{"id":264,"date":"2023-06-11T21:38:46","date_gmt":"2023-06-11T21:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/?p=264"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:34:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:34:33","slug":"an-archive-of-migration-the-ballhaus-naunynstrase-in-the-1980s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/27\/an-archive-of-migration-the-ballhaus-naunynstrase-in-the-1980s\/","title":{"rendered":"An Archive of Migration: The Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe in the 1980s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ela Gezen<\/strong>*<\/a> and Olivia Landry<\/strong>**<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In this essay, we explore a small archive of programs designed and printed in the 1980s to promote the theatre and performance events at the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe of that period. As one of the critical stages of early postmigrant theatre in Berlin, the Ballhaus has received much attention since the early 2000s. A return to an earlier period in this theatre\u2019s history, with particular focus on the Ballhaus as a community space and municipal venue, reveals a longer historical continuity of transnational collaborations and narratives. Coalescing migration histories, transnational theatre work and theories of the archive, this essay presents a critical cultural and historical intervention.

Keywords<\/strong>: archive, migration, postmigrant theatre, Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe, Kreuzberg<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of the \u201carchives of migration\u201d has taken a critical position within German transnational studies, linked to the writings of young Turkish German authors, especially Deniz Utlu (\u201cDas Archiv der Migration\u201d; Gezen and Reiso\u011flu).[1]<\/sup><\/a> On the one hand, it has provided a platform for an alternative canon or a counter-canon of German artistic creation, against the grain of traditional German cultural production, from which it has long been excluded (Utlu, \u201cAras \u00d6ren zum 80.\u201d).[2]<\/sup><\/a> On the other hand, the concept of the \u201carchives of migration\u201d has become shorthand for historical intertextuality and connectivity. At a moment when \u201cpostmigrant\u201d cultural production, in particular theatre, presents radical new forms and narratives, there has also been a move to reclaim a heritage and genealogy that assert if not direct historical continuity than at least conceptual influence (Sharifi, \u201cTheatre and Migration\u201d and \u201cMultilingualism\u201d; Landry; Stewart, Performing New German Realities<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on these developments, this essay seeks to offer a tangible example of one such archive of migration. It takes as its focus the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe, a small free-scene theatre in Berlin\u2019s Kreuzberg neighborhood. The theatre gained international recognition in the late aughts and early 2010s under the auspices of Shermin Langhoff and her postmigrant productions, most famously Verr\u00fccktes Blut <\/em>(Mad Blood<\/em>; written by Nurkan Erpulat and Jens Hillje; directed by Nurkan Erpulat; premiere 2010). Her team later moved to the state theatre in central Berlin, the Maxim Gorki Theater. Yet, the history of the Ballhaus as a theatre and cultural center prior to this period is obscured. Indeed, evidence of its earlier heydays in the 1980s and its vast range of performances remains relegated to a collection of event programs contained within a very small box (see images below) housed in the back office of a pharmacy turned museum at the Kunstraum Kreuzberg\/Bethanien. As inconsequential as the contents of a small box might seem, they tell us much about the earlier days of this theatre and the antecedents of a celebrated theatre movement. A perusal of these programs reveals a lively, multimedial, collaborative and transnational repertoire of plays, musical performances, film screenings and art exhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe. Photo: Web<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Before we explore the nature of the programming and how it ultimately re-shapes our thinking about the history of the Ballhaus, let us consider the archive in its varied meanings, both conceptually and materially. With this turn to the archive, we must also consider a series of questions. What can an archive do for the past, present and future of a history and a community? What is the value of an archive and what is its price? The archive can represent structural power, but here it is a mere collection of objects, officially part of this power but hitherto conceptually unaccounted for. Is this small box, therefore, a counter-archive or an anarchive\u2014in other words, a working against or in spite of other historiographies, which have disregarded or even suppressed it? