©American Association of Teachers of German

University of Louisville

German teachers in the US face the ever-present challenge of teaching language and culture to many who are interested in German primarily because it fulfills a course requirement. Capturing students' attention, arousing their intellect, and bringing language and culture closer to them are not easy tasks, especially for groups with diverse backgrounds and interests. Instructors need to find innovative ways to excite, teach, and challenge a mix of people with various ethnic, academic, and even generational experiences. Fortunately, for upper-level culture courses good material exists which can serve not only to enhance language skills, but also to develop cross-cultural awareness between Germany and the United States and, in both societies, between the dominant and minority cultures.

German language classes can become more diverse and less myopic in their treatment of German culture by incorporating the experiences of minorities in unified Germany. These classes present a realistic picture of Germany today­a country struggling with multiculturalism following the immigration of peoples from war-torn areas and economically developing countries. Such a German culture class would not primarily teach high culture, but would also study the mental and material habitat of various social groups, identifying with elements of German culture that are active, struggling, even resisting the status quo. German culture classes which explore the dichotomy of high and mass culture also help minority students in this country sympathize, and possibly identify, with "others" in German culture. In this article, I would like to suggest additional strategies and teaching materials which incorporate less visible minorities in the Federal Republic: the Roma and Sinti, and the Kurds, following other contributors to Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German.²

In teaching a fourth-year German culture course about contemporary Germany, I explored such topics as "The History of the Wall," "Mass Media in the Old and New Bundesländer," "Women and the Wende," "East Meets West," and "Multi-Culturalism: Germany's Afro-Germans, Turks, Kurds, Roma and Sinti" with a mix of students from seventeen to fifty-eight years of age who ranged from intermediate-low to advanced-plus speakers on the ACTFL proficiency scale. I had a two-fold objective. I wanted the students to understand some aspects of German culture that govern political discussions within Germany but are nearly absent from German textbooks in this country, and I wanted students to recognize that issues such as Germans and minorities are vital to understanding German culture, though many Germans and even more Americans do not seem to share this view.

The course offered a two-fold challenge to the instructor: how to convey this sophisticated content while still improving the modest language proficiency of the students. To these ends, I adopted a hybrid approach. Lectures and some readings, as well as in-depth discussions at the end of each unit, were in English while the primary readings and the small and large group discussions at the beginning and middle of each unit were conducted in German.

However, my principal reason for preparing a reader was a desire to use materials as up-to-date as possible. Furthermore, I incorporated a wide variety of texts: newspaper and magazine articles, government documents, fliers, literature, poetry, songs and song texts, propaganda speeches, interviews, historical accounts, films, and videos. I found this task to be rather difficult: an abundance of appropriate sources as on minorities like the Turks or Afro-Germans does not yet seem to exist, especially not on the Kurds. But what does exist, and what I finally chose to use in teaching culture and language, I would like to share.

Course Content: Sinti and Roma

Over a thousand years ago, the Roma left India and moved westward. Those who took the northern route went through Russia and on to Scandinavia. Those who took the southern route travelled to Spain via Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa. The rest came to Europe via Turkey and the Balkans. As nomads, they took on the language and religious practices of their host countries, and they either named themselves Sinti or Roma, Gitanos or Gypsies. ³

There are approximately forty to fifty thousand Sinti in Germany and at least 6 million Roma in Europe. Firm numbers cannot be obtained since those living a nomadic life are listed as Landfahrer or Zigeuner in government documents rather than Sinti/Roma. Persecuted for centuries and sent, along with Jews, homosexuals, clergymen, and political adversaries, to concentration camps during the Nazi era, they have neither received an official apology nor compensation payments from the German government.⁴ Today, many of them still live a nomadic existence, either by choice or under compulsion, since they lack the proper forms of identification to stay in the Federal Republic and/or to qualify for government assistance. As a "warm-up" that supplied understandable content information for the more difficult texts in German, I provided my students with a one-page summary about the dispersion of the Roma and Sinti in the tenth century and their subsequent persecution in many European countries. This brief introduction in English was based on Gratton Puxon's "Zur Situation der europäischen Zigeuner" and familiarized students with the subject matter and with key concepts. Following this, I assigned the lyrics of Wolf Biermann's song "Stillepenn-Schlufflied," which describes a Sinti's flight from imprisonment.⁵ Along with these introductory readings, I handed out Study Guides containing simple questions in English, asking, for example, for the "who," "what," "when," and "how" for these texts. Students were asked to write down their answers in German and to share them with the members of their study group. One speaker from each of the three groups of approximately 3-4 students then presented the group's answers orally to the whole class.

