Love Deutschmarks and Death (2022) is a documentary film composed of archival footage and current interviews on the music of the Turkish immigrant community in Germany and how they employ music as a narrative device of self-expression. The film is divided into three parts that highlight the socio-economic and cultural obstacles and problems of three generations of immigrants, from the arrival of gastarbeiters to Germany in 1961 until today.

Tracing the protest musical journey of immigrants is a way of reading minor histories. This paper approaches the film as an attempt to examine the social, cultural, and economic discourses in this community about the issues of integration/rejection dichotomy through music. Within the film's narrative, the attempt to write a minor history through music can be exemplified by placing heavily accented German phrases in Turkish traditional songs of the first wave of immigrants to contemporary forms that are new, entirely hybrid, and incomprehensible for the Turkish audience. However, it is argued that this process, narrated through music, also highlights how the Turkish gastarbeiter was transformed into a German citizen of Turkish origin, a cultural line supported by the German state in its 60th year.

Authors:
Mustafa Orhan Göztepe, Istanbul Kültür University, Turkey

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Mustafa Orhan Göztepe is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at Istanbul Kültür University in Turkey

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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