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, what do we learn from this potential archive? Rather than arguing for a particular reading of the archive, this essay presents a case history of archival absence and avowal. By way of this paradigm of lost and found in the archive, new insights about contemporary transnational theatre in Germany and its longer tradition unfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the Archive (of Migration)<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Can we call this an archive? The skepticism and ambivalence with which we have come to approach the archive in the wake of French poststructuralism, and the writings of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida in particular, appear to have been overcome in some circles. Black studies, queer studies, trans studies and, indeed, migration studies have embraced the concept and tool of an archive as an important site for the recuperation of lost histories (Hartman; Halberstam; Lau et al.; Nyong\u2019o). The archive\u2019s status as a contested site of power and discourse in the ratification of certain historiographies over others, as Foucault has taught us, has not altogether disappeared, but much new scholarly reappropriating of the archive as such is less concerned with returning to existing archives than imagining and creating new ones (129).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It goes without saying that these new archives eschew the entrenchment of the projects of nationalism, imperialism and colonialism. Did Derrida not claim that the archive contains at once the traditional and the revolutionary (12)? Terry Cook understands this shift in its initial form as the postmodern approach to archival science from something static to something dynamic, from a product to a process (4). Some have proposed a rhetorical shift as well. We might call these new archives, which map different histories, \u201canarchives\u201d (Derrida 79), \u201ccounter-archives\u201d (Amad), \u201cshadow archives\u201d (Nyong\u2019o 11\u201312), or in the context of this essay, \u201carchives of migration.\u201d Indeed, is not a focus on migration histories already contra the state-sanctioned archive of a nation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The archive of migration in focus here is a tiny black and gray leaf-patterned box labeled \u201cKunstamt Kreuzberg \/ Programme 9\/1983 \u2013 12\/1991.\u201d It looks like something you might pull out of your closet: a box of memories, keepsakes, trinkets or old photos. It sits on a shelf of a bright office-cum-storage space to the back of the Theodor-Fontane-Apotheke, an original pharmacy turned museum from the nineteenth century, in which Theodor Fontane briefly worked and trained nurses. Aside from the geographical connection in Kreuzberg not far from the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe, the location of this small archive and its storage behind a historical pharmacy might seem haphazard. But the pharmacy is part of the FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum and its archive, and it houses documents pertaining to the Kunstamt Kreuzberg, including materials and files from the Ballhaus (Dewey). First erected in the mid-nineteenth century, the building originally served as a hospital until 1970. It was scheduled to be razed and replaced by social housing at various points in its history but, due to public protest, has been safeguarded as a historical edifice and a center for contemporary culture and art, as well as preservation (Kunstamt Kreuzberg).[3]<\/sup><\/a> Of the several boxes containing materials from the Ballhaus in the office, this tiny box of programs was the first to be properly \u201carchived\u201d\u2014in other words, sorted, classified and made available for exploration and study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The box contains roughly 48 programs (published bi-monthly over an eight-year period). On average, 5,000 copies of each program were printed. These copies were mailed to interested parties, distributed to cultural centers in the neighborhood and delivered to local cafes, cinemas and libraries (Treziak). They are rectangular in shape and occupy a circumference similar to a package of cigarettes. These pocket-sized programs vary in length but range typically between 20 and 25 pages. Their design alters too, but each maintains a black-white-and-red coloration and sharp-angle patterning in modernist Soviet design, originally created by typographer and designer Erik Spiekermann. Within, we find not only programming for the Ballhaus but also for the Bethanien and the Galerie Franz Mehring. Both still active, the Bethanien and the Galerie Franz Mehring are Kreuzberg centers which predominantly serve as exhibition spaces for the visual arts. Collaboratively, the three institutes offered a wide range of activities and performances. According to the programs, local and international artists and groups were