IZS Audiowalk

• Contributors and sources

  Idea, concept and technical implementation:

  Christine Bartlitz, Violetta Rudolf and Julia Wolrab, past-__-0000-__-present. History in Berlin format(www.past-at-present.de)
  
  Implementation and organization: Aleksandar Nedelkovski, Institute for Contemporary History and City Presentation Wolfsburg; Christoph Röthig, Eichendorffschule Wolfsburg
  
  Participating students from Eichendorffschule Wolfsburg: Miriam Buchhauser, Connor Fast, Luis Gerich, Christian Giemsa, Felix Göthe, Nicole Günther, Daria Häfner, Jona Hölter, Daniel Knor, Roman Köhler, Chiara Meister, Mel-Morin Moser, Jamie Mrugalla, Lea Rösel, Nele Schömers, Chantal Staus, Jan-Hendrik Staus, Jonas Trabandt, Til Ulrich
  
  Interview partners: Murat B., Hani Hawile, Mohamed Ibrahim, an Italian "guest worker" (anonymous), a Tunisian "guest worker" (anonymous), Giovanni Lazzara, Aleksandar Nedelkovski, Florentine Schmidtmann, VW workers
  
  Speaker: Salome Dastmalchi, Nadim Jarrar
  
  Sound recordings: Joep Hegger (The Vocal Coach)
  
  Sound editing: Hanna Klinger (audio pieces 2-10, 22), Violetta Rudolf, Julia Wolrab
  
  Sounds from the databases (noises and sounds): Audioyou(https://www.audiyou.de/), Hörspielbox(http://www.hoerspielbox.de/), Salami(http://www.salamisound.de/). The data was sent via WeTransfer(https://wetransfer.com/)

  
  

• Transcript of the audio file "Introduction"

  Various young speakers:
  
  Guest workers. Emigrants. Contract workers. Boat people. Exiles. Resettlers. Refugees. Migrants. Refugees. Refugees. Asylum seekers. Foreign workers. Displaced persons. Resettlers. Foreigners. Forced laborers. Resettlers. People.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  19 pupils from the ninth year of the Eichendorffschule grammar school in Wolfsburg have developed an audio walk on the subject of migration in Wolfsburg in the history profile course in collaboration with the Institute for Contemporary History and City Presentation Wolfsburg and three historians from Pass at Present in Berlin.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Anyone who wants to can follow a digital map of Wolfsburg and listen to audio pieces on various migration stories. Whether at the train station, in the city center, at the large Schillerteich pond or in front of the Volkswagen Arena. History can be heard in many places through this project.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  In class, the pupils have not only been studying the history of Wolfsburg, they have also been looking for reasons why people came to the city in the past. And why they do so today. One of the questions they asked themselves was.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  How many people had to do forced labor in Wolfsburg during the Second World War and why? What was it like for Italians or Tunisians to come to Wolfsburg as so-called guest workers in the early years of the Federal Republic? Did people from the GDR or other German-speaking regions also flee to Wolfsburg? How do the people who come to Wolfsburg today fare? For example, because they had to flee from war and terror. Listen for yourself and go in search of the people, the places and their stories. See you soon.

• Transcript of the audio file "Migration: Interview with Aleksandar Nedelkovski"

  Murmuring in the background
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The history of mankind is a history of migration. Wolfsburg has remained a city of immigration to this day. That is why the history of Wolfsburg cannot be told without the migration factor. Who came to Wolfsburg and why? Alexander Nedelkovski from the Institute for Contemporary History and City Presentation Wolfsburg names four major groups.
  
  Speaker Alexander Nedelkovski:
  
  So if you if you have to identify large groups, we must of course the forced laborers, that's one, if you want to see it as a block and then came just the refugees and displaced persons. Then the guest workers. Especially the Italians and the Tunisians. And then the ethnic German repatriates.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The history of the town's origins is directly linked to the Volkswagen plant. The foundation stone for the plant was laid on May 26, 1938 in the presence of Adolf Hitler. The city of the KdF car was founded near Fallersleben, as Wolfsburg was called until 1945. July 1, 1938: A large workforce was needed to build the plant.
  
  Spokesman Alexander Nedelkovski:
  
  The hallmark of the construction of the city and the plant from the very beginning was the lack of resources and manpower. And in order to remedy this shortage, an agreement was concluded with Italy in 1938, which then sent 2,400 young men from Italy here. Germans from the German Reich and Italians were the first workers here in the city of the KdF-Wagen. Then of course in 1939, when the war broke out and the various countries in Europe were occupied, workers were also brought here to the city from the occupied countries. These were the Netherlands, Belgium, France and then also from Eastern Europe. That started in 1940 and ended in 1945 with forced laborers.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Were concentration camp prisoners also used at the Volkswagen plant?
  
  Speaker Alexander Nedelkovski:
  
  Yes. There was a concentration camp labor village for a brief moment on the grounds of the plant in 1942 to set up a light metal foundry. But this concentration camp work village only existed for a short time. From 1944, there was a branch of the Neuengamme concentration camp on the site of today's town on the Laagberg. A group of Hungarian Jewish women also belonged to this concentration camp, but they were not housed in this camp, but in the VW plant down in the bunkers.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  What was the situation like at the end of the war in 1945.
  
  Speaker Alexander Nedelkovski:
  
  At the end of 19444, the first refugees and displaced persons arrived from the former eastern territories. And of course that continued until the end of the war. And that was the largest group that came here, and in the end - not all of them - but the majority stayed here in the city. Since the British ensured that the Volkswagen plant was not dismantled, it was possible to rebuild production relatively quickly. And in 1955, the one millionth Beetle rolled off the production line. By then, the so-called German economic miracle had already begun. There was work here and people found their homes here.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  And when did the first guest workers come to Wolfsburg?
  
