Diverse perspectives in culture
German society is diverse and multifaceted – this is reflected in its culture, too. We present three areas
Literature
Migrant and post-migrant narratives loom large in German literature. While migrant literature is about displacement, migration and arriving in Germany, post-migrant writings tend to focus on the experience of the second or third generation: children of immigrants who were themselves born and socialised in Germany tell their stories of being caught up in two different worlds. German cultural studies expert Mithu Sanyal (born 1971), daughter of an Indian father and a mother of Polish origin, has received several awards for her novel Identitti. The much-praised novel Elbow by the Turkish-Kurdish journalist Fatma Aydemir (1986) is set to be filmed this year.
Theatre
Pınar Karabulut (1987) is a theatre director who has worked at theatres such as Schauspiel Köln, Münchner Kammerspiele, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Deutsches Theater Berlin. From the 2025/2026 season onwards she will be taking on co-directorship of the renowned Schauspielhaus Zürich in Switzerland. According to Karabulut, theatre still has a lot of catching up to do in terms of diversity. But things are starting to change here, too: “The younger generation thinks much more in terms of alliances. When I have the chance to make a suggestion for a role, for example, I always try to suggest women*. In my directing teams I mostly work with women*, and I try to give jobs to PoC (people of colour) and queer people. More equal opportunities are need in our culture and in our society.”
Film
Migrants and their descendants have long since ceased to be a marginal phenomenon in German cinema, whether among critics or the public at large. Turkish-born German filmmaker İlker Çatak was nominated for an Oscar this year for his film Das Lehrerzimmer about a series of thefts at a German school. Turkish-German director Fatih Akin has received numerous awards, including the Golden Globe, for his work telling of what life is like in Germany for people with a migrant background. Lebanese-born German actor and director Kida Khodr Ramadan made the streaming blockbuster 4 Blocks, for which he went on to win the German Television Award.
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Note: In German, the asterisk after "women" emphasises that all persons who define themselves, are defined and/or see themselves as represented by the term "woman" are meant.