featured in various languages. Images and text fill the pages. While mostly in German, we also see Turkish as well as some Azerbaijani, English, Greek, Italian, Kurdish, Nepalese, Persian, Polish, Russian and Spanish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we will explore more comprehensively, the Ballhaus served the local community in Kreuzberg and its rich population of immigrants from Turkey and elsewhere, but the frequent engagement of international artists, something we discuss in detail in a later section, reveals an extensive reach in the 1980s that parallels its more recent history in the 2000s under the direction of Langhoff and, currently, Wagner Carvalho. Don\u2019t be fooled by the size of this minor archive of programs; even considered apart from the larger museum archive, it is still rich in content.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo of the box containing the programs for the \u201cKunstamt Kreuzberg.\u201d Photo: Olivia Landry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Photos of box of programs for \u201cKunstamt Kreuzberg\u201d and front image of a program. Photo: Olivia Landry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
The Theatre and the Archive<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The relationship between theatre and the archive has never been a straightforward one. Frequently discerned as a place for exploring memory, the theatre and its commitment to performance troubles its status as an enduring and unchanging site of knowledge and information. Certainly not unchallenged, Diana Taylor\u2019s thesis about the tensions between the archive and the repertoire remain critical. According to Taylor, \u201ctheatre, weighed down by centuries of colonial evangelical or normalizing activity,\u201d falls into the category of the former (15). But the category of theatre might be broken down further. In the context of non-repertory theatre, such as the Ballhaus, in which there is neither a fixed ensemble nor a permanent repertoire of plays, the ephemerality of performance certainly comes to the fore. Katrin Sieg proposes that we reconsider this divide between archive and repertoire within German theatre itself as a divide between traditional state-sponsored theatre and non-repertory, free-scene theatre. In the context of postmigrant documentary theatre, she writes: \u201cI begin by considering theatre as an archive<\/em> of Germanness that constitutes and continually reproduces exclusionary concepts of identity and community through scenarios of insurmountable difference\u201d (166). Theatre as archive<\/em> refers to state-sponsored theatre. Following Taylor, Sieg also understands the archive here as a metaphor for exclusionary power and immutability that speaks to the institutionalized tradition of German theatre; a tradition postmigrant theatre has sought to challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, a return to the archive to trace a history of the Ballhaus, long a culturally and socially marginalized theatre inextricably linked to postmigrant theatre, presents a vexed process. Yet, with only a spotty chronicled history of this theatre before the 2000s at our disposal, the archive, any archive, proves indispensable (see Gezen, Brecht, Turkish Theater<\/em>). In her work on Turkish German theatre history, Lizzie Stewart demonstrates the relevance of \u201creading the remains\u201d of theatrical work to discover new insight on obscured theatre histories, what she takes up as \u201ccountermemory,\u201d or an undermining of official, hegemonic memory discourse (3). Benjamin Hutchens employs the term \u201ccounter-memory\u201d to qualify the work of the anarchive as that which does not simply reject the archive but provides in its place a productive and reparative alternative (37).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking the concept of countermemory predominantly from literary studies, wherein it has served as a metaphor for the creation and impetus of historical narratives traditionally excluded from the national canon, Stewart brings it to bear on theatre production and invites us to think about the theatre archive as more than just a metaphor. She examines documents and multimedia artifacts from divergent archives to discover and piece together a more comprehensive history of the original production of Emine Sevgi \u00d6zdamar\u2019s play Karag\u00f6z in Alamania<\/em> (1986), an early and critical piece in the development of a theatre of (post)migration (Stewart). \u201cCrucially, this [more practical archival approach] involves moving beyond those materials held in state collections to those held by individuals and placing an emphasis on multimedial sources\u201d (Stewart 6). Not filled with bundles of written documents and state-sanctioned sources, our tiny archive of programs offers a similar example of an anarchive as the site of countermemory, which serves to guide us toward a more comprehensive