  Speaker Alexander Nedelkovski:
  
  After the economic miracle, the first Italian guest workers came to Wolfsburg in 1962. And that is still the largest group of migrants today.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  From 1955 to 1968, the Federal Republic concluded recruitment agreements with several countries. They regulated the temporary employment of foreign workers in Germany, hence the name guest worker. Who else came to Wolfsburg apart from the Italians?
  
  Spokesman Alexander Nedelkovski:
  
  Later in the 70s, the Tunisians. That was the second large group of guest workers that we are now more aware of here.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  There was another large group that found their home in Wolfsburg?
  
  Speaker Alexander Nedelkovski:
  
  From the 70s onwards, the ethnic German repatriates. The Russian-Germans, who then also came to the city in large numbers.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  What does it look like today?
  
  Speaker Alexander Nedelkovski:
  
  Syrians yes, but I don't think it's very different from other cities. What is perhaps interesting here, because Volkswagen has a global presence, is that Mexicans are coming here from the countries where Volkswagen has production facilities, Indians and so on and so forth.
  
  Murmuring in the background.

• Transcript of the audio file "Forced labor"

  Murmuring in the background
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Tell me, can you actually imagine what that means, forced labor during the Nazi regime? I've heard that there were camps all around here where more than 20,000 people had to live. Many of them were still very young, just 16 or 17 years old. Why were they brought to our city by force? Treated like slaves here.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  During the Second World War, the German Wehrmacht invaded and occupied many countries in Europe. In the beginning, the local population was recruited for work in Germany with false promises, but later they were arrested right off the street or taken from their homes and brought to Germany. It is almost unbelievable. Over 20 million people were forced to work for National Socialist Germany. Foreign civilian workers, forced laborers, prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates were used.
  
  Murmuring in the background
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  And what about Volkswagen? They employed a particularly large number of people as forced laborers.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Yes, that's right. As the plant was just being built, there was no permanent workforce. At first, Germans and Italian so-called foreign workers worked here. Volkswagen was then one of the first companies in Germany to request forced laborers, to order them, so to speak, to produce war vehicles, weapons and aircraft parts. The first forced laborers arrived in 1940 and their numbers peaked in 1943/44 with over 11,000 people.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Where did the people come from?
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The forced laborers came from the countries invaded by Germany. There were 13 nationalities represented in the factory. First, Polish forced laborers and prisoners of war were brought to the factory, then French prisoners of war and finally, from 1942 onwards, large numbers of so-called Eastern workers from the occupied territories in the Soviet Union, but also Czechs, Belgians, Dutch, Italians, Poles, Hungarians, Ukrainians and many more.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  What do the future forced laborers have to go through on their way here?
  
  The sound of a steam locomotive in the background
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Most of them came by train. In many cases, real manhunts took place in the occupied countries. The Germans surrounded an area, for example a train station, and younger people were arrested and taken to the assembly point on trucks. The whole thing took place in such a short time, with loud shouting and violence, that many of the deported people did not even understand what was happening to them. They were then taken directly by train to Germany to the assigned area. In our case, today's Wolfsburg.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  What happened to the forced laborers at the end of the war? What happened next for them?
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The end of the Second World War brought freedom to millions of people. No more work was done at the Volkswagen plant from the beginning of April 1945. The concentration camp prisoners were sent on so-called death marches. The remaining forced laborers were liberated by American troops on April 11.
  
  After their liberation, many organized their own journey back home. Others continued to live in the camps in Wolfsburg as displaced persons, or DPs for short. Most of them suffered the consequences of forced labor for the rest of their lives. Many of them lived in great poverty.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Did you at least receive any compensation from Germany or from the companies?
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  For a long time, the German government and the companies refused to accept any responsibility, with a few exceptions. It was not until 1998, more than 50 years later, that Volkswagen set up a foundation of 20 million marks. Only 2151 of the original 20,000 former VW forced laborers received compensation. The others had already died by this time. Today there is a memorial to forced labor on the grounds of the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg.

• Transcript of the audio file "Olga and Piet"

  music

  Speaker 1:
  
  Olga and Piet met in the fall of 1943 at the Volkswagen factory in the city of the KdF car, as Wolfsburg was then called. The 22-year-old Piet Albert Witt came from near Amsterdam. Olga Puppowa was a 16-year-old schoolgirl who had been deported by the Germans and brought to the plant as a forced laborer. She was one of the almost 3 million so-called Eastern workers who were often forcibly brought to Germany from the Soviet Union as cheap labor. 5,000 of these women and men were deployed at the Volkswagen plant alone. According to Nazi ideology, they were considered racially inferior. Olga had to wear the discriminatory Ostzeichen on her clothes and was constantly monitored. She did not have enough clothes and far too little to eat. She lived in a cramped barrack in a camp that was fenced in with barbed wire and guarded around the clock. She was taken to the factory at 7 o'clock in the morning. And back to the camp at 7 pm in the evening. Olga and Piet became close during an air raid in the factory bunker. A love affair developed between the two. Their first great love. They secretly wrote letters to each other.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Dear Piet, I think this is interesting for you to know what I'm doing right now. The situation is bad. My health is very bad. I probably caught a cold in the washroom and you're not here. And again, what kind of life is this? I don't think the war will ever end. I think we'll be slaves forever. A future will not be possible. We have to keep waiting. And the present is so disgusting and bad. The master is an idiot. He yells at me. If you were here, I'd feel better, and again Piet, it's spring. How cheerful we always were in spring. And now this fresh pleasant air only reminds me of some joy. And I don't get much of the fresh air. I'm always in the factory in the smell of gasoline in an eternal prison.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  In April 1945, Olga and Piet were liberated by American troops. Could there be a future for them together? First of all, they decided, they should each return home to their parents. 3 years later, on the 15th of 1948, Olga's birthday, they arranged to meet on Red Square in Moscow. But Olga waited in vain for Piet. He did not come in the following years either. He had not been granted a visa. Eventually, they both started their own families in the Netherlands and Russia. But they could not forget each other. It was only in 1989, with the help of the Wolfsburg city archives, that Olga and Piet were able to reconnect after 44 years of silence and uncertainty. Almost your whole life had passed.

