When I applied to this program back in January of this year, I really had no idea what I was talking about when I was discussing identity and what it means. I still can't really say I understand the topic, but I can say that I have learned a lot about identities and I am now able to have genuine discussions about the topic. National identities are very complex, especially when you consider that individual identities are composed of so many different parts. At first when I started my project on minority groups using theater as a way to have a voice in society at large, I had assumed that the minorities were outsiders to this national identity and that they wanted to be accepted as part of it. After watching several plays and talking with Abidal and Rissa, I came to realize that they weren’t fighting to be accepted as a ‘German’ per se, but to be recognized as a citizen of Germany without having to give up their cultural background. The minority population in Germany is not small, and I don’t hesitate to think of the citizens with minority background, asylum seekers, and refugees as a significant part of the German identity. There are many German citizens who believe that immigrants and citizens with a migration background are an important part of German society, and they are ready to welcome the changing identity of Germany. However, there are still many Germans who don’t want to accept that Germany, and particularly Berlin, has become a place of migration and that the homogenous culture that they recognize as ‘Germany’ is no longer.
One of the major reasons that I think that further integration has not been achieved is because the German government has created policies that make it impossible for refugees, asylum seekers, and even citizens with a migration background to be seen on a level as equal to that of a German citizen who looks German. How can somebody be recognized as an equal individual if they are forced to buy their groceries at a specific checkout stand that will take their cards that label them as an asylum seeker? How can they be seen as equal when they don’t have the freedom to travel outside of a small area without permission? How can they be seen as anything but a burden when they are forced to beg for a place to sleep and food to eat because they aren’t allowed to have a job or go to school? A hierarchy has been created that makes it very difficult for these minority groups to move up in the social ladder, and because they are at the bottom their demands for equality are not heard. There are German citizens who are in the majority who see and hear the plight of these minority groups, and they try to help by using their status to gain them recognition. However, this really just reinforces the concept that these people are at a lower position than they are, and that they need help to have their voice heard. At the same time, the minority groups do need people to recognize that they are just as much a part of Germany as any other citizen. I think it is important that awareness is raised by both majority and minority groups and that through conversations everyone will come to realize that the conditions that these minority groups have to face is unjust.
Over the course of this program my project evolved to look at political theater as a whole, which includes both theater created and performed by minority groups, and also demonstrations that have a theatrical quality to it. Though each theater performance had a different story, each shared the message that despite the fact that they came from a different place, look different, have different cultural or religious beliefs, or even a different sexual orientation, they still matter. They don’t want to give up who they are because their background is important to them, but at the same time they don’t want to or could never conform to be the German ideal. They can’t go back to their places of origin because they won’t really belong their either. All they want is to be able to live a normal life, have a normal job or go to school, but most importantly be treated as an equal person. The Maxim Gorki Theater is actually quite popular and I see a lot of potential for the theater to help with closing the separation between minority and majority groups. The Ballhaus Naunynstrasse Theater is much smaller, and although their shows were sold out both nights of their performance, they perform in a much smaller theater to an audience who already knows and cares about the situation of the actors and actresses. The Center for Political Beauty on the other hand has been gaining recognition for the conditions of refugees in Germany and the European Union nation-wide, and they are forcing the governments of the European Union to see the consequences of the immigration policies in the EU. The countries in the European Union are fighting against the rise in immigration because they are grasping to the idea that their country is supposed to be homogenous, but in reality the identity of a country is always shifting, and trying to fight that change only causes pain to the people who need help the most.
After four weeks in Germany studying German and American identities, I could not tell you what it means to be American, and I definitely couldn’t define what it means to be German. If I were to ask every German I saw what it means to them to be German, I would get a different answer every time. Every person is a unique and complex individual, and all those individuals make up the identity of a community, and community identities make up state identities, and state identities make up national identities. On top of that the people within a community are always changing, so therefore the identity of a place must always be changing as well. Throughout this program I have learned so much, and I am so grateful for having the opportunity to study abroad and learn about such complex concepts in Berlin where the topic of immigration and cultural identities is relevant in everyday life.