with Dr. Azziza Malanda
ÜberLebenswege – Black German history(ies) of the post-war period.
An interactive reading with contemporary testimonies. Please register to attend at: maykollektiv@posteo.com
Between 1945 and 1955, around 68,000 children were born in West Germany and West Berlin to mothers who were German civilians and fathers who were Allied soldiers. Around 5,000 of these children had a Black father.
Historian Azziza B. Malanda dedicates her book “ÜberLebenwege” to the post-war generation of Black Germans. Malanda dedicates her book ÜberLebenswege. In it, she focuses on the memories and experiences of those who grew up in West German children’s and youth homes after 1945. For her research, Azziza B. Malanda analyzed extensive archive material, examined contemporary sources and conducted interviews with contemporary witnesses. As descendants of black US occupying soldiers and white German civilians, the women and men interviewed experienced exclusion, stigmatization and racial discrimination in the course of their lives – both inside and outside the homes. Against this background, they developed strategies in early childhood to survive in the home and in society.
The event is an interactive reading with contemporary testimonies, in which the author and participants together remember and tell Black German history(ies) of the post-war period and make their traces visible up to the present day.
