03'07
This is the story of immigrants in Europe. Bruckhausen in Germany's industrial heartland. Overshadowed by the hulking chimneys of Europe's biggest steelworks, Thyssen, the pollution here is choking. Those who can afford to have left, and Turkish immigrants have settled here in droves. The war in Yugoslavia has consigned tens of thousands of refugees to new lives all over Europe; for many, home will become desolate towns like this.

03'39. Volker Onasch
The damage caused by harmful substances from the Thyssen steelworks nearby is massive and as a result I'd say that Bruckhausen is one of the dirtiest parts of Germany.

03'55
This is the view of Volker Onasch, a priest from the Evangelical Church.  He faces an impossible dilemma - to stay in Bruckhausen and risk his own family's health or leave and abandon his moral crusade to unite this divided community.

04'21 Volker Onasch
On the whole, Bruckhausen is certainly one of the poorest and most miserable parts of the country.

04'30

Only a fifth of Bruckhausen's residents are native Germans. The majority are Turkish immigrants, drafted here to reconstruct post-war Germany. Dubbed 'gastarbeiter' or 'guest workers', they were expected to leave when their labours were done.

04'49 Volker Onasch
This is Wilhelmplatz. It's pretty deserted at the moment because it's still
cold. Twenty or thirty men often sit here and drink half the day away.
They are unemployed and this is how they spend their time. This has just
changed hands. The Spar shop has been taken over by a Turkish shopkeeper.
05'29
The last curate used to live opposite Thyssen, and just couldn't stand
it. She got ill and then disappeared quickly. But as for a lot of the old
people who've lived here a long time, well they're obviously able to put up
with it otherwise they wouldn't stay around.

6:07

Those who live here say fine dust from the steelworks hangs in the air, blanketing buildings in dirt. For these townspeople, grime is the daily landscape.

06'21 Michael Stegeman
This is where I live with my wife and children.

This is Dennis, Claudia, that's Anja and that's Nadine.

06'38 Ingrid Stegeman
When we first lived here, I looked at my microwave and shouted at the
children because I thought they'd been playing with sand. Everything was
black. I couldn't believe it, until we realised that all the windows were
black too. It's just all black. I think we just have to live with it.

06'57 Michael Stegeman
Let me tell you what we have to put up with every day from Thyssen.
On the left there's the coking plant , on the right the steel works. And
that's the filth that we live with every day.  We have no other choice.

07'13

-That's not healthy. 

Michael Stegeman

No, I don't think it is! I have to believe what Thyssen have printed in the
newspapers, that they've installed filters, and that the emissions aren't
as heavy as they used to be, and everything has been changed accordingly -
we have to believe that.
We can't prove anything because we're not chemists or technicians. Just
ordinary people now.

07'36

- Is Bruckhausen mostly a place for poor people?

Michael Stegeman
Yes, definitely. Yes, it looks like we have that sort of
environment, I can't really say more than that. Let's go inside.

07'55
Living and breathing in Bruckhausen is as bad for you as heavy smoking. The native Germans who stay here are at the bottom of the heap. Bruckhausen is ghetto in the heart of Europe. 24 billion Marks have been pledged by the federal and regional governments to clean-up German industry over the next ten years. But here the damage is already done. Ingrid Stegeman has witnessed the effects on her own children. A slow accumulation of symptoms that only clear up when they leave town.

08'42 Ingrid Stegeman
One of our kids, Sebastian, is at boarding school. He started having
problems two years ago. The first time he came home again was for the Christmas holidays. He couldn't breathe properly. As soon as he's back at home - it takes a couple of days and then you notice it. He starts gasping. And our eldest, Martin, had eye problems at the beginning - inflamed eyes. They often have colds, but on the whole things are still OK - but a lot of other people here really suffer. You can tell by how often people call the home doctor that there are always problems.

9:38

Every day patients stream into this surgery suffering as a direct result of the air pollution. The statistics are staggering and there is no sign of improvement.

09'49 Dr Bodo Kissner
The fact is, the environmental damage here in
Duisburg-Bruckhausen is the greatest in the entire federal republic.
10'00

I think that the damage done by the environment and the air here in Bruckhausen is roughly the equivalent for a non-smoker of 10 cigarettes a day, or let's say 3650 cigarettes a year.
10'13
We have a lot of problems with dust. The dirt's still there but simply
isn't as visible as it used to be. Nowadays dust particles are filtered so
minutely that ecological damage can't really be seen. But people feel it
in their bronchial tubes because these dust particles work their way in
there very easily. Because of that we have many cases of bronchitis,

respiratory illnesses of the upper airways and allergies are also very
common.
10'54
There is an official cancer register in the federal republic, and
Duisburg-Bruckhausen has some of the worst statistics.

