German roots, recruited and objects from the immigrants the ex- farmers and craftsmen from German hibition allowed to tell new stories about countries to emigrate to Russia. She immigration to Germany and about liv- promised far-reaching privileges to the ing in Germany as an immigrant from settlers: freedom of religion, release of Eastern Europe. military draft, autonomy and self-ad- As introduction of the exhibition, ministration on local level with use of a giant map of Europe and Asia and a the , up to 30 hec- synopsis of the milestones of migration tares of land for free, exemption from history from and towards Germany and taxation for 30 years and fnancial help the Eastern European States gave both for the frst years in Russia. Within fve introduction and historical background years time about 30,000 emigrants fol- information. After insights into the lowed the recruitment and built up 104 collective experiences of immigrants in German communities and cities around Germany, the exhibition followed the the river Volga. way of the immigrants from Poland, A second wave of German immigra- former Yugoslavia, former Soviet Union tion to Russia started in 1787, when states and Jewish immigrant. For each emigrants from Southern Germany and group personal stories were given and at from West Prussia, most of them Men- each topic in the exhibition there was an nonites who sought for religious free- audio station installed where the peo- dom, settled down in the very South of ple told their own story with their own Russia and around the Black Sea. voice. A third wave of immigrants from Germany went to Russia in the 1860s, especially coming from former Polish territories, from East and West Prussia, Pomerania, Posen and from Württem- 84 AEMI JOURNAL 2013

Fig 2 Emma and Elena - Two generations immigrants from Russia berg. In contrast to the settlers before, been expelled and deported to Siberia. they were recruited by landlords as peas- But the period of forming Soviet Re- ants after the abolition of serfdom in publics brought in some parts new free- Russia in 1861. Tese immigrants did dom for the German immigrants and not get any privileges but freedom of led to the building of the Volga German religion which was important for these Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic some 200,000, mostly Lutherans and within the USSR in 1924. Mennonites. During World War II, after the Ger- In the end of the 19th century the pe- man ofensive against the Soviet Union riod of growing nationalism in Europe in 1941, all in the USSR were brought the withdrawal of privileges sent to camps, banished and deported, from German immigrants in Russia. mostly to , Siberia and other With the beginning of the First World remote areas. Tey had to work and live War, the public use of the Germany lan- in work camps and were conscripted guage, the publishing of German news- into the Soviet labour army. In 1953 papers and selling of German books lifelong banishment was rescinded and were forbidden by the Russian Tsar. from 1956 on Germans were permitted By 1918, about 200,000 Germans had to return to the European parts of the DIETMAR OSSES 85 USSR, but not to their former settle- ish men, mainly poor peasants from the ments nor to Eastern or Western Ger- rural areas, followed the call of money many. Te use of the German language and labour and moved to Western Ger- in public and exercise of religion was for- many to the ‘Ruhrgebiet’, the new, ex- bidden in some areas. In everyday-life, plosively growing industrial area in the German culture was suppressed by the Rhineland and Westphalia along the communist party. In times of discrimi- river Ruhr3. Tey worked in coal mines nation and suppression (Western) Ger- and iron works and satisfed the urgent many appeared for a lot of Germans in need of workers for the growing heavy Russia as the land of desire. But due to industries. Some coal mines and miners the Cold War and Iron Curtain only a ‘colonies’ had a quota of 50 percent up relatively small number of 109.000 Ger- to more than 75 percent Polish workers mans managed emigrate from the USSR and inhabitants. Te Polish immigrants to Germany in the years 1953-1987. built up a closed meshed network of eth- nic associations and organisations. But Partitions, reconstitution and shift for the Prussian-German authorities in of territory: Polish Migration and a state of permanent social struggle this migrating Poland high number of Polish people in West- Te migration history of Poland is one phalia and their self-confdent organisa- of the most extraordinary in Europe. As tions appeared as a threat. In the year a consequence the three partitions of Po- 1900 the government set up a centre for land in 1773, 1792 and 1795 from the observation of the Polish Immigrants in end of the 18th century legally there was Bochum. Te use of the Polish language no sovereign