Photography, 1964
Hasan Barlas Foçali was born on June 6, 1939, in the Turkish town of Ayancık. In 1946, the family moved from the Black Sea to the big city of Istanbul. At his father’s request, Hasan Foçali moved to Germany to study after finishing high school. He arrived in Berlin in June 1961, just a few weeks before the Berlin Wall was built. There, he wanted to study medicine or engineering but initially did 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 dental studies 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 now-wife Ilona, who was on vacation 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 first in Berlin and later in Lippstadt as a dentist.
