The East German migration society: diverse, very committed, but often underrepresented in media, culture and science. Eight committed people from Dresden, Weimar, Cottbus, Leipzig, Halle and Berlin tell in a video clip of the ZfI project MigOst what bothers them and what they would like to see.

© ZfI

"I never really feel seen as a Black East German, as an East German of Color, because we never really existed in the public discourse," says, for example, Katharina Warda, a sociologist and author born in Wernigerode.

Angelika Kim, who grew up in Döbeln, Saxony: "We know that in Germany, as a non-white person, it's super hard to just say: I'm from Germany. Because then the person is denied that and questioned and asked about origins. And if people then also say that they are East Germans or Ossis, that brings another hurdle that you have to jump over, because that is even more not accepted or recognised".

© ZfI

The four-minute clip was created as part of the project "MigOst - Ostdeutsche Migrationsgesellschaft selbst erzählen". The project team organises storytelling cafés in Cottbus, Dresden and Halle together with migrant self-organisations and interested civil society groups.

Based on the collected results of the storytelling cafés, plays, exhibitions or city tours will be developed together with cultural institutions in Dresden, Halle and Cottbus from 2023. They will tell of memories and experiences of the participants and make them accessible to a broad public in order to make the East German migration society more visible.

Click here for the video clip.                      
You can find more information about the project here.