Polish state up to 1918. was now forbidden during meetings of Te former Polish territory and popu- the Polish associations and Polish min- lation was divided between the Prussian ers were forced to use the German lan- State in the west, the Russian Empire guage – ofcially for the reason of safety in the east and the Austrian-Hungarian in the mines. For Polish church services, Kingdom in the south. Every nation the use of the Polish language was re- brought their elites, administration and stricted, and songs and sermons had to settlers to the new territories. be approved by the authorities before After the foundation of the German the services. Empire in 1871 the Polish people in the At the beginning of World War I Prussian territories acquired legal status more than 500,000 Polish people lived as inhabitants of the of in the Ruhrgebiet. Ofcial policy tried Polish origin. Legally, in Germany they now to avoid any social conficts in the were not treated as foreigners but as Empire and improved the situation for members of the Empire. So it was easy the step by step. for them to go west without crossing a After the war the state of Poland was legal border. reconstituted as the Second Polish Re- Due to crop failures, the strict inher- public on November 11th 1918. Poland itance law and a system of serfdom, got back the former Polish territories of from 1871 onwards thousands of Pol- West Prussia and Poznan. Te industrial 86 AEMI JOURNAL 2013 But with the German invasion of Po- land in September 1939, the Poles in Germany lost all the rights, Polish as- sociations were forbidden, and ofcials were sent to concentration camps. In the following years, hundreds of thou- sands of Poles were sent to Germany as forced labourers and most of the Jewish Polish community were killed in con- centration camps. After the end of World War II, the borders between Germany and Poland were re-established. Germany lost all territories in the East along a line at the rivers Oder and Neisse. Te former German population was expelled, more than 8.5 million Germans were forced Fig 3 Polish immigrant Agnieszka to leave, but more than 1 million Ger- many remained in Poland, some hun- region in Upper , after the Ruhrge- dred thousands of them by force as they biet one of the biggest in Europe, was were needed as skilled workers and spe- divided between Germany and Poland. cialists. At the same time, Poland lost Te division was accompanied by seri- its Eastern territories with a majority of ous fghts and forced migration on both Ukrainian and Byelorussian population. sides. In the Ruhrgebiet, the number Tis shift westwards of the Polish ter- of Polish people decreased from more ritory forced the migration of millions than half a million in 1914 to about of people: Germans, Poles, Ukrainians, 160,000 in the 1920s. In 1919 Polish Byelorussians and Jews. immigrants in Germany acquired legal After the division of Germany by the status as an ethnic minority with a spe- Allied Forces, the establishment of two cial protection by law. It guaranteed free separate German states and the building use of the Polish language, assistance for of the Berlin Wall, migration between building up Polish schools, the right to Poland and Germany stopped com- develop associations and political parties pletely, but for a short period of political and exemption from military draft. Tis thaw within the Cold War from 1956 status helped to develop and improve to 1958 less than 200,000 Germans got Polish culture, associations and political permission to repatriate. parties in Germany, especially in West- Te Federal Act on Displaced Persons phalia. During the rise of the National and Refugees from 1953 guaranteed Socialist regime the Polish minority in people of German origin free access to German managed to keep its autonomy the Federal Republic of Germany as until the beginning of 1939. ethnic German repatriates. As an eth- nic German repatriate one got (back) DIETMAR OSSES 87 German as sole citizen- follow up permissions and stayed much ship, consideration of social insurance, longer. compensation for lost real estates and After the ban of recruitment in 1973, properties and assistance to fnd accom- which was set up in several European modation and work. Tis act was meant states due to the economic crisis, at least as a political statement that Germany 3 million of the ‘guest workers’ decided would not ever forget any member of to stay in Germany for lifetime. Many the German nation. of them, especially immigrants from , brought their families to Ger- Work migration, immigration many in the following years. So in op- restrictions and the iron curtain: position to the political aim not only the Politics and reality in Germany absolute number of immigrants but also 1955-1973 the portion of non-working and work- From the early beginning in 1949 up less immigrants increased further. Fac- to