history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We turn to this archive of programs with their range of images, texts and designs in pocket-sized format to, thus, learn more about the history of the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe of the 1980s, when it was the main venue of the Kunstamt. We recognize, following Helen Freshwater, that \u201c[a]s the archive cannot offer direct access to the past, any reading of its contents will necessarily be a reinterpretation\u201d (738). Narrow as it might seem, this aperture is still an important start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re-Interpreting the History of the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Krista Tebbe was the director of the Kunstamt Kreuzberg from 1977 until 2002. The Kunstamt Kreuzberg was a public district authority that was active in municipal work, devoting one fourth of its program to \u201cengagement with the cultures of foreigners living in the district\u201d (Brauneck 70).[4]<\/sup><\/a> Tebbe is to be credited for the establishment of the renovated and reopened Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe in 1983, as space of \u201ceveryday cultural offerings emanating from target-group oriented cultural work with residents and its environment,\u201d which featured \u201ccontinued international cultural programming\u201d\u2014prior to its reopening in 2008 and its important intervention through postmigrant theatre (Kunstamt, \u201cPresseinformation\u201d). Not only did early Turkish theatre groups perform here throughout the 1980s, but it was also the meeting space of the T\u00fcrkisch-Deutsche Gesellschaft,[5]<\/sup><\/a> a venue for pedagogical youth workshops, which we might consider a precursor to the Ballhaus\u2019 current Akademie der Autodidakten, as well as a concert hall. It was even briefly considered as space to house the T\u00fcrkei Archiv e.V., which was founded in West Berlin in 1981 foregrounding the Ballhaus\u2019 significance not only as central community space but also as an archive of Turkish cultural activities (Kunstamt, \u201cT\u00fcrkei-Archiv\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The history of the Ballhaus dates back to 1863, when it was one of many backyard ballrooms that existed in Berlin throughout the nineteenth century, which were mainly used for private functions. Throughout its existence it was repeatedly remodeled and repurposed for different uses and functions. In 1961, it was closed\u2014due to lack of revenue as a result of the construction of the Wall, the new \u201cFernsehkultur\u201d (television culture) but also continuous decay of the building (Kunstamt, \u201cBallhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe\u201d 1)\u2014and the Ballhaus became a storage space until it was (re)discovered by monument conservators (Denkmalpfleger<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1978, the Kunstamt Kreuzberg, under the leadership of Tebbe, developed a concept for the Ballhaus as a \u201ckommunale Spielst\u00e4tte\u201d (municipal venue) (Kunstamt \u201cBallhaus\u201d). For its reopening in September 1983, the Ballhaus was renovated (from 1981\u201383) and restored as a \u201cnationales Baudenkmal\u201d (national monument).[6]<\/sup><\/a> The Kunstamt\u2019s conceptualization of \u201ckommunale Kulturarbeit\u201d (municipal cultural work) foregrounded the need to provide access (\u201cZug\u00e4nge\u201d) and to also not only represent \u201call cultures\u201d but to facilitate encounters between cultures (Kunstamt, \u201cAnmerkungen\u201d 1). Based on experiences in the context of past collaborations, culture was understood as a realm where positive and reciprocal exchanges between so-called foreigners, \u201cAusl\u00e4nder,\u201d and the local population, \u201cEinheimische,\u201d were possible (2). While Kreuzberg\u2019s Turkish population was a central focal point, Tebbe did not wish for the Ballhaus to become an exclusively Turkish cultural center, which in the Kunstamt\u2019s view would only exacerbate its isolation and ghettoization, but rather a \u201cspace of intercultural encounter of all of Kreuzberg\u2019s nations\u201d (2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conceived of as \u201cmultikulturelle Spielst\u00e4tte\u201d (multicultural venue; Kunstamt, \u201cAnmerkungen\u201d 2), the Ballhaus\u2019 programming was developed in collaboration with the \u201cfreie Gruppen\u201d (independent groups) various initiatives and other cultural institutions, and included theatre, dance, music and youth programming. Moreover, its cultural programming was conceived of as \u201cdistrict-related,\u201d \u201cclose to home,\u201d \u201ceveryday\u201d and \u201cintercultural\u201d (1). The Ballhaus was, thus, understood as a space that would fulfill a \u201csocietal\u201d and \u201ccommunicative\u201d function, which was perceived as establishing a continuity with regard to the Ballhaus\u2019 past uses (1). Various target groups were