Facade portrait: José María Sardo de Oliveira

José María Sardo de Oliveira

* 1959 in Murtosa, Portugal

Immigration to Bremerhaven: 1972

José María Sardo de Oliveira was 13 years old when he arrived in Bremerhaven-Lehe on June 21, 1972, with his parents and siblings. The journey by train took over two days. His father had been living in Germany since 1968 and worked at sea for various shipping companies, first in Cuxhaven and then in Bremerhaven. One reason the family moved from Portugal was that the older brother would have been drafted into the army as soon as he turned 16. The family managed to leave just in time.

At the Alfred-Delp-School, José learns German in a class for “guest worker children”. The teacher is Spanish, which makes communication easier. José leaves school at 15 and initially works in road construction, like his brother. He drops out of his apprenticeship in shipbuilding. He spends his entire life working in Bremerhaven and the surrounding area: first at the shipyard, then at “Airbus” near Stade, later in the assembly of wind turbines.

José María Sardo de Oliveira

For only two and a half years, he switched to an office job: Between 1989 and 1991, José de Oliveira worked as a translator for the Bremerhaven Chamber of Workers. The good connections to the Chamber arose through the Portuguese Association, which de Oliveira co-founded in the 1970s. This, in turn, came from a football club in which the Portuguese had been involved from the beginning. The cooperation between the Chamber of Workers and various guest worker associations is driven by SPD councilor Günter Lemke (1931 – 2015) and the then chairman of the Chamber of Workers, Werner Fock. Soon, José de Oliveira becomes the contact person for all matters requiring a translator from Portuguese or Spanish — whether for a divorce process or the police interrogation of a mysterious owner of three passports issued in different names. Sometimes, the translator from the Chamber of Workers is even called at night. De Oliveira declines the option to extend the ABM position and returns to work as a shipbuilding helper at MWB Motorenwerke.

In the meantime, the Portuguese workers’ association in Bremerhaven has dissolved due to a lack of interest from the younger generation, but the small restaurant on Rickmersstraße remains a meeting point for José de Oliveira and the Portuguese of his generation. German-speaking guests also regularly visit the place.