the year 2000, the ofcial policy of ing an increasing number of more than the Federal Republic of Germany stated: 300,000 workless immigrants during Germany is not a country of immigra- the continuing economic crisis, in 1984 tion! the federal government enacted a law to But in contrast to this statement, grant fnancial help for immigrants to from the very beginning on million of repatriate to their home countries. By immigrants came to Germany. In the taking the amount of 10.500 DM the middle of the 1950s, Western Ger- repatriates lost half of their claims for many encountered a phase of intense social insurance and the right to a later economic boom. Te heavy industries return to Germany for a permanent stay. – coal, iron and steel, located in the About 150,000 workless guest workers Ruhrgebiet - provided the backbone of took the money and returned. this development. As the ever-increasing demand for workers could not be satisfed, the West Mass immigration from Eastern German government signed several re- Europe cruiting agreements with states from A new and unforeseen wave of immi- South and South-Eastern Europe as gration to Germany appeared in the late (1955), and (1960), 1980s and 1990s. Te breakdown of the Turkey (1961), and South communist governments in the 1980s Korea (1963), (1964), and 1990s brought a wave of 4.5 mil- (1965) and Yugoslavia (1968). lion immigrants to Germany. Mainly More than 14 million so-called so from Eastern Europe, they came as po- called ‘guest workers’ and their families litical refugees, asylum seekers or as eth- followed the call of labour and the hope nic German repatriates. for a better life to Germany. Te recruit- For this huge and diverse group of ing agreements allowed them to stay in immigrants the laws and restrictions Germany from one half up to two years. regulating German citizenship were of But millions of them managed to get crucial importance. German citizenship 88 AEMI JOURNAL 2013 camps but they do not get a permission to work and earn money in this time. After the repression of the Solidar- ność movement and establishment of martial law in Poland in 1981, nearly 100,000 Poles came as political refugees to Germany. Some escaped crossing the green border to Czechoslovakia, others were forced to leave the country by the Polish authorities and were brought to the German border. According to West German law, as political asylum seekers they had the right to stay in the Federal Republic of Germany until their status was cleared. But they did not get per- mission to work and were not allowed earn money in this time. Faced with increasing problems, po- litical and economic crisis, only a few months later thousands of Poles decided Fig 4 Immigrants at the Unna-Massen train station to leave their home country. For most in the 1980s of them the situation of the country ap- peared completely hopeless and frst of is based on the principle of the blood- all families with young children decided line, following the ius sanguinis. Citi- to take the enormous risk of leaving the zenship depends on the citizenship of country illegally. the parents, not on the country where Legal emigration from Poland was one is born. In addition, the Constitu- nearly impossible since the quota of tion provided for one single citizenship permissions was extremely restricted. and prohibited double citizenship. For Filing an application for emigration to a people living in the former German ter- ‘capitalistic’ state in the eyes of the com- ritories in the east, this meant thatthey munist authorities was a treasonable act and their ofspring were still considered which could cause a lot of disadvantage to be Germans by law. Tis ensured that for the applicants and their families. they could return to Germany as Ger- Legal emigrants lost their real estate and mans at any time. In contrast to this, for the right to return to the country. political refugees as asylum seekers Ger- As a consequence, a lot of emigrants many only provides protection. Te fact used a limited tourist visa to cross the of political persecution has to be proved border. As they had to expect negative in court. According to the law, political consequences for themselves, their fam- asylum seekers have the right to stay in ilies and friends in Poland, plans for em- Germany until their status is cleared. igration were kept secret. To avoid any Tey get housing and food in problems a lot of young families emi- DIETMAR OSSES 89 grated from Poland with strictly limited German repatriates. Provided that dis- luggage, telling their children that they crimination against Germans and its were going on holidays to Germany. repercussions in some successor states Up to the year 1990 more than one of the Soviet Union was still persisting, million emigrated from Poland to Ger- family members who are not considered many. Te vast majority beneftted from ethnic