ALD Global Connections

Making Connections with the World Community: Working at the Local Level and Beyond

By Leroy Hopkins, Ph.D

In seeking to make connections with the world community it is important to realize:

1) Like the U.S., the German-speaking world is culturally diverse with numerous ethnic and racial minorities.

2) Since German is a world language the impact of German language and culture is found not just in Europe but also in Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, Asia, and the Pacific.

To help students understand and learn from German connections to the world community, a secure knowledge base on the various groups involved in the connections must be provided. Furthermore, students need to understand not only specific historical contexts but also how intercultural contacts with the German-speaking world have contributed to American as well as the Germanic culture. The following annotated bibliography of essays and personal stories in German and English is not intended to be comprehensive. Our intent is to provide some essential references and suggest avenues for personal or group exploration.

Multicultural America:

Takakai, Ronald. A Different Mirror. A History of Multicultural America. Little, Brown and Co.: Boston, 1993. ISBN 0-316-83111-5 [Covering the period from the colonization of the New World to the LA riots of 1992 this excellent history provides an inclusive history of the U.S. A must read for teachers who are concerned about diversity in their Classrooms]

African-American History:

[There is, of course, an entire library of historical and contemporary accounts on African Americans. Out of the myriad of excellent texts I have chosen two authors who can legitimately be considered giants of African-American historiography in the 20th century. Their books can be used as portals to explore specific themes in the rich and varied history of persons of African descent in America]

Franklin, John Hope. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, 8th edition, Knopf, 2000. ISBN 0375406719 [This is the standard text for introductory African-American history classes. Dr. Franklin is Harvard trained {incidentally, he had difficulty learning German there: just an aside from me} and gives interesting insights. Teachers can use portions for orientation]

Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the Making of America, 3rd editon, Touchstone, 1996, ISBN 0684818884. [The late Dr. Quarles was a profoundly learned scholar and his survey book can be read by undergraduates or secondary students interested in the topic. Also insightful for teachers]

Multicultural Germany General Reference:

Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne und Reinhard Klein-Arendt (hg). Die (koloniale) Begegnung. AfrikanerInnen in Deutschland 1880-1945 Deutsche in Afrika 1880-1918. Peter Lang, 2003. ISBN 1-57113-098-5 [Proceedings of the 2001 conference in Cologne; leading scholars in the field explore the historical contexts of contacts between Africans and Germans; primarily in German with some articles in English; for teachers]

Debrunner, Hans Werner. Presence and Prestige: Africans in Europe before 1918. Basel, 1979. [Difficult to find but this is the definitive encyclopedia of Africans who lived in diverse countries such as France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Italy from the Middle Ages up to World War I; a must read for anyone wanting to deepen their knowledge of historical interactions of Africans with Europeans]

Hopkins, Leroy T. Who is a German? Historical and Modern Perspectives on Africans in Germany. American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, 1999. ISBN 0-941441-38-5 (also available online). [A usual orientation for teachers and advanced students interested in the broad range of African and African-American interaction with German society including academic as well as popular culture themes, e.g hip hop and rap]

Horrocks, David and Eva Kolinsky (eds) Turkish Culture in German Society Today. Berghahn Books, 1996.ISBN 1-57181-047-1 [excellent introduction to subject matter with strong bibliography]

Kolinsky, Eva and David Horrocks (eds) Jewish Culture in German Society Today. Berghahn Books, 1998. ISBN 1-57181-952-5 [another in the series on German contemporary culture; a useful tool for understanding the current situation]

Lotz, Rainer E. Black People: Entertainers of African Descent in Europe, and Germany. Birgit Lotz Verlag: Bonn, 1997. ISBN 3-498-07662-0 [fascinating look at an aspect of intercultural exchange usually neglected by academicians]

Lützeler, Paul Michael (hg) Schreiben zwischen den Kulturen. Multikulturelle deutschsprachige Literatur der Gegenwart. Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, 1996. ISBN 3-596-12962-1.

____________ (ed.) Multiculturalism in Contemporary German Literature. Special edition of World Literature Today, Vol. 69, Nr. 3, Summer 1995. [These two items are German and English versions of selected papers from the conference of same name at Washington University (St. Louis) in 1995. Featured are original texts by German, Swiss, and Austrian writers as well as from scholars treating Arab-German, Afro-German, Post-colonial themes, and Ausländerliteratur. In the German version is also an essay on Jewish-German Literature]

Martin, Peter. Schwarze Teufel, edle Mohren. Junius Verlag: Hamburg, 1993. ISBN 3-88850-6219-4. [This comprehensive overview of Africans and African Americans in Germany from the Middle Ages up to about 1850 is a fascinating survey for teachers with a good proficiency in German and some historical knowledge]

