Facade portrait: Franjo Spahić

Franjo Spahić

* 1954 in Duge, Yugoslavia

ⴕ 2016, Bremerhaven

Immigration to Bremerhaven: 1973

When Franjo Spahić arrived in Bremerhaven in March 1973 at the age of 19, his parents and siblings were already there. His mother Ruža was the first to leave Yugoslavia to work as a so-called guest worker in the Bremerhaven fishing industry. She encouraged the rest of the family to follow her. Franjo was the last to arrive; he hesitated to give up his friends and job – a risk.

Franjo Spahić and his siblings grew up in modest conditions. The parents worked hard. Franjo was already earning his own money at 14: as a carnival worker, in construction, and finally in a furniture factory.

In Germany, he initially takes on temporary jobs, living together with his parents and siblings in Grünehöfe. Soon after his arrival, he meets Susanne in the Bremerhaven nightclub “Superstar” – his future wife. The two move in together and marry in 1976.

Franjo Spahić, 1973

Franjo Spahić steadily progresses: when his son Marinko is just a few months old, Franjo obtains his secondary school diploma in 1981 through a Yugoslavian distance education program, followed by a vocational certificate as a structural steel locksmith and a qualification as a state-certified mechanical engineer in the following years. The desire for his children to have a better life motivates him. “He always tried to make it possible for us to do everything we wanted,” says his daughter Mirjam. Every year – until the outbreak of the war – the family vacations in Yugoslavia, visiting friends and relatives. In 1988, Franjo gets a job in Bremen, and the family builds a house in Weyhe. Bremerhaven remains an important point of reference, as a large part of the family still lives there.

A negative turning point for Franjo Spahić is the civil war in Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav community in Germany also becomes divided. Franjo wishes and cannot identify with any of the groups. He still sees himself as a Yugoslav. Since the state of Yugoslavia no longer exists and Franjo refuses to become a citizen of one of the new states, he is stateless for several years. Eventually, he decides to apply for German citizenship. He dedicates several years to the foreigner’s advisory council of the Weyhe community to support refugees.

In 2013, Franjo Spahić is now self-employed with his own company and the couple moves back to the seaside city. After a sudden and severe illness, Franjo Spahić passes away in 2016 in Bremerhaven. Susanne Spahić describes the city’s role for her husband as follows: “His siblings are here. This is his home, his second home. He has arrived here, and here he started his family. He got married here.”