• Transcript of the audio file "Eudokia: Abducted to Wolfsburg"

  Speaker 1:
  
  Eudokia arrived here at the station. She didn't come voluntarily.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  In August 1943 I was forcibly deported to Germany, loaded us on a freight train and sent to forced labor at the Polish border and at the German border there was a medical examination.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Reported by Eudokia P. She was deported from Ukraine in 1943 and had to do forced labor in the armaments production of the Volkswagen factory. A few years ago, the St. Christopher's parish in Wolfsburg contacted other women and men from the Ukraine by questionnaire to find out what happened back then, describing their arrival in the city of the KdF-Wagen.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  In September 1943, we arrived in a German town that was 180 kilometers away from Berlin. We got off at the factory site. We lined up on the square in front of the factory. And the interpreter said:
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Now from now on you have no names, only numbers.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  I'm afraid I've forgotten my number. The work was very beautiful and very large. It was on the banks of a canal. There were two bridges over this canal, one made of iron and one of wood. Then you took us to the camp. The camp was a 10 to 15 minute walk from the factory. There was barbed wire around the camp. There was a watchtower at every corner. There were wooden barracks on the camp grounds. There were several rooms in each barrack, with around 20 people living in each room. There were only iron bunk beds and bedside cabinets in the rooms. We were given blankets, sheets, pillowcases and mattress fabric. We filled the pillowcases and mattress fabric with straw. We were given gray-green work clothes, shoes with wooden soles and the East German patch. We were supposed to sew the East German patch onto our jackets. On the second day, we were escorted into the factory.

• Transcript of the audio file "Arbeitsfähig: Forced labor at VW"

  Speaker 1:
  
  What did the word "fit for work" actually mean for forced laborers at the Volkswagen factory during the Nazi era?
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  In the camp, I took over as a general practitioner. Because of all the work in the camp, it was impossible for me to cope and I asked for help. Director A assigned us a German doctor, whom the SS guards called a horse doctor. He examined the girls and declared them fit for work.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  A concentration camp inmate used for forced labor tells us about the situation in Hall 1. One of 20,000 people employed at the Volkswagen factory during the Nazi era. They suffered greatly under the degrading and life-threatening conditions.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The food that the girls working at the plant received was barely enough to keep them going during hard labor. The food was so bad that as a doctor who did no physical labor, I was unable to perform my own duties properly because of the malnutrition. There was no medicine in this camp and consequently the girls suffered from fever and illness and we were unable to help them. The only medicines that were available came from an Italian doctor who had stolen them and brought them to the camp. When they collapsed at work, they were sent home. Nevertheless, they were sent back to work after a day's rest when they had a fever of 39 degrees. They lived in a cellar where water dripped from the ceiling and puddles of water formed on the floor. Many contracted tuberculosis and several died. The girls who worked outside were forced to work without coats, stockings and protection from the cold and came to me for paper for the soles of their shoes. All the deaths in this camp were a direct result of inadequate food and malnutrition, and could have been avoided by improving the diet, proper clothing for the girls, and proper medical treatment. I had limited opportunities to treat my patients.

• Transcript of the audio file "Lagerstadt Wolfsburg"

  Speaker 1:
  
  We are standing here on Sara-Frenkel-Platz next to the market hall on Poststrasse. Why is the memorial to the forced laborers actually located here?
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  It's hard to imagine anymore. There were countless barrack camps here during the Nazi era. More than 20,000 people had to do forced labor in our city until 1945. They made up the majority of the inhabitants and lived in the camps in the middle of the city. Perhaps we could still find remains today, a piece of barbed wire perhaps, if we dug deep enough right here. So many people from so many countries, so many languages, so many stories. But only very few were here voluntarily. The vast majority had been brought to the city under duress and by force. Prisoners of war, forced laborers, concentration camps, inmates.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  In 1937 there were only green meadows and farmland here. On July 1, 1938, the town of the KdF-Wagen was founded near Fallersleben. But the people who were to build the town and the Volkswagen factory had to be housed first. The so-called community camp was built for them, a shanty town directly adjacent to the Berlin-Hannover railroad line and the Mittelland Canal. German and Italian workers lived here first, followed by French, Belgian and Dutch civilian workers and prisoners of war. In addition to the communal camps, there was a strictly guarded eastern camp, enclosed by barbed wire fences, where forced laborers from Eastern Europe were housed. On the western edge, the Lageberg camp was established in April 1944 as a branch of the Neuengamme concentration camp.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The memories of the two Poles Stephan Djoravic and Julian Banasch are representative of many people from a large number of countries who had to live here under duress. A terrible and very sad chapter in Wolfsburg's migration history.
  
  Sound of a departing locomotive
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  When we arrived at the station, we were led to the barracks, which were fenced in with barbed wire. As far as the eye could see, there were barracks for the various nationalities that had been defeated by the Third Reich and worked in the factory I'm talking about. Around 25,000 foreigners, civilians and prisoners of war such as French, Belgians, Danes, Greeks, Russians, Italians and many other nationalities worked in the factory. The factory was called Volkswagen Werk (Stefan Djoravic). In the camp and in the factory, the relationship between the workers was good. We foreigners were characterized by a great deal of solidarity. It made no difference who was of which nationality. The language everyone used was camp German, but at least you could communicate with the different nations (Julian Banasch)

• Transcript of the audio file "Forced laborers' memorial"

  Speaker 1:

  Look around you. Behind you is a cocktail lounge. In front, on the corner, the Haltestelle youth club. In between, lots of gray concrete. In the middle, a kind of tree stump with a golden shimmer. What is written there? Let's take a closer look.