11:18

First generation migrants arrived here from Turkey in 1957. They came for jobs, for money, for a better life. Many of the early migrants left, as German immigration law prompted them to, but many more stayed, bringing their families. Turks now make-up 6% of the total German population although in industrial Bruckhausen they outnumber white Germans by 4 to one. The facts contradict Chancellor Kohl's repeated assertions over the years that Germany is not an immigration nation. This kindergarten register contains the children of immigrants from all over Europe.

12'12 Barbel Hirchirt
We've got 6 German children, and the rest are Turkish. There's also 2
Moroccan children, and a Bosnian and an Albanian. So not just Turkish
children, it is quite a mixture, but we do have predominantly Turkish children.

12'32
They are ill a lot. Bronchial tubes and respiratory tracts, they often get colds

and there are skin diseases too. And then there are problems with allergies

I think that's more common.
12'52
How do you say 'glass' in Turkish?
-Bardak.
Glass is bardak.
And what's in the glass? What is Evet drinking?
-Sut.
Sut is called milk.
And what is Mohammed drinking?
- Water. 'su'
Su is called water.
And that?
-Plate.
And what's plate in Turkish?
'tabak' Right.

13:25

The huge influx of other races is blamed for Bruckhausen's social ills of poverty and crime.  Volker Onasch goes to visit some of the few Germans who have decided to stay here.  It's part of his community work. The town has been a magnet for down-and-outs, but it is the place some Germans still call home.

13.58

Despite deteriorating health Frau Zimmer is determined to live out her days here.

14'15 Volker Onasch

It all really went to pot here years ago - well in the 60s and 70s. It
wasn't just the Turkish people moving here which caused problems - let's
say every wretched creature came here. Then more of them came to
Bruckhausen. Which meant that the German population also became a problem to a great degree. And since certain other folk have different ideas about life, and more money, they say 'well, I'd rather not be here' and move elsewhere, where things are better. They move to where there's more space - that's quite understandable.

After that more Turkish people moved here, with different customs, and

at some point the balance was totally overturned.  I also think that people

like Frau Zimmer, or others in the community who say that we're all staying

here in order to address the problem of how to live together harmoniously,

are one of the reasons why it is still working.

15'27

But many who stay don't welcome their foreign neighbours.  This is a nation ill at ease with its own multi-culturalism. It's one of the few countries where citizenship laws are based on the idea of blood rather than birthplace. Under the Nazis it was that obsession with pure blood lines that spawned the obsessive classification of Jews.  Today the citizenship rules are a wall against Muslims rather than Jews. Even Turks whose parents were both born in Germany are still classed as foreigners. In Bruckhausen where jobs are increasingly hard to come by, many resent those they refuse to think of as Germans.

16'10 VOX POP Bar Owner
Once, there was a time when Thyssen steelworks were trying to expand. But when the demand for steel production fell, they abandoned Bruckhausen. At the time, when there was this interest in Thyssen Steel's expansion, they were saying 'We will have to run the Bruckhausen plant down somehow'. As there are many homeowners here, not works'
housing, people were saying 'it's bringing the whole area down'.

16'49 VOX POP man in bar
Once we had a nice German market, but none of our folk can go shopping
here, you can only buy from foreigners. They got rid of the German supermarket, I reckon the entire shopping policy has gone to ruin here. My colleague has lived here longer, maybe he could say more about it. I still just work here, but you can see that there are problems.

17'13 VOX POP Bar Owner

What can I say.......I've known my workmate for years because
he works here. We hang around here, and we meet here, but I was born here
and I've really known Bruckhausen for 50 years - It's an industrial area
which has always been confronted with outsiders, but not to the extent it is today.

17'42

Reportedly over half of Germans still support the notion that "Germany should be for the Germans". The country's dark history inspires a growing neo-Nazi movement whose violent racist attacks are increasing sharply.

17'58 VOX POP woman in bar

Turks are everywhere.

VOX POP man in bar

Seventy percent Turks live here. Germans are in the minority now. Why is this? First of all the Turks came, then the Germans moved out, the flats were empty, no more Germans came to fill them, then they put the social services cases in them, and when they came even more Germans moved out, and then in the meantime the Turks came, because no Germans followed, and now we've got 70% Turks and the rest are Germans. That's how the situation here developed.
-Why don't the Germans come back?
-Well, where are they? Where can they go? There's only foreigners. There's
not a single German business here - only Turkish businesses. The German
doctors have moved out, the pharmacist has moved out- where should they go?
It's a Turkish area. It's Turkhausen.

19'20

The Turkish face of Bruckhausen may be alienating for the older German minority, but these foreigners are here to stay. Bruckhausen's second and third generation immigrants are stuck between Berlin and Istanbul, neither wholly German or Turkish. These young Euro-Turks are having to define their own culture.

