Politics & Media

October 5, 2013 0

Happy Weekend: Will the True Berliners Please Stand Up

English Theatre Berlin's new piece by Daniel Brunet asks the hot question, 'Who is a real Berliner?'. 'Echter Berliner!!! Ihr nicht fuck you' is a documentary theater production which addresses the curious tension between expats and immigrants, as if these categories were ever clear or even exclusive. Putting the product of 60 interviews on stage is brilliant, hanging prejudices out to dry when the last place we need them is in the camp of the outsiders... [Read More!]
August 25, 2013 1

Rave: Why Remembering the Holocaust is Good for Immigrants

In 2005, Germany officially became an immigration country with the establishment of its federal office for migration. The question - who are the Germans anyway? - has become increasingly important in deciding what to impart to these newcomers set to stay. Expats are good at constructing Germanness for the Germans themselves, often leaving out the Holocaust in such a description of 'German identity', however. Today's Germany - an immigration country - is a republic built on tragic events like the Holocaust, just as France is a country built on colonialism. Everything has a context, and it is this context that immigrants to Germany should learn to understand for the sake of a more complete country - a civic society which respects differences and celebrates them... [Read More!]
June 18, 2013 2

Review: Become a German (in just under 650 hours)

You must clean up after your dog. You must ride your bike in the right direction of the bike lane, recites a Russian student. The audience chuckles. First work, then... chants the teacher. The audience groans. Do you know any examples of German humor? asks the teacher. Uhhh, fumbles the Japanese student. 10 seconds go by. I'm still thinking, he mutters and scratches his head. The audience roars... [Read More!]
June 9, 2013 2

Weekend Review: Germany’s ‘Brown Babies’ (how America’s good-guy image might get a run for its money)

Berlin can be a historical mine field. Escaping the fact that genocide, division, tyranny, even the colonial division of Africa began on this ground is an impossible feat. As American tourists wander through the many memorials to the lost, murdered, and persecuted that saturate the city with this remembrance of tragedy, I have to ask myself: Do we Americans think that we were always the “good guys” in this mess? [Read More!]
June 6, 2013 1

The N-Word

When I posted the Who's/Whose Normal? article a few weeks ago, I expected the "N-word" of interest to be Neger, a term that falls somewhere between "negro" and "nigger" on the translation and offensiveness spectrum. Instead, the strongest reactions came in response to another N-Word: Nazi... [Read More!]
May 29, 2013 5

Prejudice with Condiments: understanding Schwabenhass

The ketchup- or cheese-smeared faces of Swabian and Berliner icons are just one small part of a culture war between imagined identities and exaggerated actors, i.e. the alternative Berliner vs. the fancy-schmancy Swabian. The worst part in this so-called Spätzlekrieg or 'Spätzel war'  is the escalation from humorous prodding to line-crossing slogans. Parallels between Nazi persecution of the Jews, particularly in the insignia of Kristallnacht, can be found across the city. Berlin is a city rife with history; is its memory this short? [Read More!]
May 14, 2013 2

Rant: Who’s/Whose Normal?

It's these little images, phrases, and jokes that become so deeply engrained within our mindsets and pervasive within our culture that they are considered "normal". But in a city as diverse as Berlin - where 1 in every 7 inhabitants is non-German, over 138 countries are represented, and the LGBT population is one of Europe's largest - what or who the hell is "normal" anyway? And whose definition are we even using?... [Read More!]
May 2, 2013 0

Rave: “I am not a Terrorist”

In Berlin, the dimensions of migration and diversity may sometimes be over-simplified, but groups like Migrantas are changing that, and doing so creatively. The best part: the voice and agency of the "immigrants", so often talked-about and so seldom talking-back, take center stage... [Read More!]
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