identified, but the encounter between German and so-called \u201cforeign\u201d (\u201causl\u00e4ndische\u201d) residents was continuously and repeatedly reiterated as the main goal, achieved in part by overcoming \u201cseparated infrastructure\u201d in the district (2). The Ballhaus was, thus, understood as a meeting space underlined in its \u201cTreffpunktfunktion\u201d (meeting function), which was highlighted during the preliminary discussion documented in the \u201cDiskussionsgrundlage f\u00fcr Rekonstruktion des Ballhauses\u201d in 1978 (3). It would provide an opportunity for the \u201cforeign\u201d population to undertake cultural activities leading to improved integration (the various cultural associations founded in the 1970s and 1980s, frequent collaborators with the Kunstamt, equally foregrounded means of cultural self-presentation through culture and its Vermittlungsfunktion<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kunstamt\u2019s goal to engage and support the community within which the Ballhaus was located also included artists, initiatives and associations:   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of a municipal venue such as the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe is, on the one hand, to provide suitable cultural programming for the population of the district, especially those who only have limited or no access to theatres and concert halls. On the other hand, it provides a versatile, professionally supervised venue for artists, initititives, projects and associations in the district. (Kunstamt, \u201cZu den Aufgaben\u201d 1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ballhaus provided workspaces, performance spaces and exhibit spaces for cultural activities, especially the independent theatre scene, in particular Turkish productions, for which there was no dedicated workspace. One focus of their programming was on Turkish and Turkish German theatre, ranging from amateur ensembles to guest performances from professional ensembles in Turkey. Indeed, the Ballhaus became the main performance venue for independent Turkish theatre groups: \u201cAt the moment there is no independent Turkish theatre group that has never performed at the Ballhaus\u201d (Kunstamt, \u201cBallhaus\u201d). Its focus on theatre programming also included a Turkish children\u2019s theatre group as well as Polish and Kurdish groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1984 report \u201cBericht. \u00dcber die bisherigen Erfahrungen mit kommunaler Kulturarbeit im Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe (Stand 31.12.1984),\u201d the following two program focus areas were identified: \u201cOrganization of continuing and versatile municipal cultural programming \u201d and \u201cdevelopment of a target-group oriented district work with laypersons \u201d (2). Since its reopening in September 1983 (within a period of 16 months), the Ballhaus hosted a total of 316 events that attracted 43,000 visitors. Its main focus, constituting half of its repertoire, were theatre performances with 80 events total, with 32 in the Turkish language. This is followed by youth theatre with a total of 55 events, out of which 29 were performed in the Turkish language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to theatre events, programming included music, dance, film, discussion, but also \u201cMieterversammlungen\u201d (tenant meetings) highlighting the multi-functionality of the Ballhaus as a communal space for Kreuzberg\u2019s inhabitants. As stated earlier, the \u201causl\u00e4ndische Bev\u00f6lkerung\u201d constituted an important target group, Kreuzberg\u2019s Turkish residents in particular (whom the Kunstamt deemed cultural-politically neglected in the cultural sector). The Ballhaus\u2019 program curators included Martin D\u00fcspohl (1983\u201386), Volker Bartz (1984\u20132006) and Ulrike Treziak (1986\u201394).[7]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archival Excavations and Discoveries<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Given the scope of this brief essay, we are neither able to document nor address the Kunstamt\u2019s conceptualization of Kulturarbeit in relation to the Ballhaus in all its complexity (reports, meetings, official documents, funding structures, institutional support). We have only been able to highlight key aspects of its centrality in the district\u2019s cultural work pertaining particularly to its “foreign” population. In the same vein, we are unable to take its vast cultural programming into full consideration and will therefore highlight two significant theatre projects in its early phase that were emblematic for the Ballhaus\u2019 programming throughout the 1980s: the Deutsch-T\u00fcrkisches Jugendtheaterfestival (30 March 1984\u20131 April 1984) and the Berlin Aile Tiyatrosu (later T\u00fcrkisches Kulturensemble Diyalog). The programs were the starting point for this discovery, which led to further research in two further archival collections within the FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum Archive: ongoing recent inventorization of Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe documents and M\u00fcrt\u00fcz Yolcu\u2019s recently donated Vorla\u00df<\/em>, which includes extensive materials on the Aile Tiyatrosu, of which Yolcu was artistic director.