it Is a better German, if you join in the rituals? The Munich-based IT entrepreneur Mustafa Isik does not find the – and tells why he now decorates his apartment.
Claudia Pious
Mustafa Isik, 38, is sitting in his Munich office. In front of him on the Desk, three computers are built, he has founded a few months ago, a Start-up that develops Software for companies. From time to time, you hear a whirring, Isiks office is located directly above the car wash of a gas station. Soon, however, he will find rest in the forest:
“this year, I’m going to buy me for the first Time, a Christmas tree, no, I’ll beat him myself. ‘Yes, and?’, many ask me if I’m telling you this. ‘Integration’, I answer. ‘What are you of Integration, Mustafa’re talking about’, they say. ‘You’re born in Germany, your parents are here with their parents in the sixties from Turkey. You worked at Google in Silicon Valley, have developed Software for the Bayerischer Rundfunk. Your wife is German, you’ve got two kids that can’t even really Turkish. More than you no one is integrated.’
It is important to talk about Integration in times where so many people are after Germany escaped. But what of those that have been here for so long?
Christmas, we have celebrated before. My parents had called in Herford, Germany, a Turkish Restaurant, ‘Zur alten Post’, since I have helped often. My father had previously worked as a welder, my mother in a factory. It was a lot of work, but my mother has passed however, German-Turkish women’s groups, my father was politically engaged. He knew Joschka Fischer and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, he was a real ‘ 68. There are also those who come from Anatolia, like my father. Even if many Germans are happy to maintain the prejudice from the stupid peasants.
to make a tree into the room, was pandering to us, and not Integration
We were through-and-through social-democratic and very open. Gifts and a Christmas tree, there were still never. I knew families in Herford, which were very close to the headscarf, so very religious and have drawn up a tree. This seemed to us wrong. Since we could also perform an Indian rain dance in the living room, the had just had a lot to do with us. My mother said: We are Muslims, we do that. She was always very religious, my father did not, then more in old age, we children were in the middle of it, until today, I have only two prayers. Even more important than the Religion but my parents was: you do not want to curry favor. That was not the way that you have Integration. It was an act of sovereignty, for you, that there was no tree. Your idea of Germany was varied and colorful.
that’s Exactly how I’ve seen it. I want to be German, but will be accepted as I am. I represent a new Germany, knows more colors than Black and White. But I don’t want to be as a German accept, because I take a Ritual not to be noticed. I believe in a value-oriented Germany, not a blood-and-soil-genetics-Germany. It is great that people feel as a German, because they connect to something with this country.
Is just a decoration, a Christmas tree, a pagan custom, have told me friends. May be, but for me, it was long a Symbol, and everything crystallized in terms of Integration: do you Have a, you’re in. You’re not, you’re out. As simple as that. For me, the tree was long a Symbol of rejection for what you’re not.
Is it really that easy? My daughters Selma, 1, and Ela, 4, got me Thinking. Ela asked again and again whether we could also set up a tree, like the other children. If it could not give us gifts at Christmas. My wife actually wanted to tree, never a, even though she is German, but since the kids are there, she tries to convince me. My daughter has done it now. Maybe the fourth Generation should be a different approach. Perhaps the tree is simply a thing that is there, maybe it’s not a comic adaptation number. Maybe I can stay the other German, also with a Christmas tree.
to be Expected of the Germans.
Many people like to call me a Prime example of successful Integration. But why it had to last for two whole generations up in an immigrant family, the First has studied? To the top of Germany’s social difficult permeable. Every Mustafa, each Ayşe third-Generation can tell the same Story: that it was not a simple. In elementary school, fourth grade, I sit with my mother at the parent-teacher conference. How Mustafa can be better in math, asked my mother. Mustafa is good, said the teacher. He has a three-replied my mother. What can we do so that he comes to high school? Why, asked the teacher, Mustafa is a Turk. This scene has been burned into me.
My Turkish roots are important to me. Until puberty, I have me as a Turk terms, happens to be born in Germany. Then I wanted to be a Super computer scientist in the United States, saw myself as a citizen of the world. Later, it was clear to me: I’m a German, with all the Rights and obligations.
Integration is not a one-way street. I rate all the German Turks: in the Volunteer fire brigade, as I was in the hunter’s Association, not only in the football club. If you want this Land is your Land, are not only there, where it is believed you! And demanded of the Germans from time to time. Says to them: Listen, we are here, we are not going to go away. Accept us as fellow citizens and the German citizens as you are.
but There has to be a rethink in the case of the German Turks, especially in the case of those who gather behind Erdoğan. This is the result of years of humiliation. You are who, says Erdoğan. Nothing to her, silk said you long for the Germans. The message must be: You’re part of this country, accept it! You can claim that the Germans accept you, but it also means that you need to bring. You can’t live here, somewhere on the edge, and you as a German feel. I believe that everyone must consciously decide to want to at least also in German. For this, no one must give up his Turkish roots. If you say: I love Germany and would like to be a part of it, you’ll belong to.
I propose this afternoon, my first Christmas tree. The whole family comes with. For my children this is a great thing. For me, not more.”