Germans themselves could be au- the possibility of getting the legal sta- thenticated as ethnic German repatriates tus as an ethnic German repatriate. In by a special reception procedure. Being those days it was easy to convince the accepted they are awarded the German authorities that one had German rootes. citizenship by act of law and got the full In most cases it was enough to have an- amount of assistance programmes. cestors who lived in the former German areas, to have German ancestors, or to claim to have been practicing German From multi-ethnic state to civil culture.. war: Yugoslavian work migrants As a repatriate one got free German and refugees of war from former language courses, help to fnd housing Yugoslavian states and employment, and payments to Shortly after forming the Kingdom of Polish social insurance were assigned to Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in 1918 as the German social insurance. So it was a multi-ethnic state, more than 10,000 not difcult to claim to be an ethnic emigrants went to Germany to work German and a lot of Poles did so. Te as miners and industrial workers the majority of the new immigrants from Ruhrgebiet. When the state was renamed Poland followed the old track of migra- by King Alexander I as ‘Kingdom of Yu- tion and came to Westphalia – this was goslavia’ in 1929, Yugoslavians made up a well known country over generations the ffth largest group of immigrants in of migrants. the Ruhrgebiet after immigrants from Te wave of emigration from Poland Poland, the , and was followed by millions of people who Czechoslovakia. During World War came from the states of the former Soviet II, Yugoslavia was invaded by German Union. From 1990 to 1996 more than 3 troops. With help of the Croatian fas- million people immigrated mainly from cist militia ‘Ustaše’ was made Russia, Kazakhstan and the to a German satellite state; other parts of Germany. Most of them were attracted Yugoslavia were occupied by Germany, by the frst euphoria about the reunif- , and Italy. Commu- cation of Germany in 1990 on the one nist and royalist groups built powerful hand and were shocked by rising na- resistance forces in several parts of Yu- tionalism, outbreaks of anti-German goslavia who initiated efective guerrilla feeling, and breakdown of the economy campaigns against the occupation, sup- in the collapsing Soviet States on the ported by the exiled royal government other hand. Emigrants of all ages emi- and the Allies. In April and May 1945 grated to Germany, nearly 100 percent partisans succeeded in the liberation of applied for authentication as ethnic the Yugoslavian territory. After re-estab- 90 AEMI JOURNAL 2013 lishment of the Yugoslavian Kingdom many - not only men but a high quota in November 1945, in 1946 Yugoslavia of women who worked in the electrical was transformed into a Socialist Federal industry in South Germany and the Republic with the six Socialist Repub- Ruhrgebiet. With a growing tourism lics, , Croatia, industry mainly in Croatia and Slove- Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia and nia many Yugoslavian immigrants in with the two autonomous Prov- Germany decided to open Yugoslavian inces of and Vojvodina. In con- restaurants in Germany to serve Yugo- trast to the Soviet satellite-states, the slavians as well as returning German super-diverse multi-ethnic and multi-re- tourists. In 1973 the number of Yugo- ligious state of Yugoslavia was largely al- slavian immigrants in Germany reached lowed freedom from interference from the peak of more than 700,000. In spite the Soviet Union. Under the presidency of the halt to recruitment and the policy of Josip Tito by and large the govern- of repatriation in the 1980s more than ment managed to balance the diferent 300,000 Yugoslavians remained in Ger- claims of ethnic and religious groups many. with some political pressure. Looking Economic and political crisis, rising back on the success of Partisan forces, nationalism and religious tensions led they played an important role for the in- to the in the 1990s. Fac- tegration of diferent political forces in ing the breaking down of the Yugosla- Yugoslavia. vian State and the civil war in the 1990s, In contrast to all the other commu- more than 1.2 million people from for- nist states in Europe, facing economic mer Yugoslavian States took refuge in crisis and growing populations in the Germany. Based on a special Quota Ref- late 1960s, Yugoslavia decided to allow ugee Act from 1991 until 1995 345,000 work migration to western capital- Bosnians found refuge in Germany, fol- ist European states. After the recruit- lowed by 195,000 refugees from Kosovo ing agreement between Yugoslavia and after 1999. Most of the others did not in 1968 some hundred register as refugees but went to their rel- thousand migrant workers came to Ger- atives and stayed as visitors in Germany for some time.

