30 Mai 2011

Hello Everyone!
     Today our class spent 6 hours in Kreuzberg, also known as Little Istanbul. Kreuzberg was originally founded around the 1820's by Jewish immigrants. The industrial boom in the 1860's caused a demand for more workers requiring Germany to hire immigrants. Many of these immigrants were from Turkey. As the Turkish population grew, Kreuzberg became fondly known as Little Istanbul. Kreuzberg was home to two significant streets in Germany, both housing a significant amount of businesses that drastically contributed to the Germany economy. Ritter Strasse, Ritter street housed a multitude of small businesses and was known as the export quarter. Koch Strasse, Koch street, was the press street housing the most significant German newspapers and printing companies of its time. Both of these streets were, sadly, destroyed during the air raids in 1945.
     Before the wall fell, Kreuzberg was a part of West Berlin. In fact, three sides of Kreuzberg were outlined by the wall and a river lay on the fourth side separating Kreuzberg from rest of West Germany. After the fall of the wall in 1989, Kreuzberg remained its own little microcosm and home to the largest Turkish population in Germany.
     I do not want to give my complete analysis of Kreuzberg until I go back to Istanbul for a solid comparison. Here are just a few of the things I noticed:

-Significant number of advertisements, and businesses either completely in Turkish or having both German and Turkish.
-The Mosques were either disguised as normal buildings or their entrances in the back or alley ways.
-Vivaciousness that can be found in Istanbul
-Most spoke Turkish
-More Turkish food in the local Bakeries
-Turkish book stores

More information to come!