by Kleomenis Boltsis

The year is 1956. Peace is still something new in Greece. After a world war and a civil war that have left the country in ruins, the Greek government is trying to take establish its control over its citizens and to rebuild the national economy. At the same time, many Greeks have decided to go abroad, searching for a better future. This essay will sketch the mass-movement of migrant workers from Greece in the post-war period and will search for explanations of the experiene of migration. The focus will be on those who went to Germany – the single most popular destination country – and their experiences. The immigration of Greek citizens, who left Greece for Germany in the first post-war decades due to poverty, is probably the only case in the history of Greek-German relations where Greek culture and habits were genuinely transferred to Germany. Weiterlesen →

by Valentin Kordas (University of Regensburg)

Introduction

The reasons why so many Greek people came to Germany after the signing of the recruitment treaty between the two countries in 1960 are so diverse that a universal assessment of these individual motivations seems impossible. Each migrant worker had his or her own ideas, expectations, dreams and personal history.

What was going on in the minds of those, who decided to leave the place of their childhood, of their memories, and of their former life in order to start once again in a new country? Weiterlesen →