GHDI logo
German History in Documents and Images
return to system

Children from Eleven Countries (1979)
This photograph features a wall bearing the names and flags of the eleven home countries of grade school students at the Heinrich-Zille School in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighborhood: 1) The Federal Republic of Germany; 2) Yugoslavia; 3) Turkey; 4) Lebanon; 5) Syria; 6) Portugal; 7) Italy; 8) Spain; 9) Greece; 10) Jordan; and 11) India. The list of nations includes the countries from which guest workers were once recruited: Italy, Greece, Spain, Turkey, Yugoslavia, and Portugal. It also includes the birth countries of many asylum-seekers: countries with high levels of poverty and ethnic and religious conflicts (India), as well as states ravaged by civil war (Lebanon) and neighboring lands (Syria and Jordan).