  Speaker 1:

  During the National Socialist tyranny, more than 20,000 people of different nations were taken from their homes and families against their will and deported to the city of the KdF-Wagen. Let us remember them. They had to perform forced labor at the Volkswagen factory, in public institutions, with farmers and private individuals. Men, women and children suffered exploitation, hunger, violence and humiliation. Hundreds died. The signs of the tree remind us not to forget. We promise to respect and defend what they were denied: freedom, peace, democracy, the rule of law and human dignity. Dedicated to the victims, focused on the future. The citizens of the city of Wolfsburg.

  Speaker 1:

  The memorial to the forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners consists of a tree trunk cast in bronze with Cyrillic inscriptions, among other things. In memory of the Russian youth 29.05.1944, Eduard, 18 years. This tree trunk really existed. A young Russian forced laborer, Eduard, carved these words into the trunk of a beech tree on the Klieversberg in 1944. I wonder what became of him?

• Transcript of the audio file "Sara Frenkel"

  Speaker 1:
  
  This square, where they now stand, was named after the Polish-Jewish forced laborer Sara Frenkel, who worked as a nurse in the town of the KdF car and experienced first-hand the misery of the forced laborers and their children in the Volkswagen factory's so-called children's home. Immediately after giving birth, the women had their newborns taken away from them and the babies were taken to a home near the factory, where many of the children would die from inadequate care until the end of the war. Sara Frenkel worked hard to ensure that these children were not forgotten.

• Transcript of the audio file "Refugees since 1945"

  Speaker 1:
  
  Cut 3 old bread rolls into slices, sprinkle 30 grams of sugar over them and pour half a liter of milk over the whole thing. Boil the remaining milk with poppy seeds, sugar, raisins, almonds, nuts, vanilla sugar and honey for 10 minutes. Then layer the soaked bread roll mixture alternately with the milk and poppy seed mixture in a bowl. Chill for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight. And the Schlesische Mohnkließla are ready.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  By 1949, 1.8 million Germans had come to Lower Saxony from the former eastern territories. A quarter of the total population of Lower Saxony. At times, the proportion of refugees in Wolfsburg was more than 50%. There were more refugee children in the schools than locals. Many of them came from Silesia. They found a new home in Wolfsburg. Like Edith Rabert, who came from a small Silesian village near Breslau.
  
  Speaker 3:
  
  "My sister, my brother-in-law were already living here in 1935. My brother-in-law was a foreman at the factory and my sister asked us to come. My father came first, he was able to start working at the factory straight away as a shoemaker. That was in 1946. I had been at the Volkswagen plant for four years and joined the factory in 1947. I had a big punching machine and punched all the soles that went into the shoes. Yes, then I met my sweetheart and then we got married and then I left the factory."
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  In the early years, the city had considerable difficulties in caring for refugees. Voluntary collections of clothes and shoes did not bring the desired results. At the end of April 1946, the Wolfsburg city council had received 3,788 applications for men's shoes, 1,325 for women's shoes and 1,210 for children's shoes. 803 people had applied to receive a pair of slippers. The new arrivals lived in the camp. Wolfsburg had long since become accustomed to the nickname "shanty town".
  
  Edith Rabert tells the story.
  
  Speaker 3:
  
  "So it was like that at the factory in 1946, we were considered second class for the first time, not by the locals. Anyone who lived in the communal camp was already at the back. It all worked out that way. Many people from the communal camp were also employed at the factory."
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  And on Sundays, did it sometimes smell of poppy seed kiessla, Patschkauer Dohlen or Schlesisches Himmelreich between the barracks?

• Transcript of the audio file "Inner-German migration"

  Sounds in the background
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Here, in front of Wolfsburg Town Hall, there is a lot to discover. There is a memorial plaque on a stone wall nearby that reads: "Germany is indivisible". Have you spotted it yet? The plaque is the result of a campaign by the local "Indivisible Germany" board of trustees. Have you ever heard of it?
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The "Indivisible Germany" board of trustees was founded in 1954 by important dignitaries - many politicians, for example - with the aim of promoting German reunification. Accordingly, the local board of trustees is a local group and there were quite a few of them. So it really was a large association that was very influential for 10 years, about 10 years.
  
  There were various campaigns. So this memorial plaque that you're standing in front of, which is also very well known, is the candles in the window. So that's an action, when many people remember that at Christmas in the dark season, candles were placed in the window to really commemorate these people in the East, in the GDR. Who had it so bad and who were oppressed by the system.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Florentine Schmidtmann is a doctoral student at the Center for Contemporary History in Potsdam and works on the history of the GDR.
  
  Her research focuses primarily on GDR citizens who came to the West. For over 41 years, Germany was divided into the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic. But on November 9, 1989, everything suddenly changed.
  
