Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-x5cpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-28T04:29:26.511Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction: Ghetto Discourses and German Mediascapes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

Maria Stehle
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Get access

Summary

Für die sind wir Kanaken, unterhaltend, sowas wie das Leben der Boheme oder harsches Gossenelend, sowas wie Anheizer vonnem Partyevent, sowas wie Judenschneider im geflickten Rock … so ist das gewünschte Angst, so wollen sie Straßenquill und Ghettoballern, um aus dem Kullern inner Öde wegzuknallen. Der erste Schuß dröhnt sehr laut. … Da grölt n Lämmerchor: Wir haben's doch schon immer gewußt, und jetzt wird der Türke auf unserm Boden rotzefrech.

[For them we are Kanaken, entertaining, something like the bohemian life or the harsh life on the streets, something like the instigator of the party event, something like the Jewish tailor in the patched-up suit, … in that way, this is the fear they wish for, they want the street-stuff and the ghetto shooters, to shoot their boredom off their streets. The first shot is very loud … then a lambs' choir is chanting: we always knew it, and now the Turk is becoming cheeky in our country.]

Mediascapes and Changing German Cityscapes

THE ABOVE QUOTE FROM FERIDUN ZAIMOGLU'S 1998 publication Koppstoff, a collection of protocols written by Turkish-German women, describes how the Germans understand their Others: as the “life on the streets,” as “ghetto shooters,” as a multicultural, Bohemian fantasy. The Germans use the Kanaken, a derogatory term for Turks in Germany, for entertainment, as action figures, as a kind of drug against boredom, as adding flavor. But conveniently these images can also justify exclusion: when the Turks' “shots” get too loud, what until then constituted their entertainment value quickly becomes the reason for their continued exclusion.

Type
Chapter
Information
Ghetto Voices in Contemporary German Culture
Textscapes, Filmscapes, Soundscapes
, pp. 1 - 19
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×