Objekt des Monats
Jedes Objekt in der Sammlung des Deutschen Auswandererhauses erzählt eine ganz persönliche Auswanderungs- oder Einwanderungsgeschichte. In dieser Rubrik stellen wir Ihnen jeden Monat ein anderes Objekt vor – eine Fotografie, ein Dokument oder ein persönliches Erinnerungsstück.
August 2021
Photography from the year 1964
© Collection Deutsches Auswandererhaus
Historical Context
On August 19th, it is World Photography Day! On this day in 1839, the French state acquired the patent for the daguerreotype, a photographic process named after its French inventor Louis Daguerre – and made it available to all. This date is considered the birth of photography. Photographs remain a global and popular method to capture even major events and beautiful moments. They preserve, witness, and document, serving as significant means of communication. In the context of migration, self-made photographs are often seen as representations of new life worlds, acting as a transnational, diasporic medium when sent back to the countries of origin. Emigrants, around the turn of the 19th to 20th century, sent their photographs as postcards to those who stayed behind. They show how and where they arrived, what they have achieved, or which new family members are to be introduced. At the same time, they serve as a tool for personal self-positioning: so-called “guest workers” in Germany, for example, took photographs of themselves in front of historical buildings, parks, or other well-known structures and sent them back to their home country. These photographs testify to experiences of foreignness, but also to new self-descriptions and identities.
Short biography of Hasan Barlas Foçali
Hasan Barlas Foçali was born on June 6, 1939, in the Turkish city of Ayancık. In 1946, the family moved from the Black Sea to the big city of Istanbul. At his father’s request, Hasan Foçali went to Germany to study after finishing high school. In June 1961, just a few weeks before the construction of the Berlin Wall, he arrived in Berlin. There he intended to study medicine or engineering, but initially completed an internship at Siemens, where he took care of the concerns of the first Turkish ‘guest workers’ in the company as a home manager and interpreter. In the summer semester of 1962, Hasan Foçali finally began his studies in dentistry at the Free University of Berlin. In 1965, he returned to Turkey for personal reasons. He completed his studies at Istanbul University in 1970. One evening in Istanbul, he met his current wife Ilona, who was vacationing there with her family and the reason for his return to Germany in November 1971. The following year, the couple married and had three children. Until his retirement in 2008, Hasan Foçali worked as a dentist first in Berlin and later in Lippstadt.
Significance of the object
‘When I came to Berlin, there were only 12 Turks here. They were all students. There were no guest workers from Turkey yet.’
Making contacts, having local knowledge, attending events: This photo tells the story of arrival. The student Hasan Foçali (left) is sitting with two labor migrants, so-called guest workers, in a cozy gathering at a celebration in a restaurant in Berlin in 1964. However, the image shows more. It illustrates that in the 1960s not only so-called ‘guest workers’ immigrated to Germany from Turkey, but also education migrants who changed their residence for their studies or training. And it reports to us, at a glance, about encounters of different but simultaneous immigrant groups in Germany.
Have you also …
… to share a migration story of your family and would like to pass it along with the related objects and documents to the German Emigration Center for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau at the phone number 0471 / 90 22 0 – 0 or via email at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de
Archive: Previous Objects of the Month
Display all objectsDo You Also Have …
… a story of emigration or immigration in your family that you would like to share with the German Emigration Center together with the related objects and documents for its collection? Then please contact Dr. Tanja Fittkau by phone at +49 471 / 90 22 0 – 0
or by e-mail at: t.fittkau@dah-bremerhaven.de