  Cheering in the background
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  November 9, 1989 came as a great surprise to everyone and then when this freedom to travel was suddenly relaxed, people sat in front of their TV sets and were stunned. Wolfsburg is of course now very close to the border, so the nearest border crossing was in Helmstedt, which is also one of the most important border crossing points for car traffic, so that in a very short space of time hundreds, probably thousands of Trabants used this border crossing and were suddenly in Wolfsburg. So I spoke to a lot of people and they kept saying that Trabants were the first thing that suddenly gave off this stench, because Trabants are Trabants, they're two-stroke engines, which means they spread an incredible amount of exhaust fumes, and this host society was very, very happy. So I think that a lot of people were really happy, that there was euphoria.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  So what was it like for the people from the GDR to arrive in Wolfsburg?
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  I think you can imagine it like when you or I now arrive in another, in another country, in another city and have to start all over again. So the citizens of the GDR had a huge advantage over today's migrants, for example. That is that as soon as they entered the Federal Republic, they were, yes, German citizens. They immediately had German citizenship because the West, i.e. the Federal Republic, never recognized the GDR. For them, all Germans, including GDR citizens, were Germans. In this respect, GDR citizens who were in the West were able to vote immediately. They immediately received unemployment benefit or social assistance and, of course, could also speak the language. That is an incredible advantage. In that respect, I would say that's a bit of what I'm trying to find out in my work. It's actually a kind of silent integration. They didn't make a big fuss about it. They didn't cause any big problems, but I still think it was very, very difficult because everything was different. So the later, the longer time passes, the longer people have lived in a country shaped by socialism. They grew up in the GDR and if we go back to the 1980s, for example, yes, it's a completely different situation than in the 1960s.
  
  

• Transcript of the audio file "Guest worker agreement and Italian village"

  Speaker 1:
  
  On November 11, 1961, Heinrich Nordhoff, the general manager of the Volkswagen factory, announced to his workforce that he was forced to recruit foreign workers against his will and hope.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  "They will come in mid-January and help us to run our program, with which we have fallen very behind due to the negligence of the slowpokes."
  
  Spokesperson 1:
  
  We're talking about the recruitment of so-called guest workers, which was decided by the German government in the mid-1950s. The first recruitment agreement was concluded with Italy in 1955. This was followed by agreements with Spain, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia and Yugoslavia. The reason was not slow-working loafers who inhibited a company's production power, as Heinrich Nordhoff pointed out, but a flourishing economy with a simultaneous shortage of labor.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  The reasoning behind the recruitment agreements was as follows: They wanted to bring workers into the country and profit from their labor. After a short time in Germany, they were to return to their home countries. However, this plan did not work out. Many of the guest workers put down roots in Germany and brought their families with them. So the term guest worker is actually anachronistic and rather problematic to use today.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Just 2 months after Heinrich Nordhoff's announcement, the first train of Italian workers arrived in Wolfsburg. As those responsible at VW assumed that the recruitment of foreign workers was a temporary solution, the accommodation was to be produced quickly and cheaply. In January 1962, three two-storey wooden houses were built for the first 100 workers. By November 1962, almost 4,000 Italians were already living in 48 wooden houses. Heinrich Nordhoff himself referred to the wooden houses as barracks and the so-called Italian village as a camp. But he instructed the plant's operating departments.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  "Not to speak and write of barracks and camps. The word camp could evoke associations that everyone would like to avoid. The term "Berliner Brücke accommodation" should meet all requirements."
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Giovanni Lazara came to Wolfsburg in 1963. He talks about his arrival at the Berliner Brücke.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  "Berliner Brücke, and there we did get a pot, 2 plates, a cup, a saucer, cutlery. All the crockery was marked with the VW logo. The whole thing, the spoons, everything, everything. We took that. The blanket also said Volkswagenwerk on it. And then we see, I also went into Berliner Brücke. In one room, a 9 square meter room, there were 3 beds and we lived there. Probably with people we'd never met, but people from our own country. So that's clear. And sometimes you didn't get on well with people. It wasn't a normal life, because if you didn't have any tolerance, you couldn't live in a room with two different people or two strangers. And that was a bit, a bit difficult. But you look around and say, yes, what do I want? Well, times will pass, but I have the job for now and that was important for one or the other".
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The accommodation planned as an emergency solution was the place where the Italian workers lived and worked for 9 years. It was not until 1970 that a new housing project was launched by the factory management and works council.

• Transcript of the audio file "Arrival in Wolfsburg"

  Speaker:

  Look at the bronze statue on Willy-Brandt-Platz in front of the central station, the man with the small suitcase under his arm. The sculpture is called "L'Emigrante" (The Emigrant) and is a memorial to the Italian guest workers. It was designed by the artist Quinto Provenziani, who has lived in Wolfsburg since 1962. The statue is symbolic of those arriving in the city, but also of their feelings, hopes, longings and expectations. Stand next to the statue for a while and take a closer look at it. What thoughts might have been going through people's minds when they got off the train? What expectations did they have of our city?

  The first 100 Italian guest workers arrived in Wolfsburg on the night of January 17, 1962. They were soon to be followed by many more. By the end of 1962, over 3,100 Italians were already working at the Volkswagen plant, most of whom came to Germany without any knowledge of the language or family. They lived in simple wooden houses in the so-called Italian village built especially for the workers. Rocco Artale was one of these men who came to Wolfsburg as an Italian guest worker and one who stayed and found his home in Wolfsburg and is still involved in social life today. As trade union secretary, deputy mayor of his local community and city councillor, for example. In 2012, he was awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Wolfsburg. In an interview, he talks about what it was like to come to our city.

  
  Speaker Rocco Artale:

  At the train station, we were taken by bus to the accommodation. There were 48 barracks for 68 people each on the site. One room was about 13 square meters and was meant for 4 people. I felt restricted, although I could leave the premises at any time. The site was surrounded by barbed wire fences and you were checked in and out. There was a cinema and a pub, which were Italian-oriented. Many people wanted to do something else, for example go to a disco. However, many disco owners wrote on the door: "Foreigners not welcome, as there were often arguments". But this rarely happened. In the first year, I tried to get to know the city better. My knowledge of German, which I acquired through a German course during the week, also helped me. As a result, I got to know German friends at work. I also sometimes went home with them, which is how I met my wife. The host was her brother. I had 2 children with her. I moved into a furnished room in Sandkamp in 1963. I continued my education and stopped working at VW in 1973 to join the IG Metall local administration in early 1974.

• Transcript of the audio file "Home leave"

  Speaker 1:
  
  Wolfsburg in early July 1962: Wolfsburg Central Station is a hive of activity. After months of work, 850 Italian guest workers set off on their home leave to Italy.
  
