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University of California Press

Germany in Transit

Nation and Migration, 1955-2005
by Deniz Göktürk (Editor), David Gramling (Editor), Anton Kaes (Editor)
Paperback eBook
Price: $38.95 / £33.00
Publication Date: Apr 2007
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 613
ISBN: 9780520248946
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 13 b/w photographs
Series:
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About the Book

How does migration change a nation? Germany in Transit is the first sourcebook to illuminate the country's transition into a multiethnic society—from the arrival of the first guest workers in the mid-1950s to the most recent reforms in immigration and citizenship law. The book charts the highly contentious debates about migrant labor, human rights, multiculturalism, and globalization that have unfolded in Germany over the past fifty years—debates that resonate far beyond national borders.

This cultural history in documents offers a rich archive for the comparative study of modern Germany against the backdrop of European integration, transnational migration, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Divided into eleven thematic chapters, Germany in Transit includes 200 original texts in English translation, as well as a historical introduction, chronology, glossary, bibliography, and filmography.

About the Author

Deniz Göktürk, Associate Professor of German, is author of Künstler, Cowboys, Ingenieure: Kultur- und mediengeschichtliche Studien zu deutschen Amerika-Texten 1912-1920 and coeditor of The German Cinema Book. David Gramling is completing his doctoral thesis on German Turkish literature and the spatial imaginary. Anton Kaes, Chancellor Professor of German and Film Studies, is author of From Hitler to Heimat: The Return of History as Film, M, and coeditor of The Weimar Republic Sourcebook (UC Press). The editors are all affiliated with the German Department at the University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

List of Documents
List of Illustrations
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: A German Dream?

1. Working Guests: Gastarbeiter and Green Card Holders
2. Our Socialist Friends: Foreigners in East Germany
3. Is the Boat Full? Xenophobia, Racism, and Violence
4. What Is a German? Legislating National Identity
5. Religion and Diaspora: Muslims, Jews, and Christians
6. Promoting Diversity: Institutions of Multiculturalism
7. An Immigration Country? The Limits of Culture
8. Living in Two Worlds? Domestic Space, Family, and Community
9. Writing Back: Literature and Multilingualism
10. A Turkish Germany: Film, Music, and Everyday Life

Epilogue: Global Already?
Chronology
Glossary
Bibliography
Filmography
Internet Resources
List of Credits
Index

Reviews

“An important document collection that complements similar resources on Nazi and Weimar Germany.”
— Journal Of Ethnic & Migration Stds
“Overall, this is an important document collection that complements similar resources on Nazi and Weimar Germany.”
— Journal Of Intl Migration & Integration
"Germany in Transit is a much-needed sourcebook that vividly represents the crucial debates about the integration of 'foreigners' in Germany. Written for all levels of readers, from school teachers and college students to general readers."—Werner Sollors, author of Beyond Ethnicity: Consent and Descent in American Culture

"This book is first-rate: historically accurate, thickly textured, and methodologically cutting-edge. Even experts in migration studies and German studies will be inspired by the astonishing range of materials gathered in this important yet readily accessible book."—Leslie A. Adelson, author of The Turkish Turn in Contemporary German Literature: Toward a New Critical Grammar of Migration

"A path-breaking book about postwar Germany on its way to Europe and the modern world. Precisely researched and creatively organized, this is indispensable reading for anyone who wishes to take part in the conversation about cultural diversity. It is perhaps telling that no such book has yet been published in Germany; the perspective from abroad opens new horizons."—Zafer [enocak, author of Atlas of a Tropical Germany: Essays on Politics and Culture, 1990-1998

"This striking assembly of texts tells the real story of postwar normalization. For the German lands have always bid welcome and, after the monochrome years of the Third Reich and its immediate aftermath, once again host a multiplicity of ethnics, cultures, and religions. Read and see for yourself what contemporary Germany is all about."—Michael Geyer, author of The Power of Intellectuals in Contemporary Germany