The core of the unit consisted of two primary readings. The first was an interview with the author and critic Herta Müller, who entered the Federal Republic as "Rumäniendeutsche" in 1989.⁶ The second one was a long Spiegel article entitled "Alle hassen die Zigeuner." Addressing political strategies by contemporary writers against xenophobia in Germany, Müller comments on the situation of the Roma in the Federal Republic and in Romania after Ceauçescu. She also discusses the political climate for minorities in Germany in the late eighties and early nineties. Study Guides, again with questions in English requiring answers in German, helped students to understand the main ideas in the Müller interview. The questions address the paradox of being "German" and "foreigner" at the same

For the far more difficult Spiegel article "Alle hassen die Zigeuner," students were given a glossary that highlighted new vocabulary and concepts in the reading. This glossary helped especially the students with low to intermediate level reading skills to understand the gist of the article: the arrival in the Federal Republic of tens of thousands of Roma families from Romania between 1982 and 1990. "Alle hassen die Zigeuner" describes them, where they came from, what they fled, and why they came to Germany. Because of the wealth of facts, students had twice the usual amount of time to prepare the text and to answer these questions: (1) Where do the Roma come from and how many sought political asylum in 1990? (2) What are some ways in which Germans protest against the Roma? (3) What does Lafontaine want and how do others react to his ideas? (4) Where does the word Zigeuner come from? Why do the Sinti mind being referred to as Zigeuner but the Roma don't? (5) Provide three examples of the Roma and Sinti's persecution, and (6) Where and how do many of them live today? In order to understand the material, students were encouraged to compare notes, regardless of their language background. Informal small group settings of 3-4 students each in every class session rendered this language/culture exchange relatively non-threatening, especially for those with lower proficiency levels. The less-experienced language students gained much from their interaction with their more experienced peers. Their vocabulary, in particular, increased dramatically.

The more advanced language students also seemed to profit from the study and discussion of the postreading or postviewing assignments for every topic explored. Follow-up texts like Romani Rose's "Vorwort an die Sinti" supplemented the basic information in introductory and primary readings. Accordingly, the questions in the Study Guide for these assignments were in German to be answered in either English or German. These interpretive and integrative questions on the larger issues common to all texts probed deeper, challenging those with more background in German culture and language skills. To keep the less-experienced students from being "speechless," I allowed them to use English during our in-class discussion of their written answers and during debates about minority rights. Again, for their benefit and to allow discussion of complicated issues like Germany's definition or treatment of Germans and non-Germans (immigrants, asylum-seekers), I prepared lists with key concepts and phrases in German for our follow-up session.

On my reserve bookshelf for this class, I kept two books of interest to this particular topic, Luise Rinser's Wer wirft den Stein? Zigeuner sein in Deutschland: eine Anklage and Rajko Duric's Roma and Sinti im Spiegel der deutschen Literatur. Rinser's work provided valuable information about the Germans' knowledge about the Sinti based on a survey she had done. She described the Roma and Sinti's political engagement after the second World-Roma Congress in 1978. Rinser's book is easy to read and contains readily usable materials like statistics, letters written on behalf of Germany's Roma and Sinti population, politicians' replies to these letters, and maps depicting the distribution of various clans. Students made frequent use of it. The second text was a welcome source for those interested in literature. Written in 1995, Duric's text gives an overview of the portrayal of the Roma/Sinti in German literature from the Baroque period on. It covers the treatment of them by well-known authors like Walter Benjamin, Johannes Bobrowski, Joseph von Eichendorff, Theodor Fontane, Günther Grass, Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Christoph Hein, Hermann Hesse, Gottfried Keller, Heinrich von Kleist, Luise Rinser, and Ludwig Tieck. Like Wer wirft den Stein? it can be used to trace the stereotype of the dirty, wild, untrustworthy, foreign "other" from the fifteenth to the twentieth century.