  Announcement at the station.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The Wolfsburg news report.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Since the Italian guest workers working at the Volkswagen plant are also going on vacation with the other plant employees, a large number of the Italians have decided to go home for the duration of the vacation. To this end, the Volkswagen plant has requested a special train from the Bundesbahn, which will take 850 Italians to southern Italy at 07:08 on Saturday morning. The special train will arrive in Naples at around 13:00 on Sunday afternoon after a journey of around 30 hours. More than half of the Italian guest workers now housed in Wolfsburg have decided to stay in Germany during the plant vacation.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  But for many of those who make the long journey, the vacation has a special meaning. Home leave is the window to their future life in Italy. This is because the workers aim to return to their home country for good soon. Many marriages are formed during these few weeks. Houses are built. The men help their families with the harvest. At last, everyone is together again. The family members who have stayed behind also look forward to this time of year. Reports about prosperous Germany and expensive gifts often lead to other friends and relatives deciding to travel to Germany and earn money there.
  
  Announcement at the station:
  
  Attention platform 3, there is a special train from Naples.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  After the workers' vacation, the Wolfsburger Nachrichten wrote on July 30, 1962: "The mood among those returning was excellent." For many, however, who had to leave their families behind in Italy, the arrival in Wolfsburg also meant a return to a secluded life characterized by work and homesickness. They concentrated on being able to send as much money home as possible in the shortest possible time. They hardly learned any German and did not take part in social life. Instead, they waited for their next vacation home and for their future life in Italy. After work at Volkswagen. A former VW employee tells the story.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Many colleagues retreated into solitude. They didn't go out, they always stayed locked up in their apartments. They spent their whole lives like that, I don't know how they managed it.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  In the 1960s, about 89% of Italians from Wolfsburg returned to their homeland. About 60,000 have stopped over in Wolfsburg since 1962. Today, around 5,500 Italians live among the 125,000 inhabitants.

• Transcript of the audio file "Volkshochschule"

  Speaker 1:
  
  Have you turned into Hugo-Junkers-Weg and are now standing in front of house number 5? This building is now home to the adult education center. Around 40 years ago, it was still based in the Alvar Aalto Kulturhaus, where our city library is today. Back then, the adult education center offered Italians the opportunity to catch up on their Italian school-leaving qualifications here in Wolfsburg. The Wolfsburger Nachrichten reported on May 25, 1976.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  More than 40 adult Italians, most of whom have lived in Wolfsburg for several years and are mainly employed at the Volkswagen plant, have completed a two-year course at the Volkshochschule Wolfsburg to catch up on their Italian school-leaving certificate. It is roughly equivalent to a German university degree and opens up better career prospects for graduates. The examination, which lasts a total of 8 days, began last week at the cultural center with the written papers. The course participants are currently being tested orally. The Italian diplomatic mission in Germany attaches great importance to such courses. If there are enough participants, another course will begin next fall.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Even today, many people from different cultures arrive in Wolfsburg. The adult education center is responding to the current migration movements with language courses, integration courses and intercultural education courses for refugees. The aim is to encourage people to approach other people and cultures with openness and interest and to get to know each other better, for example on the "Falafel meets meatball" cooking course.

• Transcript of the audio file "Lupo Martini Wolfsburg"

  Lupo, Lupo, Lupo, Lupo, Lupo.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The accommodation for VW's Italian guest workers was once located here in front of today's Volkswagen Arena. And the stadium of the first foreign soccer club in the Federal Republic of Germany was also located here - the ISC Lupo stadium. In 1962, soccer enthusiasts among the Italian workers founded the first Italian sports club with the support of the VW plant and the soccer district. In addition to sporting success and fun, the aim of the club was to improve the integration of the new Wolfsburg residents. Sport that unites.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  This is also clear from the club's name. They called themselves Lupo, or Wolf, in keeping with their new home. In 1970, with 12,000 Italians now living in Wolfsburg, a second Italian sports club, US Martini, was founded. The competition was naturally fierce, especially in the derbies. In 1981, however, US Martini merged with ESC Lupo to form the Unione Sportiva Italiana Lupo Martini Wolfsburg. Quite a long name, isn't it? Today, USI Lupo Martini has 350 members and plays in the Lower Saxony premier league. It has its own sports facilities in the Kreuzheide school center and, in addition to a men's team, also has a very active youth section. And will you be cheering on Lupo soon?
  
  Lupo, Lupo, Lupo, Lupo, Lupo.

• Transcript of the audio file "Italy in Wolfsburg"

  Speaker 1:
  
  Do you fancy a cappuccino, espresso or perhaps a pizza to stave off hunger? Then you've come to the right stop on the Audi Walk. Here in Heßlinger Straße you will find 2 Italian pubs, the Azzurri Ristorante Bar at number 7 and the Trinacria Bar at number 9. Did you find them? 2 students from the history profile course asked around there and met people who once came to Wolfsburg from Italy as so-called guest workers to earn money. Around 5,500 Italians stayed in Wolfsburg. They and tens of thousands of Italians who lived and worked in Wolfsburg temporarily have shaped Wolfsburg with their culture. From the Piazza Italia to Italian soccer at Lupo and culinary delights. Take a moment to accompany the young people as they talk about life and work, Italian culture and their feelings of home in Wolfsburg.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Where did you live back then? In Wolfsburg?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Yes, I lived here in Wolfsburg, where the Arena soccer stadium is now. There used to be an Italian village, there was more, it was called Berliner Brücke.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  And you also lived in a shack?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  47 years ago, the guest from the Italian pub came to Wolfsburg to work and earn money. Like so many Italian workers, he lived in the Berliner Brücke accommodation for the first few years. Then he moved and started a family.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  In 1973 that year they built these buildings in Kästorf. I lived there and met a material woman. Married again, got an apartment
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The former VW employee used to spend every vacation in Italy. But that changed over the years.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  And are they still in Italy today, or not at all?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Well, on occasion. Because the parents are probably no longer alive. I still have two families there, my son has also grown old. He doesn't like driving so much anymore.
  
