SCENE: A STUDIO OF N3 (public television based in Bremen, Germany), on the evening of Friday, May 8, 1998. A live arts magazine talk-show, “3 nach neun,” is being broadcast. The translation of the dialogue, as well as the monologues by Feridun Zaimoglu, is based on a published transcript.

Cast in order of appearance

Gaby Hauptmann. The moderator. Born 1957. Best-selling, neofeminist, popular author, television producer, and media celebrity.

Feridun Zaimoglu. Born 1964, resident in Germany since 1972. Writer and artist, based in Kiel. By the date of the broadcast he had published three books comprising “statements” and stories based on interviews with young Turkish Germans: Kanak Sprak (1995); Abschaum (Scum, 1997); and Koppstoff (Headstuff, 1998). In these books, Zaimoglu created a new literary language: “Kanak Sprak” (approximately equivalent to “Spik Speak” or “Paki Talk”), a synthesis of diverse German dialects, slangs, and jargons with rap rhythms. This work won him a reputation as a spokesman for racialized youth (i.e. those who tend to be seen by the German native majority through the lens of “race” thinking). By 1998, the monologues had been widely adapted for radio, stage, and screen, and Zaimoglu's work had inspired the foundation of “Kanak Attak,” a nationwide alliance of anti-racist cultural workers. But he was still a relatively inexperienced media performer.

Harald Juhnke. Born 1929. Celebrated stage and screen actor.

Heide Simonis. Born 1943. Prominent Social Democrat (SPD) politician: minister-president of Schleswig-Holstein, 1993–2005.