Berliner Zimmer

Christian Herwartz, born in 1943, is a Jesuit. After his time as a neophyte, he studied theology and philosophy before moving to France to work, mainly as a temporary worker in various factories and other companies. After his return to Germany, he founded a community in Kreuzberg, where he lived together with homeless and needy people of various nationalities.

Shortly after Tamara Hentschel, a trained textile worker, moved to Marzahn, Vietnamese contract workers arrived there in 1987. As a resident advisor, she experienced first-hand the social problems experienced by Vietnamese people, their precarious status after the fall of communism, and the hostility they encountered. She talks about her work at a counselling centre and how the Reistrommel e.V. association was founded.

Jennifer Kamau came to Berlin as a refugee. She talks about her life as a political activist, reflects on her family history between tribalism and the cosmopolitanism of the big city of Nairobi and tells the story of her involvement with the Oranienplatz movement in Berlin, criticising the ambiguity of official regulations and calling for a combination of democracy and solidarity-based action. As a co-founder of the International Women* Space, she is committed to a process of social change that is directed against sexism, racism and all forms of exclusion.

Michael Laschke's connection with Karlshorst began in 1961 when he was a student at the Hochschule für Ökonomie, where he would later teach as a lecturer. He has witnessed major changes to the neighbourhood, from the lifting of the military restricted area in 1963, to the upheaval following 1990, to the current boom in housing construction.

Christa Peter was born in Berlin. As a child, she witnessed the events of the war play out in Friedrichshain. Her family's flat was destroyed during a bombing raid but her family managed to escape unharmed. Peter's marriage first brought her to Karlshorst as a young woman.

A native Berliner, Klaus Borde has lived in Karlshorst since 1972. As a child, he was an avid athlete. He was a gymnast, coach and sports teacher. As a member of a citizens' association, he works to ensure that Karlshorst remains a liveable neighbourhood.

Georgina Oswald was born in Karlshorst three years after the end of the war. Her playgrounds were the ruins of bombed out buildings. She recalls a frightening moment on 17th June 1953, when Soviet tanks moved out of the restricted area. Since 1989, she has lived in Bavaria and occasionally in Berlin.

After finishing her university degree in 1998, Sibylle Jazra moved to Berlin where she began working as an artist. She initially lived in Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Wedding and Neukölln, before ultimately deciding to move to Karlshorst, where she now lives with her children. She wonders how older residents are coping with the newcomers and the growing traffic.

Nnenna Onuoha was born in Nigeria to a Ghanaian mother and a Nigerian father. At the age of three, her mother moved to Ghana with her and her four siblings, where she first lived in a small town and later in the capital of Accra. She attended a private school and studied at Harvard University in Boston (USA) on a scholarship. A job offer led her to Berlin, where she has increasingly established herself as an artist. In her work, she addresses racism and colonialism, among other things.

Silvina Der-Merguerditchian was born in Buenos Aires in the 1960’s. Her grandparents had fled Ottoman-ruled Armenia to escape genocide. In Argentina, Silvina grew up among other immigrants from Armenia. Her interest in Europe began early on and she travelled to Berlin for the first time in the 1980’s. She decided to study here and has been living and working as an artist in Berlin ever since.

Annett Gröschner was born in Magdeburg in the 1960’s. She began writing at an early age, which quickly put her on the radar of the GDR Ministry for State Security (MfS, also known as the Stasi). With the exception of brief intervals, she has lived in Berlin since the 1990’s. She has researched the history of the Prenzlauer Berg district, specifically its wartime history, for several projects and books.

Christa Joo Hyun D'Angelo was born in South Korea and grew up in New York City (USA) in a working-class family. She took art lessons from an early age and won scholarships to attend private schools. After studying art in the USA and Poland, she moved to Berlin where she has lived and worked as an artist ever since. Overcoming class differences and her multicultural background are important themes in her life and artistic work.

Kallia Kefala was born and raised in Athens. Her grandparents lived in Germany as "guest workers" for thirty years from the 1960’s. As a teenager, her mother moved back to Greece. Kallia visited Berlin for the first time when she was a university student, ultimately deciding to settle and work as an artist here. Her work addresses questions related to her own identity, including the themes of queerness and feminism, as well as the trauma her family experienced as migrant workers.

Barbara Panther was born in Rwanda. Her parents fled the genocide in the mid-1990’s to Belgium, where Barbara was adopted by a Belgian family. As a teenager, she travelled to Rwanda in search of her roots only to return traumatised. She began dancing professionally, which helped her to overcome her trauma. She started making electronic music and moved to Berlin, where she has lived and worked ever since.

Tanja Ostojić was born and raised in Novi Beograd / New Belgrade, a suburb of Beograd/Belgrade (then Yugoslav People's Republic of Serbia). During the Yugoslav war she studied art in Belgrade. After graduation, she went to France for a year on a scholarship. During this time Belgrade was bombed. She returned to Serbia, but did not succeed in re-establishing herself there. Early on, she explored migration in her artistic practice. As part of an art project, she migrated to Germany, where she has worked as an artist and cultural activist ever since.

Elza Javkhishvili was born in Georgia (then the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic). As a child, she experienced the collapse of the Soviet Union. She began studying directing at the Shota Rustaveli University of Theatre and Film in Tbilisi but decided to come to Germany as an au pair in the early 2000’s. She then studied at the Technical University of Dortmund and the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). She talks about her life in exile and the painful naturalisation process in Germany.

Dagmara Genda was born in Poland in the early 1980’s. In the mid-1980’s, her parents applied for economic asylum in Canada, where they arrived via Germany and Austria. As a child, Dagmara had difficulty adjusting to Canada and to the English language. She began drawing at an early age. In the early 2010’s, she received an art scholarship in Germany, which eventually led her to Berlin.