Film Series for Made in Germany?—Archives of Migration

This event requires registration; see further details below.

In an effort to rebuild its economy, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG/West Germany) launched a labor program in 1955 that allowed migrants to temporarily live and work there. As the program developed, so-called guest workers arrived from Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, South Korea, Portugal, Tunisia, and Yugoslavia. Similarly, in 1967, the German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany) started a program that drew so-called contract workers from other socialist countries, such as Hungary, Algeria, Cuba, Mozambique, Vietnam, and Angola. Although the programs were framed as mutually beneficial for the participants and the West and East German economies, migrant laborers faced ostracization, strict rules, poor housing and working conditions, and physical violence.

The two films being shown document and archive the lives of migrants and reveal their experiences of exploitation, neglect, and erasure.

Angelika Nguyen’s Brotherland Has Burned Down (1991; original German title: Bruderland ist angebrannt) examines the lives of Vietnamese migrants in the GDR before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Through firsthand accounts and documentary footage, the film reveals how they were targets of systemic and overt racism, including abrupt deportations after the wall opened.

Pınar Öğrenci’s Good Luck in Germany (2024; original German title: Glück Auf in Deutschland) focuses on the lives of Turkish migrants and the mining industry in the FRG’s Ruhr region. Primarily composed of the limited images Öğrenci found in regional archives of workers, the film also includes historical oral testimonies and interviews conducted by the artist that emphasize the hardships faced by Turkish women in the domestic sphere as well as the brutal conditions that Turkish men worked in.

Following the screening, there will be an in-person conversation with Angelika Nguyen.

Viewers may find the content of these films disturbing.

About the films:
Brotherland Has Burned Down, 1991 (Angelika Nguyen; German with English subtitles; 28 min.)
Good Luck in Germany, 2024 (Pınar Öğrenci; German with English subtitles; 44 min.)

This film series is curated by Peter Murphy, the Stefan Engelhorn Curatorial Fellow in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and is offered in conjunction with the special exhibition Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation (September 13, 2024–January 5, 2025).

Free admission, but seating is limited and registration is required. You can register by clicking on the event on this form, beginning Wednesday, October 2, after 10am.

The event will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Doors will open at 1:30pm.

The Harvard Art Museums offer free admission every day, Tuesday through Sunday. Please see the museum visit page to learn about our general policies for visiting the museums.

Support for this program is provided by the Richard L. Menschel Endowment Fund and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung New York City Office.

Made in Germany? Art and Identity in a Global Nation is made possible by the Daimler Curatorship of the Busch-Reisinger Museum Fund, the Carola B. Terwilliger Bequest, German Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Care of the Busch-Reisinger Museum Collection Endowment. Additional support was provided by the Goethe-Institut Boston and the Dedalus Foundation. Related programming is supported by the Richard L. Menschel Endowment Fund and the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund. Modern and contemporary art programs at the Harvard Art Museums are made possible in part by generous support from the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.

The Harvard Art Museums are committed to accessibility for all visitors. For anyone requiring accessibility accommodations for our programs, please contact us at am_register@harvard.edu at least 48 hours in advance.