19'46 Gulhan Sagol

They call Bruckhausen 'Little Istanbul', and it really is.
19'58

I've never yet seen Turks yell at a German family. Of course there are
disagreements but I wouldn't say that they can't live together - I wouldn't
say that.

20'12

This youth club provides the young Turks of Bruckhausen with a haven from the outside world, somewhere they can channel their energy.

20'25 VOX POP Youth club boy

Jobs are more and more difficult to come by - that's what our environment
is like: Young people are becoming more and more violent, so crime is on

the increase and gangs are getting bigger all the time.
20'56

Young people don't have anything to do. When they come here twice a week
they play cards, listen to music or dance. Otherwise when they're on
the streets they get up to no good - they attack people, mug old ladies,
spray the walls with graffiti.

21.27

Unemployment is increasingly a serious point of friction between Turk and German. It fuels the increase in crime.

21'38 Volker Onasch

For a long while we had a quiet everyday life - I mean on our streets. But
unfortunately a few young women have been raped recently. And there have
been more and more attacks on old people recently too.

22'16

Dilruba Yenen agrees that crime and alcoholism are the result of young Turks' frustration. Bruckhausen's Turkish families know their children are torn between a Turkey they don't feel at home in and a Germany that does not welcome them, where they are often restricted by racism and bureaucracy to the worst jobs.

22'35 Dilruba Yenen

Firstly, Turkish traditions and family traditions are a little bit
different from German culture and traditions.
Because of that children are often under pressure from their families at
home - either regarding tradition, religion, or just socially. And then in
school they encounter quite different, maybe more democratic relationships
than those they know from home. The child can't decide what's right. The
child doesn't know whether home or school is right - they can't identify
with their own culture or with German culture, and they're mostly rootless.
That means they can't identify with anything. Of course the crime and
problems arise as a result of this lack of identity. A lot of parents worry
about this, and spend a lot of time thinking about it.

23.43

Islam is undergoing a renaissance amongst many German Turks. Germany's refusal to give them dual citizenship is driving them to the mosque. Muslim groups have been gaining strength, providing a ready and immediate identity for alienated second and third generation immigrants.

24.08

The same struggle between secular and Islamic influences which is raging in Turkey is being played out here. Both the Turkish and German governments are uneasy about the thought of growing Islamic fundamentalism - Germany from the point of view of terrorism and Turkey as it is trying to keep the Islamists out of politics. So Turkey and Germany agreed that all Turkish Imams or Muslim teachers coming to Germany would be vetted by the Turkish government. A network of mosques was established with funding from the Turkish Government's Department of Religious affairs.

24.52

By the end of the 1980's between half and two thirds of Germany's mosques were controlled by Turkey. In this way, it hoped to keep Islamic politics out of Turks' lives across Europe. Nevertheless, the Islamic community in Bruckhausen is flourishing.

25'11

It is possible to live a completely segregated Muslim life in Bruckhausen, since most shops and restaurants are owned by Turks. But the average German man on the street is suspicious of Islam. The irony is that many young Turks may turn to religion instead of terrorism, but are tarred by the extremist groups known to have strong bases in Germany - such as the Islamic freedom fighters from Algeria, FIS. But for many Turkish activists of the 1990's the focus has shifted to problems in Germany, rather than the homeland, Turkey.

25'49

A traditional Muslim charity keeps this mosque financially afloat. Many Muslim charities in turn receive their subsidies from the Turkish government. 

26'00 Ilyas Yildirim

We've now got 241 members who pay their fees. But 500, more than 500 come here without paying membership.
26'26

We really need a big mosque for up to 5000 people.

26'47

Support is growing for Islamic Fundamentalist Groups like Milli Gorus and the Turkish Welfare Party, led by Necmettin Erbakan. The Generals in Turkey  suppress these groups, but can't control their following abroad.

27'00 Ilyas Yildirim

Milli Görus is supposed to be the new world. We've changed our name - it used to be AMGT, which stood for the New World in Europe. Now we are called IGMG - the Islamic Community Milli Görus.
27'29

Erkaban is trying to encourage self-rule among the people.
27'45

Personally, of course, I think his ideals and ideas are right. Why? Erkaban is simply trying to achieve justice for people, for humanity in the world. That's what we all want, isn't it? If that's what you want then you're one of Erkaban's followers.
28'24

The women don't wear headscarves because they are fundamentalists - it's
because it's a right, an Islamic right, and they want to wear them. Women
come voluntarily to learn the Koran - not every day, just when they have
time. For children we have weekend Koran seminars.