____________ und Christine Alonzo (eds). Zwischen Charleston und Stechschritt: Schwarze im Nationalsozialismus. Dölling und Gallitz Verlag: Hamburg, 2004. ISBN 3-935549-84-9. [This catalogue to a recent exhibit contains not only rare photographic materials but also scholarly essays on a range of subjects that begin in Imperial Germany and cover a wide range of topics on Black life between 1933-45. Can be used with advanced students with some editing]

Mazon, Patricia and Reinhild Steingröver (eds). Not So Plain as Black and White. Afro-German Culture and History, 1890-2000. University of Rochester Press: 2005. ISBN 1-58406-183-2 [The proceedings of a 2000 conference in at the University of Buffalo; presents an excellent overview of cultural topics; useful as a resource]

McBride, David et al. Crosscurrents: African Americans, Africa, and Germany in the Modern World. Camden House: Columbia, SC, 1998. ISBN 1-57113-098-5. [Proceedings of the 1995 Penn State conference that covered a broad spectrum of academic disciplines focused on intercultural exchange]

Oguntoye, Katharina. Eine Afro-deutsche Geschichte. Zur Lebenssituation von Afrikanern und Afro-Deutschen in Deutschland von 1884 bis 1950. Hoho Verlag Christine Hoffman: Berlin, 1997. ISBN 3-929120-08-9. [research based on archival visits as well as personal interviews]

Reed-Anderson, Paulette. Berlin und die afrikanische Diaspora. Rewriting the Footnotes. Die Ausländerbeauftragte des Berliner Senats, 2000. [This book must be ordered from Berlin Senate. Its text is in German and English and contextualizes the Black experience in Germany in terms of Berlin. Hopefully it will be available in this country soon]

The Afro-German Experience: Essays and Personal Stories

Opitz, May et al. Farbe bekennen. Fischer Verlag. ISBN 3596110238

__________. Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out. University of Massachusetts, 1992. ISBN 0-87023-759-4 [Only the English translation of this seminal text is available. Used copies of the original can be requested, however, from amazon.de]

AntiDiskriminierungsBüro Köln/cyberNomads (hg) The Black Book. Deutschlands Häutungen. IKO-Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, F/M, 2004. ISBN 3-88939-745-X [The continuation of Farbe bekennen with some of the original contributors but with expanded focus of two decades experiences. Entirely in German and suitable only for teachers and advanced post-secondary students]

Harnisch, Antje et al (ed). Fringe Voices. An Anthology of Minority Writing In the Federal Republic of Germany. Berg: NY, 1998. ISBN 1-85973-132-5 [An excellent compilation of texts by Afro-Germans, Jewish-Germans, Aussiedler, Arab-Germans; in English and appropriate at all levels]

Autobiographies/Biographies

Gerunde, Harald. Eine von uns. Als Schwarze in Deutschland geboren. Peter Hammer, 2000. ISBN 3087294-844-X [a biography]

Huber, Charles Muhammed. Ein Niederbayer im Senegal. Mein Leben Zwischen zwei Welten. Fischer, 2004. ISBN 3-502-18339-2 [autobiography of first Afro-German actor to be featured in a recurring role on German television, Der Alte. Interesting also because he is the nephew of Leopold Senghor]

Hügel-Marshall, Ika. Daheim unterwegs. Ein deutsches Leben. Orlanda, 1998 . ISBN 3-29823-52-7 {also paperback: Fischer, 2001, ISBN 3596147239).

___________. Invisible Woman. Continuum, 2001. ISBN 0-8264-1294-7 [Together with Massaquoi’s book this autobiography is both complementary as well as a standard work on the travails of a young Black woman who lacked Massaquoi’s connections. A must read for students and teachers alike]

Oji, Chima. Unter die Deutschen gefallen. Erfahrungen eines Afrikaners. Peter Hammer, 1993. ISBN 3-87294-488-6 [exposed everyday racism in Germany]

Massaquoi, Hans J. Neger, Neger Schornsteinfeger. Fischer. 1999.

____________. Destined to Witness. William Morrow and Co.: NY, 1999. ISBN 0-688-175155-9

__________. Hänschen klein, ging allein. Fischer, 2004. ISBN 3-502-10460-3 [Perhaps the literary sensation since 1945. Massaquoi’s autobiography of his life in Germany from 1926 to 1949 was so popular that he was encouraged to publish a sequel which only appeared in German. A CD (not spoken by the author) is available and in 2006 a made-for-television film was scheduled to appear on German television]

Zöllner, Abini. Schokoladenkind. Meine Familie und andere Wunder. Rowohlt, 2003. ISBN 3-498-07662-0. (A CD with the author also available) [Interesting autobiography of a Black German who grew up in the GDR, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. The book had a favorable review in the Jewish-German-American press, Aufbau ]