Immigration to the homeland of offenders: Jewish migration from former Soviet Union States to Germany Te persecution of the Jews by the Germans and the Holocaust is an ex- ceptional chapter of European history. Under the Nazi regime, approximately Fig 5 Muslim Serb immigrant Emir in the exhibition 6 million Jews were killed using a pro- Go west gramme of systematic persecution and DIETMAR OSSES 91

Fig. 6 Roman and Elizaveta - Two generations Jewish immigrants murder in the German Reich and the After the fall of the Berlin Wall, be- occupied states. After the Second World cause of the ongoing anti-Semitism in War in some parts of Europe and the es- some parts of the Soviet Union the frst pecially the Soviet Union, anti-Semitism free and democratically elected govern- and discrimination of Jews continued. ment of the German Democratic Re- In the states of the Soviet Union, Jews public decided in autumn 1990 to grant were legally an ethnic group and Jewish general asylum for Jews coming from the ethnicity was marked on identifcation Soviet Union States. After the re-unif- cards. Anti-Semitic policy in the Soviet cation Germany kept this act from till Union reached a peak in 1952 and 1953 nowadays. Following a restricted quota with the execution of Jewish poets and Jewish emigrants from succeeding states journalists and Stalin’s campaign against of the Soviet Union get protection and Jews as ‘corrupt Jewish bourgeois na- assistance in Germany and the right of tionalists’. After Stalin’s death in 1953 residence. Since 1993 about 200,000 anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism was Jews immigrated to Germany. not part of the ofcial policy but kept going on as everyday-life appearance. Jews were still discriminated and had Different history, common experi- generally no chance to practise their ences: Attitudes towards Germany faith. Te oral history project ‘Go west!’ made by the Westphalian State Museum of 92 AEMI JOURNAL 2013 Industrial Heritage and Culture in in some Croatian families the history of co-operation with the Ruhr University the Partisans played a predominant role, Bochum with approximately 30 inter- among the ethnic German immigrants views gave the chance to get insight in from former Soviet Union states the his- some attitudes of the immigrants about tory of persecution of the Germans after Germany and the Germans. 1941 stood in the foreground. Espe- Te diversity of relationships between cially the immigrants from Poland with Germany and the mentioned states in German roots knew about the banish- history as well as the specifc develop- ment and discrimination of Germans in ment of the migration history of every Poland but also about the crimes of the group generates a broad variety of atti- Soviets against Polish people during the tudes towards and narratives about Ger- war. With a closer look on the younger many and the Germans. Tese attitudes generation which includes the students and narratives difer between the various of the University’s courses the lack of generations. Especially members of the knowledge about Germany’s pre-demo- elder generation who had personal ex- cratic history was striking. Tis is even perience with war and the period recon- true for a 23 year-old Jewish immigrant struction sufered from the experience from Kazakhstan who came to Germany of war and dictatorship whereas the three years before and didn’t know any- younger generation got to know about thing about the Holocaust. In contrast the war and only from to western Germany and a lot of western school education, common narratives European countries, the Holocaust was and family stories. no story to be told in the Soviet Union. A set of similar experiences of all the Another collective experience for mentioned groups is the experience of most of the migrants of the 1990s (ex- living in a Communist society. Until cepting the Polish) was a growing na- the end of the Soviet Union the years tionalism in most of the states which in from 1941 to 1945 were ofcially cele- the end led to war in some post Soviet brated as the great patriotic war which states and in the former Yugoslavia. In in the end brought the victory of the So- post communist states extreme nation- viet System. By the Communist party, alism often was accompanied by rising Western Germany was said to be a anti-Semitism and glorifcation of Na- state, where capitalism and fascism still tional-Socialism. remained whereas the German Demo- A further set collective experience of cratic Republic as a Socialist Republic nearly all immigrants was to live to see obtained to have overcome these sys- the economic and political breakdown tems. By and large the interviews showed of the own country which caused an in- that this ofcial narrative and especially tense feeling of hopelessness and threat the periodic political ceremonies with for the future of oneself and the family. parades and tributes to the veterans and In such a situation, Germany appeared heroes of the war were well known. But for most of the immigrants as a kind of besides this ofcial view there were dif- ‘promised land’. ferent family stories to be found. While DIETMAR OSSES 93