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo of Deutsch-T\u00fcrkisches Jugendtheaterfestival flyer. Photo: Ela Gezen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In its 1984 report, the Kunstamt highlighted festivals as an important programming aspect, providing opportunities for continuous exchanges extended over several days. Among the various festivals it curated at the Ballhaus in its first year was the \u201cdeutsch t\u00fcrkische Jugendtheaterfestival\u201d (German Turkish youth theatre festival). The Jugendtheaterfestival comprised different components: a panel discussion, Podiumsdiskussion<\/em> on Jugendkulturarbeit, youth culture work in the district a Theatre-Workshop to facilitate exchanges on practices and experiences, including theoretical and practical aspects, and an exhibit for the documentation of various plays as well as self-presentation of participating groups. This festival attests to the significance of children and youth as a target group for the Ballhaus\u2019 theatre programming (constituting half of all theatre performances in its first year, with 31 in the Turkish language) in terms of performance but also audience. Here, the collaboration with schools and preschools in Kreuzberg was also a key component. Its programming included performances by various active youth groups: Jugendtheater der Volkshochschule Kreuzberg Der goldene Schuss<\/em> (\u201cThe Golden Shot\u201d); T\u00fcrkisch-Deutsche Jugendtheatergruppe der Volkshochschule Neuk\u00f6lln El Ele Tiyatrosu Ahmet und Andrea<\/em> (\u201cAhmet and Andrea\u201d); and the Ballhaus\u2019 own Ballhaus Jugendtheater (comprised of 17 German and Turkish youths) with Die Sieger<\/em> (\u201cThe Victors\u201d). The Taschentheater\u2019s Heute in Berlin <\/em>(\u201cToday in Berlin\u201d) which was the ensemble\u2019s inaugural play and premiered in December 1983 at the Theatermanufaktur am Halleschen Ufer, constituted the opening performance. The ensemble was founded by director Metin Tekin in 1982 and comprised Iranian, Turkish and German members, including students, workers, housewives and artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel discussion \u201cJugendtheaterarbeit im Kiez – Chancen und Grenzen\u201d (\u201cYouth Theatre Work in the District\u2014Opportunities and Limits\u201d) was led by Krista Tebbe and included an impressive range of participants, such as Sauerbaum (Senator f\u00fcr kulturelle Angelegenheiten), Niyazi Turgay (Volkshochschulen), J\u00fcrgen Fuhrmann (director of Ballhaus Jugendtheater), Marlis Krause (HdK Vorsitzende im Beirat \u201cSpiel in der Schule\u201d), as well as parents and youth actors. At the center of the discussion were questions about the \u201cmotivation of youths, artistic and pedagogical possibilities and limits, demands of \u2018hosts\u2019 as well as current limits due to financial, material and staffing possibilities\u201d (\u201cPodiumsdiskussion\u201d). By involving all constituents from actors to representatives of municipal and cultural institutions and including audience members, this exchange in the context of the festival provided a forum for addressing not only the benefits and needs for cultural work but also its limits, as indicated in the brief description frequently due to financial constraints and understaffing.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo of Deutsch-T\u00fcrkisches Jugendtheaterfestival announcement in March\/April 1984 program. Photo: Ela Gezen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Berlin Aile Tiyatrosu (Berliner Familien Theater) was an amateur group founded in 1983 (and consisted primarily of workers and students) with the aim to thematize \u201cGerman-Turkish coexistence\u201d (Berlin Aile Tiyatrosu \u201cBAT\u201d). In 1987, it changed its name to T\u00fcrkisches Kulturensemble, and in 1988 founded the Diyalog e.V. (chaired by M\u00fcrt\u00fcz Yolcu) with new members. The following plays premiered at the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe throughout the 1980s: Oktay Aray\u0131c\u0131\u2019s Kennwort Rosenknospe<\/em> (Romuz Goncag\u00fcl<\/em> 1984), Bilge Erensu\u2019s Der Gast<\/em> (Misafir<\/em> 1985) and the D\u00fcrrenmatt adaptation Romulus der Gro\u00dfe<\/em> (B\u00fcy\u00fck Romulus<\/em> 1988). From 1983 to 1995, its program primarily consisted of bilingual performances and was expanded to include theatre festivals between 1995 and 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name change to T\u00fcrkisches Kulturensemble in 1987 signaled a new orientation to include adaptations of internationally renowned dramas in order not to be reduced to so-called \u201cAusl\u00e4nderproblematik\u201d (foreigner problem), while also including a new target audience: children of German and Turkish descent. Starting in 1995, they hosted the annual Diyalog Theaterfest Berlin (directed by M\u00fcrt\u00fcz Yolcu) at the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe, which comprised the following program areas: providing a platform for local artists to present innovative international productions, to foster collaborations between international artists and to contribute to the development of an European network of \u201cMigrantentheater\u201d (migrant theatre) (Geschichte des Diyalog).