Course Content: Kurds

The approximately 20 million Kurds in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Armenia are minorities without minority rights in each of those countries. Kurdish organizations in other countries have been using aggressive, propagandistic, and often terroristic and militaristic means to draw attention to their peoples' situation. In Germany, the Arbeiterpartei Kurdistans (PKK) was proclaimed illegal in 1993 because of its association with terrorism. As a consequence, the conflicts between Turks and Kurds within Germany have become more violent. In addition, substantial confusion exists among Germans regarding the politically active Kurds, the apolitical Kurds, and the ethnic Turks themselves, since a great many of them trace their origins to Turkey and carry Turkish passports, whatever their national aspirations might be. Some Germans, at least, think of them all as "unwelcome" Turks, not acknowledging the ethnic strife that divides them so bitterly. Politicians are divided regarding the treatment of Kurdish asylum seekers from Turkey; many German states have refused the mandate to send them back because they face persecution in their home countries. My major focus in this unit was on the relationship between the Kurdish people, the PKK, the Turks, and the German government since unification.

Starting with excerpts from Gunther's The Kurds in Turkey and McDowell's A Modern History of the Kurds as prereading assignments, I provided students with a profile of the Kurds giving special emphasis to their oppression inside and outside of Europe. Students also learned about the birth of the PKK and its transnational influences. Selections from A History of the Kurds with maps were especially helpful in providing an overview of the Kurds' violent history.

The prereading Study Guide was very general. It included the following questions: (1)Who is Ismail Besikci? (2) When was the PKK founded? (3) What are the beliefs of the PKK and what are their goals? (4) What is their new strategy? After preparing for the introductory and primary readings, students wrote answers in German and discussed them in small group settings. This allowed them to speak German while studying content.

To prepare for the topic of the Kurds, we began with discussions of Turkish people in the Federal Republic, highlighting the difficult situation of Turkish women and children, whose societal roles are quite different in Germany than in Turkey. Excerpts from Leben zwischen zwei Welten provided the link between the topics of Turks and Kurds. In talking about her relationship with other Turkish women, for example, the Turkish-German author Aylin Deniz discusses the tensions in her relationship with a particular Turkish woman because of recent aggressive actions taken by the PKK (Stienen 43). Thus, Leben zwischen zwei Welten not only highlights the differences Kurds, Kurds involved in PKK activities, and Turks experience among each other in the Federal Republic, but also addresses the topic of female "otherness" and the additional questions that it raises.

For small group work involving Study Guide questions on the Stienen material, students prepared debates, arguing either on behalf of the politically active Kurds, apolitical Kurds, the government, or German and Turkish citizens. Benefits from this exercise included (1) developing strong and convincing arguments reflecting knowledge of the subject matter and (2) the ability to speak freely from notes.

This public speaking activity was continued after the preparation of another primary reading: "Hilflos vor dem Terror," an in-depth report about Germany as an arena for the continuing civil war between Turks and Kurds. Including a wealth of information about Abdullah Öcalan, the former leader of the Arbeiterpartei Kurdistans, the article lent itself nicely to an introduction of more parties to our debate: hard core PKK activists in agreement with and also in opposition to Öcalan. "Hilflos vor dem Terror" carries a special section on the structure of the PKK within Turkey, Europe, and Germany. In addition, some of the students gleaned information on Öcalan and his guerilla warfare for the debate from the government publication "Arbeiterpartei Kurdistans," which I had put on the reserve shelf. Besides a general introduction about this Kurdish terrorist group, the text also provided information about the ERNK (Nationale Befreiungsfront Kurdistans), and the ARGK (Volksbefreiungsarmee Kurdistans) and its flags and symbols, as well as

One major point of discussion was the use of internet texts as a source of additional information about Öcalan, because it engendered debate on the value and reliability of information on the internet. The overt propagandistic nature of some of the texts that we had found, for instance, evolved into a debate about our own search for knowledge retrieval, interpretation, and dissemination. Some also questioned the use of propaganda material in this class, although they had to agree with others who believed it belonged in our unit on the Kurds, because it helped them understand the tactics of the PKK. Due to the highly political nature of discussing the "Kurdish problem," terrorist leaders and illegal organizations, one must make clear from the beginning that the information provided is not an expression of the instructor's political viewpoints. This applies especially to the material used from the internet, where "everything goes," and where it is difficult to distinguish between propaganda, truths, and untruths.