Fig 7 Maria and Kristina, immigrants from Russia Kazakhstan, members of the project ‘Go west’

Immigrant’s first steps in Germany Tey kept a lot of details in mind. By As much as the motivation to emigrate and large in retrospect the immigrants and ways to cross the border difered, were impressed by the bureaucracy that as homogeneous were the frst steps for appeared to them not as impersonal and the immigrants in Germany. Te immi- restrictive but as useful and efcient. grants from Eastern Europe were mainly Another clearly remembered issue was collected in two big camps, the Fried- the special situation in the language land Camp near the city of Göttingen courses, as most of them had none or in Lower Saxony and the Camp Un- insufcient knowledge of the German na-Massen near the city of Dortmund language. Tere was a special feeling of in Northern Westphalia.4 solidarity and networking to help each Regardless of social origin every im- other in the new surroundings among migrant had to go to an immigration the immigrants. Some of these networks camp and stay there for some days or especially within the group of Polish im- weeks until legal status was checked and migrants were maintained even after the confrmed. period in the camps and formed the core Te interviews of the project ‘Go of a large number of diferent Polish as- west’ proved that this procedure made sociations we still can fnd in Germany. a big impact on all immigrants and is A further collective memory is the sit- still clearly remembered by all of them. uation of entering the local supermarket 94 AEMI JOURNAL 2013 for the frst time. Most of the Eastern discrimination in the USSR because of European migrants lacked a variety of their German origin. A general narrative fresh and exotic fruits, of technical and of them is desire for a better future for luxury goods from the Western world in their children which the hoped to fnd their home country. In the mostly sim- in Germany. In our research we found ple supermarkets near the immigration a lot of examples where these desires camps they found what they longed for. seemed to be fulflled by the success of Te frst purchase appeared to them as the children in jobs and social life. But a kind of proof for the better life that on the other hand there were several ex- they were looking for. Twenty years after amples of parents who experienced the their immigration a lot of immigrants loss of self-confdence, who lost their still remember what they bought at their feeling self-worth and belonging to the frst purchase in Germany. society: ‘In Russia I was treated as a Ger- man but in Germany now I am treated Living as immigrants in Germany as a Russian’ – that seems to be a collec- After clearing legal status, the immi- tive feeling of the elder generation. grants chose diferent ways to their new Looking at the immigrants from for- life in Germany. Tose who were ap- mer Yugoslavian states it is signifcant proved as ethnic German repatriates got that most of them tried to go back to German nationality and were helped to their homeland in the last few years. fnd accommodation and employment. But a lot of them today swing [Hans, Te early immigrants from Poland often I’ve not idea what this means!] Germany tried to assimilate completely. Many of and the Yugoslavian successor states. them did not speak Polish in public. Due to maintaining religious and eth- Tey built up informal networks to help nic discrimination in the new states, it is each other and have talks in Polish in often not possible for all to go back for private rooms. It is a phenomenon of the good and live in peace there. Te expe- last fve to ten years that Polish shops, rience of war, extreme nationalism and companies and legal association appear religious intolerance has split the former in the Ruhrgebiet as well as Polish con- Yugoslavian community in Germany. certs, festivals and art exhibitions. Te Language courses and church services members of the Polish artist association have often taken a nationalistic turn - a ‘Kosmopolen’ refect the questions of development which is not accepted by being Polish in Germany. Te Polish all of the immigrants, especially those immigrants seem to be on their way to who have well integrated families in look after their history and their future Germany. In our project we found both in Germany.5 - evidence of a trend for growing Cro- Looking at the immigrants from for- atian, Serbian or Bosnian identity and mer Soviet Union countries we can see self-consciousness as well as sticking to a that similar to the Polish the majority ‘Yugoslavian’ or ‘Balkan’-identity or new of them were accepted as ethnic Ger- cross-over identities as Serbian Muslims. man immigrants. Some of them had Te general asylum for Jewish immi- experienced negative stereotypes and grants from Russia and the other Soviet DIETMAR OSSES 95 Union successor states brought 200.000 the