The life stories of people who migrated from abroad to East Germany is the subject of a theater play to be shown in Dresden on July 6 and 7.

The showcase entitled “Dinnor on se Bood” was created by the “B:ClubsUN(D)SICHTBAR” theater group at the Staatschauspiel Dresden by amateur actors from Dresden whose heritage has international roots.

“A lot of people have no idea how diverse the east of Germany is. Hundreds of thousands of people came to the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) from all over the world to work or study. For example, my father came here as a former Vertragsarbeiter (migrant worker) from Vietnam,” says Paolo Le van, who, together with eight other participants and director Anis Hamdoun, has been working on the play since January. “With this play, we hope we can make this and many other aspects of east German society more visible and tell our own stories.”

Collaboration between citizen science project and Staatsschauspiel Dresden

The Staatsschauspiel Dresden’s B:Club receives financial funding from the “TU Dresden in Dialogue” measure. They are supported by the citizen science project, “Migration in East Germany: Your story told in your own words” (MigOst), a project which TU Dresden has been carrying out for over two years together with the BTU Cottbus and DaMOst, an organization which represents the interests of migrants in East Germany.

Since March 2012, members of MigOst – including Paolo Le van – have conducted 46 biographical interviews and led storytelling events in cooperation with migrant-led organizations. During these events, people who have moved to Germany from abroad or have experienced migration first-hand can exchange views and, as contemporary witnesses and experts, tell their own stories about the diverse migrant community in East Germany.

The collected materials and stories will be archived in Dresden’s Institut für Sächsische Geschichte und Volkskunde (Institute for Saxon History and Folklore) and will be made accessible to the public when the project concludes in spring 2024.

The international side of Saxony’s history

During the 1970s and 1980s, the GDR had agreements with Vietnam, Mozambique, and other countries to bring foreign laborers into the country for fixed periods of time. Moreover, people from Palestine, Senegal and Cuba came to the GDR to study or to claim political asylum. In the two decades after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, many ethnic Germans or people with Jewish heritage from the former Eastern Bloc, mostly from Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, found a new home in Saxony. And, even before the 2015 migrant crisis, Saxony was home to many people who have fled their home countries or found a good place to work or study in the region.

Tickets:
Tickets for the July 6 and 7 performances cost EUR 6 per person and can be purchased at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden website: https://www.staatsschauspiel-dresden.de/spielplan/a-z/dinnor-on-se-bood/

About the project “Migration in East Germany: Your story told in your own words” (MigOst):
The project is conducted by an interdisciplinary team from three institutions: the Center for Integration Studies at TU Dresden, the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg and DaMOst.

Funding:

The MigOst project receives funding by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as a Citizen Science project. It is one of 15 projects that will run until 2024 to promote collaboration between the public and scientists both in terms of content and methodology, and to provide answers to societal challenges.

Contact:
Julia Solinski (MigOst project team member, responsible for press and public relations)
Tel: +49 176 46 78 94 79

www.damost.de/projekte/migost/