[8]<\/sup><\/a> The multilingual festival programming included events in Turkish, Farsi, Greek, Spanish and English. Its long-term close collaboration with the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe\u2014providing space, technical, financial and organizational support as well in public outreach\u2014is acknowledged as a key factor for Diyalog\u2019s continued viability (Kr\u00fcger, \u201c10 Jahre T\u00fcrkisches Kulturensemble\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo of Kennwort Rosenknospe<\/em> premiere flyer. Photo: Ela Gezen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In sum, these materials and the cultural events they present tell a complex story of community, creativity and transnational collaborations. They reveal, furthermore, a particular emphasis on youth involvement and transgenerational interaction with discernible goals to educate and foster cultural awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Notes from the Archive<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In many ways, the present discussion of an archive of the history of the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe in the 1980s is paradoxical. The archive\u2014any archive\u2014still evokes the specter of the authoritative institution that conditions the way in which history is promulgated. The archive and theatre, certainly non-repertory theatre, have furthermore long challenged each other\u2019s existence. Finally, to speak of an archive of theatre and performance that tracks a history of migration that is culturally rich, broadly transnational and artistically innovative, sets forth something of an anomaly. An encounter with this box of programs forces us to reassess the possibilities of the archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a small box housed in the back of a nineteenth-century pharmacy we learn much about the history of a theatre, which has played such a pivotal role in the culture and community of Turkish Germans in Berlin, especially in Kreuzberg. The rich programming that made it famous at the turn of the aughts reaches back into the 1980s, when the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe, then the main venue of the Kunstamt, was also a theatre and vibrant meeting point for local and international ensembles and diverse performances, such as the Deutsch-T\u00fcrkisches Jugendtheaterfestival and the Berlin Aile Tiyatrosu considered here. On the pages of pocket-sized programs, a dynamic pre-history of postmigrant theatre emerges before our eyes in miniature. No less consequential, however, these miniature objects present something like the remains of a theatre history widely unknown and untold. We must read these remains (Stewart, \u201cCountermemory\u201d). For, as Deniz Utlu reminds us, every object tells a story, and the Ballhaus plays an important role in archiving the history of migration: \u201cIn einer der ersten Migrationsstra\u00dfen Deutschlands, wo jeder Stein, eine Geschichte zu erz\u00e4hlen hat, wurde eine Grabungsst\u00e4tte errichtet: das Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe in Berlin. Das Ballhaus trug zur Archivierung der Migration bei\u201d (On one of the first migration streets in Germany, where every stone tells a story, an excavation site was built: the Ballhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe. The Ballhaus contributed to the archivization of migration) (\u201cDas Archiv der Migration\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many old documents from municipal cultural institutions in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, the programs from the Ballhaus made their way to the Apotheke for storage and eventual inventorying. Physically part of the larger FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum Archive, but not subject to extensive study and often overlooked in contemporary discourse on the Ballhaus and postmigrant theatre, this collection of programs and its own history are in many ways exemplary of an archive of migration. This archive is a paradox, which according to Utlu bears no name, no fixed location and was ultimately forgotten (\u201cDas Archiv der Migration\u201d). In the present essay, we have sought to share some of our observations from this archive. These observations are minor in their derivation; we can