younger immigrants do not stick Jews to Germany. In the Ruhrgebiet, in to a single national or ethnic defned the past years the Jewish communities identity. Most of them do know their have reached the numbers they had be- ‘foreign’ rootes, but have developed fore 1933. Due to this several new and parts of a German identity, too. Tey prestigious Jewish synagogues have been express that feeling as ‘having two roots’ built, often with help from the local or ‘having two homelands’. Maybe the government in a sense of indemnifca- name of the association of Polish artists tion. But the Jewish religious commu- in Germany, ‘Kosmopolen’, is a hint at nities have to face new challenges: As a the development of a kind of ‘European consequence of the interdiction of Jew- identity’. ish church services in the Soviet Union, there is a great lack of knowledge about Judaism and Jewish religious life. As the Jewish immigrants mostly have none or insufcient knowledge of the German language as well, the Jewish communi- ties in practise have got the function of schools and meeting points particularly for elder Jewish immigrants. Identities and feelings of belonging Te comparison between the four dif- ferent groups allowed the visitors to the exhibition ‘Go west!’ to have a closer look at specifc conditions and circum- stances. Tis helped to fnd patterns of individual and of collective stories and memories. A key question for the ex- hibition was the question of identity and the personal feeling of belonging to Germany as a new homeland. Te exhibition ended with an audio station where the visitors could listen to various people telling how they feel in Germany as immigrants and what their identity looks like. Within the vast va- riety of diferent identities one could separate out two main trends. Look- ing at the elder generation there was a noticeable number of immigrants who felt ‘lost between two nations’. On the other hand, it appears as if especially 96 AEMI JOURNAL 2013 Notes Kift, Dagmar/ Osses, Dietmar: Polen - Ruhr. 1 For a short overview about immigration history to Zuwanderungen zwischen 1871 und heute, Germany see Schneider, Jan: Te Organisation Essen 2007 of Asylum and Migration Policies in Germany, Klötzel, Lydia: Die Rußlanddeutschen zwischen Nürnberg 2012 Autonomie und Auswanderung, München 2 Te results of the project are given in the catalogue: 1999 Osses, Dietmar (ed.): Nach Westen. Zuwan- Kukolj, Katja: Die Südslawen und ihre Identi- derung aus Osteuropa ins Ruhrgebiet, Essen 2012 tät(en) - Eine Untersuchung in Deutschland 3 See also: Osses, Dietmar: Polish Immigrants in Westphalia - A European Case Study of Integra- lebender Bosnier, Kroaten und Serben, Nor- tion? AEMI Journal Vo. 10, 2012:82-88 derstaedt 2010 4 Tese were the main and permanent camps erected Miera, Frauke: Polski Berlin. Migration aus in 1945 (Friedland) and 1946/51 (Unna-Massen), Polen nach Berlin, Münster 2007 frst to serve refugees to Germany. In West Berlin, Nagel, Sebastian: Zwischen zwei Welten. Kul- Marienfeld camp was installed in 1953, frst to turelle Strukturen der polnisch-sprachigen serve German refugees from the GDR Bevölkerung in Deutschland. Analyse und 5 In 2013 ‘Porta Polonica’, a documentation center Empfehlungen , Stuttgart 2009 for the culture and history of Poles in Germany Nonn, Christoph: Kleine Migrationsgeschichte was founded. See: Barski, Jacek/ Osses, Dietmar von Nordrhein-Westfalen, Köln 2011 (ed.): Polen in Deutschland. Geschichte und Kul- tur. Essen 2013 Osses, Dietmar (ed.): Nach Westen. Zuwan- derung aus Osteuropa ins Ruhrgebiet, Essen 2012 Pallaske, Christoph: Migration aus Polen in die References Bundesrepublik in den 1980er und 1990er Baumgärtner, Esther: Lokalität und kulturelle Jahren, Münster 2002 Heterogenität. Selbstverortung und Identität Schneider, Jan: Te Organisation of Asylum and in der multi-ethnischen Stadt, Bielefeld 2009 Migration Policies in Germany. Study of the Beloševic, Danijela/ Stanisavljecić: Die ehemali- German National Contact Point for the Eu- gen „jugoslawischen“ Minderheiten. In: Sch- ropean Migration Network (EMN), 2nd ed., malz-Jacobsen, Cornelia/ Polm, Rita (Hg.): Federal Ofce for Migration and Refugees, Ethnische Minderheiten in der Bundesrepu- Nürnberg 2012 blik Deutschland. München 1995 Vogelsang, Waldemar/ Elfert, Marc: Jugendliche Doomernik, Jeroen: Soviet Jewish Immigrants Aussiedler, Weinheim 2008 in Berlin and their Strategies of Adaption to German Society. In: Clausne, Lars (ed.): Ge- sellschaften im Umbruch. am Main 1996: 413-426 Herbert, Ulrich: Geschichte der Ausländerbe- schäftigung in Deutschland. Saisonarbeiter, Zwangsarbeiter, , Flüchtlinge, München 2001 Ingenhorst, Heinz: Die Rußlanddeutschen, Frankfurt am Main 1997 Kerski, Basil: Doppelte Identitäten. Polen in Deutschland - Deutsche in Polen. Basil Kerski im Gespräch mit Wisław Lewicki, Andrzej Kaluza, Jacek Tyblewski und Marcin Wiatr. In: Kerski, Basil/ Ruchniewicz, Krystof (ed.): Polnische Einwanderung. Zur Geschichte und Gegenwart der Polen in Deutschland. Osnabrück 2011:285-289