Conclusion

Overall, my units on the Roma and Sinti and the Kurds, were quite successful, which I attribute to the novelty of the topics addressed and to my approach of teaching students at various skill levels. I am aware, however, that the reading suggestions described in this article are only a beginning for anyone incorporating the study of the Sinti and Roma or the Kurds into German culture classes. The topics are primarily intended to call attention to less visible non-Germans and recent immigrants who contribute to the Federal Republic's cultural and political spectrum and to expand the focus on Germany's "Other" that has been developing over the past few years in less traditionally taught German culture courses.

As in other content-based classes, I used a variety of texts with varying degrees of difficulty. Simple questions on the Study Guides directed the students in reading only for the information they needed in order to answer these questions. The students with less language background thus felt assured that they did not miss out on important information and that they were building skills. Early on in the class, we had established individual goals regarding students' language skills. Every three weeks, we met individually to measure their progress and set new goals. At these meetings, speaking and writing skills were also evaluated with the help of the ACTFL-proficiency scale. Thus for the language component, students' grades depended on their progress in these two modalities. Their knowledge of content, on the other hand, was tested with multiple choice questions in English, and then, of course, as part of the information they provided in their answers focusing on language skills in German. An evaluation process that takes into account individual achievement and progress is necessary in a classroom with diverse students. For me as instructor, it was the only way to teach content and language to such diverse group. Everyone was involved and everyone was challenged. As we spiraled up from group work on specific questions about a text to freer class discussions on these and similar questions, finally addressing larger issues in an open forum (post-reading questions and beyond) and in "private conversations," students' confidence grew. The strategies and materials gave students the opportunity to excel within the scope of

Footnotes

¹ By referring to "other Others," I seek to call attention to less visible non-Germans and recent immigrants who contribute to the Federal Republic's cultural and political spectrum, without creating a hierarchy among Germany's minorities.

² See, among others, Leroy T. Hopkins, Jr., 121-26; or Marilya Veteto-Conrad, 144-52.

³ Sinti is the term preferred by these people in Germany; Roma is a more general term used throughout Europe. Gypsy is a general term used in Western countries; however, the German translation of gypsy, Zigeuner, is strongly pejorative.

⁴ Approximately 1.5 million Roma and Sinti lost their lives in concentration camps. Approximately 5,000 German Sinti survived them. See Dresing 204-5.

⁵ Stillepenn=Sinti for Knast (jail). The lyrics are printed on page 250 in Tilman Zülch's In Auschwitz vergast.

⁶ See the interview with H. Müller.

⁷ I want to thank my colleagues Lynda Hoffman-Jeep and Wendy Pfeffer for their comments and suggestions regarding earlier versions of this article.

Works Cited

"Alle hassen die Zigeuner." Der Spiegel 3 Sept.1990: 34-57.

"Arbeiterpartei Kurdistans." Verfassungsschutzbericht Baden-Württemberg 1995. Ed. Innenministerium Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart: Schwäbische Druckerei, 1995. 126-35.

Biermann, Wolf. "Stillepenn-Schlufflied." Zülch 250.

Dresing, Uschi. "Wir sind nicht damit zufrieden, nur am Leben gelassen zu werden: Zur Situation der Sinti in der Bundesrepublik." Zu Hause in der Fremde. Ed. Christian Schaffernicht. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1984. 202-06.

Duric, Rajko. Roma und Sinti im Spiegel der deutschen Literatur. Frankfurt a.M.: Lang, 1995.

Gunther, Michael M. The Kurds in Turkey: A Political Dilemma. Boulder: Westview, 1990.

Hopkins, Leroy T., Jr. "Expanding the Canon: Afro-German Studies," Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German 25.2 (1992): 121-26.

"Hilflos vor dem Terror." Der Spiegel 25 March 1996: 35-38.

"Marsch in den Gottesstaat: Konflikte zwischen türkischen Volksgruppen werden zunehmend auch in Deutschland ausgetragen." Der Spiegel 20 March 1995: 35-38.