make no claims of broader experience of the Ballhaus and its life in the 1980s. Yet, these observations are radical in their deepening of our appreciation and understanding of this theatre and its remarkable role in renegotiating the canon of German theatre. Postmigrant theatre is frequently discussed as a post-millennial practice of diversity, inclusivity and multidirectionality in German theatre. However, through this compact archive we discover that the diverse and dynamic nature of postmigrant performance made its mark in Berlin much earlier avant la lettre<\/em>. Developing as a more mainstream theatre movement in the last decade, postmigrant theatre appears to have garnered its erstwhile influences in international and multilingual performances as well as community and youth projects in the 1980s. Archival work does not remind us of what has been lost so much as how rich the historical layers of this theatre are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Endnotes<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/sup><\/a> We would like to express our deepest thanks to Ulrike Treziak and Michael Dewey who generously and patiently supported our research (on site as well as virtually).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/sup><\/a> Consider also the ongoing lecture series on Zoom<\/em> organized by Deniz G\u00f6kt\u00fcrk and Elisabeth Krimmer and hosted by the University of California, Berkeley: \u201cArchives of Migration: The Power of Fiction in Times of Fake News<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/sup><\/a> See the Kunstraum Kreuzberg website<\/a> for a brief summary of the building\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/sup><\/a> All translations from German to English are our own unless otherwise indicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/sup><\/a> For further information on the Deutsch T\u00fcrkische Gesellschaft see Ela Gezen \u201cDeutsch-T\u00fcrkische Literarische Begegnungen in West-Berlin um 1980\u201d and \u201cIntegration, Turkish Theater, and Cultural-Political Interventions in West Berlin: Vas\u0131f \u00d6ng\u00f6ren\u2019s Kollektiv Theater (1980\u20131982).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/sup><\/a> This abbreviated history is based on \u201cBallhaus Naunynstra\u00dfe,\u201d Kunstamt Kreuzberg, Krista Tebbe 9\/90, Archival document, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum Archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/sup><\/a> Ballhaus programming was integrated into the hierarchies of public administration. In the districts, the political responsibility was assigned to the according city council. The professional responsibility lied with the head of office, in the Ballhaus\u2019 case, with Krista Tebbe, director of the Kunstamt, to whom program curators presented their proposals which were then jointly voted on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8]<\/sup><\/a> See Deniz G\u00f6kt\u00fcrk\u2019s critical discussion of the tenth anniversary festival of the T\u00fcrkisches Kulturensemble (G\u00f6kt\u00fcrk, \u201cZehn Jahre deutsch-t\u00fcrkische Theaterarbeit in Berlin\u201d), which constitutes the inaugural Diyalog Theaterfest Berlin. Here, she addresses funding allocations and structures with regard to Turkish theatre in Berlin but also the potential of multilingual productions and new impetus coming from the festival program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*<\/a>Ela Gezen<\/strong> is an Associate Professor of German at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of Brecht, Turkish Theater, and Turkish-German Literature<\/em> (2018) and is currently working on her second book Cultures in Migration: Turkish Artistic Practices and Cultural-Political Interventions in West Berlin<\/em>. She is the co-editor of two special journal issues, one book on minority discourses in Germany, and editor of a special issue on Aras \u00d6ren. In addition, she has published articles on music, theatre and literature, focusing on the intersection between aesthetics and politics in both Turkish and German contexts. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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**<\/a>Olivia Landry<\/strong> is an Associate Professor for German at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is author of Movement and Performance in Berlin School Cinema<\/em> (2019), Theatre of Anger: Radical Transnational Performance in Contemporary Berlin<\/em> (2020), and A Decolonizing Ear: Documentary Film Disrupts the Archive<\/em> (2022). She is currently co-editing Transnational German Film at the End of Neoliberalism: Radical Aesthetics, Radical Politics<\/em> (forthcoming). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2023 Ela Gezen and Olivia Landry
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN:2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n

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