  After all, it's been 47 years here in Wolfsburg. Most of my acquaintances are all here.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Today, the pensioner prefers to spend time in his garden. And in the past?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  We used to play soccer, do sports, so we were active.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Are you a fan of a soccer club? Which club, if I may ask? Also VfL like me.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Sport unites nations and generations. And now, finally, a very important question.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Has Wolfsburg become home for you?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Well, I would just say that is my home too. If I want to go on vacation, I don't know, you hardly know anyone there.
  
  The old ones, half of my colleagues, one is no longer there, the other no longer lives or has gone somewhere else. And the young people are big now. Well, why? Where you say your first home. Because this is where you're at home.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  It wasn't always like that.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Well well, I experienced quite a lot. Back then, it was a different political situation with skinheads, xenophobia and so on. We had to assert ourselves.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  A lot has changed for him in his old home country of Italy. Above all, the people who meant home to him have moved away themselves or have already passed away. Wolfsburg is the center of his life, friends and family live here. The garden is here, his life has taken place here for 47 years. Wolfsburg has become his new home.

• Transcript of the audio file "Somehow I had settled in here"

  Announcement:
  
  Ladies and gentlemen at platform 19 A to C. Please note ICE 810 to Dortmund Central Station via Frankfurt am Main Airport Station.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  When did you come to Wolfsburg and why?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  I came to Wolfsburg in 1973 because there were lots of well-paid jobs here. I was 29 years old at the time.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Did you arrive here at the station at that time?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Yes, a few other young men and I came to Wolfsburg by train. It was a long journey, but we got to know each other better and made a few friends.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Did you want to stay here forever?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  No, not really. I wanted to go back quickly, but I was doing relatively well here and somehow I had settled in.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  The main train station and the area around the ZOB, the central bus station, are probably the first things he saw of Wolfsburg. Back then, when he arrived here over 40 years ago. Many other Tunisians came to Wolfsburg with him. The first came in 1970 as guest workers. They were looking for work and were accepted because German companies urgently needed employees. The Federal Republic of Germany had concluded a recruitment agreement with Tunisia, which formed the legal basis for this. They were supposed to live and work in Germany for a certain period of time. Most of them worked in production at Volkswagen. They didn't actually want to stay forever. They just wanted to earn a little money and then return home. But things often turned out differently. The people settled in, learned the German language and became more and more Wolfsburg residents. Gradually, the workers' families also came to Wolfsburg. Together they founded associations, built a mosque with other people of Muslim faith in order to live their faith and became an active part of the city's society. Looking back, it was probably a good decision for many of them to stay in Wolfsburg.

• Transcript of the audio file "A mosque in the countryside"

  Speaker 1:
  
  Here in the middle of the countryside and very close to the large Schillerteich pond, there is a special building. You will recognize it by its green roof and the dome topped by a golden crescent. It is the Islamic cultural center of Wolfsburg, the most important part of which is the mosque. What do you think? What do you think the mosque looks like inside?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  "What is striking about us, in our mosque, is the simplicity and simplicity and also the calm, the openness, the transparency. The lighting conditions are very nice and the colors are subtle, white, light green. Everything is calm and soothing. And my experience is that all the people who visit us here immediately say it's very nice here"
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Mohammed Ibrahim, Managing Director of the Islamic Cultural Center Wolfsburg.
  
  Visitors to the mosque are always welcome. But before they go straight in, they listen to Mr. Ibrahim for a while.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  "So on the one hand, the Islamic Cultural Center is of course a religious home for Muslims in Wolfsburg and the surrounding area, and accordingly Muslims come to the center, especially to the mosque, to perform their daily prayers, for example, or just to take part in events, to attend classes, to get advice in various areas, in various matters. The other area is that the Islamic cultural center sees itself as a meeting place for Muslims and non-Muslims and is therefore also committed to this. As a result, hardly a week goes by without a group or several people visiting the Islamic Cultural Center to get information. And that's how you get into conversation with each other."
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  But that wasn't always the case.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  "Before they opened the Islamic cultural center here, the Muslims here in Wolfsburg were in different locations. And then they kept looking for rooms where they could meet. Especially for Friday prayers and at the weekend, where they tried to offer various activities for the children, but also leisure activities for everyone. All this time, there was a desire or the idea of building a mosque, an Islamic cultural center, here in Wolfsburg and in 2004, the land here was leased by the city of Wolfsburg and the construction of the Islamic Cultural Center began and since 2006, the Islamic Cultural Center has been the mosque here in Wolfsburg."
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Not all people agreed with the construction of the Islamic Cultural Center at the beginning.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  "The location we have here now, this is the third location we have been looked for and offered. The first two were then rejected or abandoned because there were protests or reservations on the part of the population. And that was always a big discussion in the press at the time and politicians had to react accordingly to these protests from the people. But in the end we say, all's well that ends well. The site we got here is the best of the three. We then say that it was God's providence."
  
  " Today, the Islamic cultural center here in Wolfsburg has established itself very well. Two years ago, I had a very nice experience here. Every year we have an open day and two years ago someone was here and took me aside at the end of the tour and said, you know what, Mr. Ibrahim, 10 years ago I was a big opponent of the construction of the Islamic Cultural Center here in Wolfsburg. I took part in the protests back then and so on and so forth. Today, he says, I am grateful that we have the Islamic Cultural Center here and as I was leaving he told me that I would recommend it to others. And that's a nice thing for me, you can say anecdotally, a nice thing, that the Islamic Cultural Center, that our work has indeed paid off to some extent in recent years."