29'06

But some of the Turkish clubs here are said to be organisations which provide something akin to military training. They preach the Muslim obligation of Jihad, or holy war fulfilling the worst western suspicions of Islam as extremist and undemocratic. It makes Volker Onasch extremely uncomfortable.

29'32 Volker Onasch
Some Turkish clubs carry out organised political work, and instil a sense
of discipline with a partly military character in young people, which makes
it easier for some in this part of town, but also prepares them later for
the potential to obey orders accordingly.
30'11

There used to be a pub here in this house on the corner. Then it was a
people's meeting point, a kind of social institution. Now it's the
Grey Wolves headquarters.
30'31
We're coming into Edithstrasse now. With an interesting view of one of
Thyssen's cooling towers. In Edithstrasse shop after shop has Turkish
owners. So there are different cultural organisations, tea rooms, partly
connected with the mosque.
31'22
I think it's a problem, here in the middle of Germany, to have an area
where Turkish people are isolated, and who actively choose as a reaction to
that to cut themselves off even further. That sort of a ghetto - after all
Germany's experience of ghettos - I think that sort of a ghetto in Germany
is both dangerous and politically indefensible.

32.01

Because in these ghettos, Turkey's political troubles can breed. The banner says long live the PKK and its political and armed wings. This meeting in Germany, like those organisations, is illegal. But for Germany's nearly half a million Kurds, about 20% of the Turkish-speaking population, these are social events. The collection box goes round for the Kurdish Red Crescent. The PKK has underground cells in most German cities.

32.33

The battle for Kurdistan is fought out on the streets of Germany. Political events in Turkey inevitably have repercussions here. Since the Gulf War, relations between Germany's Turks and Kurds have stretched to breaking point. When this Turkish Centre was firebombed, Hussein Barsch was asleep in the building.

32.53

Hussein Barsch

It was quite clear that someone wanted to burn us to death. I just wanted to get out immediately.

33.00

Far right groups may be involved with the centre, although Hussein Barsch insists it is cultural. He suspects groups like the PKK of carrying out attacks like this, although they could be down to German neo-Nazis.

33'17

Seared into the consciousness of every foreigner living in Germany is the arson attack carried out by neo-Nazis in the town of Solingen in 1993. A whole Turkish family burnt to death there. The event came just days after the German parliament had passed a law limiting the right to political asylum in Germany. It triggered four nights of riots by Turks across the country, which were widely condemned by the government. Only a few people spoke out against the growing tide of anti-foreigner hatred, which germinates in towns like Bruckhausen.

33'57

The remaining Germans here also take solace in religion.

34'08

Volker's sermon highlights the desperation of the average Bruckhausen resident.

34'15 Volker Onasch
He can't identify with the huge scale of the steel industry nearby. He isn't proud of the giant pollutants and their European production record. He grew up and lives in the filthy backyard of a multinational, hunting for leftovers from the melting pot of the socially marginalised in order to try and achieve some kind of sustainable whole.
34'50

The gulf between standing in dirt, and your ideal picture of a better life is a painful one.

35'09

For Volker the health of his children came before his calling. Lucky enough to afford it, he and his family left the smog of Bruckhausen behind.

35'18 Frauke Onasch

We moved to Baal a year ago because life in Bruckhausen really wasn't much of a life.
35'27
The levels of harmful substances in the air are, I don't know, certainly 10 times higher than anywhere else. And as parents of course we feel guilty about bringing up children in such an area.

35'46 Volker Onasch
It was quite clear. The two little ones were obviously ill there. Daan was having two asthma attacks a night. That's when he was still quite small. He was virtually born and grew up during the time we were in Bruckhausen. It was exactly the same with Lu. Lu soon developed problems with her breathing too.
36'26
Of course I'm in a dilemma. I think that children and families are important for good social cohabitation, and that they should be able to live and function together accordingly on an everyday basis. I wouldn't have a clear conscience if I invited families with small children
to come and live in Bruckhausen.

37'08 Volker Onasch
Apparently there are those who say 'Stay Turkish, stay Muslim, avoid the Germans'
37'17
I think that the Turkish satellites in Germany are wrong, socially, politically, and in general. In my opinion, they should not and cannot exist.
37'28
It's not on. We're going to have conditions like Bosnia. I think that's a whole mountain of unrest and social problems which cannot be tolerated.

37'51
More refugees are on their way to Germany and the rest of Europe, human fallout from the war in Yugoslavia. They will arrive in towns like this, where they may or may not be welcome. Perhaps the children of the refugees will grow up in exile, with different expectations than their parents. Perhaps they will forget their homeland and learn to adopt a new identity. But political problems have a habit of travelling with them, and they may find that the grass was greener at home.

Ends 38'27

Martin Coenen for Night & Day productions