McDowall, David. A Modern History of the Kurds. London: Minority Rights Group, 1996.

Müller, Herta. "So eisig kalt und widerlich." Der Spiegel 9 Nov. 1992: 264-68.

"The Nazis' Forgotten Victims." Time 19 Nov. 1979: 58.

Puxon, Gratton. "Zur Situation der europäischen Zigeuner." Zülch 29-38.

Rinser, Luise. Wer wirft den Stein? Zigeuner sein in Deutschland: Eine Anklage. Stuttgart: Edition Weitbrecht, 1985.

Rose, Romani. "Vorwort an die Sinti." Sinti und Roma im ehemaligen KZ Bergen-Belsen am 27. Oktober 1979. Erste deutsche und europäische Gedenkkundgebung "In Auschwitz vergast, bis heute verfolgt." Göttingen: Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker, 1980. 15-18.

Soest, George von. "Aspekte zur Sozialarbeit mit Zigeunern." Zülch 251-57.

Stienen, Inga. Leben zwischen zwei Welten. Türkische Frauen in Deutschland. Weinheim: Quadriga, 1994.

Veteto-Conrad, Marilya. "Turks in the Federal Republic of Germany and Their German-Language Literature as the Basis for a Fourth-semester German Course," Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German 25.2 (1992): 144-52.

Zülch, Tilman, ed. In Auschwitz vergast, bis heute verfolgt: Zur Situation der Roma (Zigeuner) in Deutschland und Europa. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1980.

Resources and Materials about the Roma and Sinti

Duric, Rajko. Märchen und Lieder europäischer Sinti und Roma. New York: Lang, 1997.

Freese, Christoph. Hilfen für Zigeuner und Landfahrer: Vorschläge zur Zielsetzung, Planung und Durchführung sozialer Hilfen für Zigeuner und Landfahrer unter Berücksichtigung der Möglichkeiten des [Paragraphen] 72 Bundessozialhilfegesetz. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1980.

Galinski, Heinz. "Dieses Gedenken sei uns eine Mahnung zum Handeln." Sinti und Roma im ehemaligen KZ Bergen-Belsen am 27. Oktober 1979: erste deutsche und europäische Gedenkkundgebung "In Auschwitz vergast, bis heute verfolgt": Eine Dokumentation der Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1980. 77-88.

Gronemeyer, Reimer. Die Zigeuner: Reisende in Europa: Roma, Sinti, Manouches, Gitanos, Gypsies, Kalderasch, Vlach und andere. Köln: Dumont, 1988.

Hohmann, J. Stephan. Neue deutsche Zigeunerbibliographie unter Berücksichtigung aller Jahrgänge des "Journals of the Gypsy Lore Society." Frankfurt a. M.: Lang, 1992.

---. Verfolgte ohne Heimat: Geschichte der Zigeuner in Deutschland. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang, 1992.

Öschlies, Wolf. Asylbewerber aus dem Karpartenbogen: Versuch über Geschichte, Gegenwart und soziale Probleme der Zigeuner Rumäniens . Köln: Bundesinstitut für Ostwissenschaftliche und Internationale Studien, 1993.

Reemtsma, Katrin. Sinti und Roma: Geschichte, Kultur, Gegenwart . München: Beck, 1996.

Rose, Romani. Bürgerrechte für Sinti und Roma: Das Buch zum Rassismus in Deutschland. Heidelberg: Zentralrat Deutscher Sinti und Roma, 1987.

Trumpener, Katie. "The Time of the Gypsies: A 'People without History' in the Narratives of the West." Critical Inquiry 18 (1992): 843-84.

Additional Resources and Materials about the Kurds

Bade, Klaus J. Ausländer, Aussiedler, Asyl in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 1992.

Gurr, Ted R. Ethnic Conflict in World Politics. Boulder: Westview, 1994.

Innenministerium Baden-Württemberg. Verfassungsschutzbericht Baden-Württemberg 1995: Rechtsextremismus, Linksextremismus, Ausländerextremismus, Terrorismus, Spionageabwehr. Stuttgart: Schwäbische Druckerei, 1996.