• Transcript of the audio file "Interview with Murat"

  Speaker 1:
  
  May 11, 2017 We are standing at the central bus station in Wolfsburg and meet Murat. He is 20 years old and came to Wolfsburg in 2014 because he had to flee his home country of Afghanistan due to the dangers of war and terror. Hello Murat, how are you?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Hello, quite well, thank you.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  How long have you been living here in Wolfsburg now?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Since 2014, before that I was traveling for a year.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Murat, what do you think of the ZOB, the central bus station and the facilities here?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  We're here often as it's the biggest place in Wolfsburg. It's also easy for all our friends to come here, as all the buses run along here. But there could be a few more things to do. But it's nice that the Haltestelle youth club is here. We often use the youth club because there are lots of things to do there. But after a while it gets boring.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  OK, I can understand that. What would you want to improve if you could?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Well, I'd like to have opportunities to do something. After all, I'd like to start working here too.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  So what are your goals here in Wolfsburg?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Well, I'd like to start working, like I said, I'd like to move into my own apartment as well.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  Good luck, Murat and thank you for talking to us.
  
  Speaker 3:
  
  In summer 2017, around 3000 refugees are registered in Wolfsburg. This figure is made up of asylum seekers, tolerated persons and refugees on humanitarian grounds. In the meantime, the number of refugees has fallen sharply. Since April 2017, fewer than 50 refugees have been assigned to Wolfsburg. In January 2016, there were still more than 200. Most of the refugees currently living in Wolfsburg come from Syria. In addition, it is mainly people from Iraq, Kosovo, Serbia, Sudan including South Sudan and Afghanistan who are seeking refuge in Wolfsburg. Due to the lack of regular living space, many refugees have had to be housed in sports halls, exhibition halls or containers in the meantime. Even if it is a temporary solution, it is a great burden for the people, as they have to live together with many others in a confined space with no privacy. If they get involved themselves. If you would like to support the new Wolfsburg residents, you can take a closer look at www.wolfsburg.de/bringtzusammen. This site of the city of Wolfsburg is a portal for volunteers. Aid organizations, institutions and charitable projects working with refugees. Aid organizations can enter their specific needs and volunteers their specific offers on the website easily and without registration. Everyone has the opportunity to respond.

• Transcript of the audio file "Interview with Hani Hawile from Syria"

  Speaker 1:
  
  Stop, hold it right there. This is the bus stop - yes, even for the bus. But turn around. There's also a bus stop in the building behind you - that's the name of the youth center here in Wolfsburg. Many young people from Wolfsburg come here during the day to play table football or Playstation, listen to music or just hang out. For some time now, more and more young people who have not lived in Wolfsburg for very long have also been coming here. They had to flee their home countries, for example Syria, and now meet here to get to know people, speak German and settle in better. Hani Habile also comes to the bus stop regularly.
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  So I've been in Wolfsburg since 28.7.2015 because there's a war in Syria. I came to Germany on foot by boat, by bus and by train. The first reception center was Giessen. After that, the reception centers sent me to Braunschweig. I lived in Braunschweig for a month. And then from Braunschweig I came to Wolfsburg.
  
  Speaker 3:
  
  How did you come across the Haltestelle youth center?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Through a friend who already knows the youth center.
  
  Speaker 3:
  
  What does the youth center mean to you?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  I can meet friends here, play table football, listen to music and play a bit. I have fun here and the teachers help me and are nice.
  
  Speaker 3:
  
  What future prospects do you see for yourself?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  At the moment I am attending an integration course, then I would like to do an apprenticeship as a car salesman.
  
  Speaker 3:
  
  Do you miss your home country?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Yes, I miss home because my parents are there, my siblings and my friends.
  
  Speaker 3:
  
  Do you already see Wolfsburg as your home?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  No, my home is my home. But I live in Wolfsburg because of the war. And I've made friends here and I feel safe.

• Transcript of the audio file "Work colleagues"

  Speaker 1:
  
  More than 50,000 people work at Volkswagen in Wolfsburg today. They come from all over the world, a microcosm of different people, languages and life stories. We asked a group of VW workers which countries their colleagues come from.
  
  Several speakers
  
  Tunisia, Italy, Turkey, Germany.
  
  Poland, and the Indian colleagues.
  
  China.
  
  Very international.
  
  Mexico. East Germans.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  How do you communicate with each other at the plant? Do you speak German or English?
  
  Speaker 2:
  
  Actually German, because I don't speak Turkish either. Not Kurdish at all, not Italian either, no, so I have a colleague who is Italian, for example, but he was born here. We have two Turks here. One is Kurdish and one is Yazidi. We speak normal German with them. They are wonderfully integrated, there are no problems.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  In the nineteen-sixties and seventies, a very special German developed. Among the so-called guest workers who were recruited. Aleksander Nedelkovski, head of the Wolfsburg History Workshop, called it foreign.
  
  Speaker Aleksander Nedelkovski:
  
  Yes, I know that from my father, who was also a guest worker. My father could only speak this broken German until the end of his life, unlike my mother, who didn't work in the factory. And the interesting thing is that I simply asked him, yes, how do you speak? He had a Polish colleague at work. How do you actually talk to your colleagues? He can't speak German, you can't speak German. But then they speak this "foreign language" I always called it. Yes, they then spoke to each other in some kind of broken German and were somehow able to communicate with each other in a strange way Whether they then, the question is of course whether when person X said something, it was received in the same way by Y, that is of course another question. But for me, my friends always had problems understanding my father, and I always knew when he was speaking German, I always knew immediately what he wanted. But it's like a language, although it wasn't German or whatever, but chunks.
  
  Speaker 1:
  
  But often you understand each other very well even without language.

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