The migration experience from the 1960s to 1980
A special chapter in the history of modern Greece comprises the wave of migration to Germany. This history was written in the 1960s and 70s at the port of Piraeus, on the deck of the legendary ferry boat Kolokotronis, on the emergency train routes leaving Thessaloniki, known as the «line of hope,» at the train station in Munich, deserted Greek villages, small German and Belgian factories and in the lyrics of popular songs, which served as the only companion from back home during those lonely years in foreign lands. The journey of Greek migrants from the tobacco fields of Greece to German factories, from the close-knit family circle to workers’ housing, from the fond farewells of loved ones to the gradual settlement in their «second home» is the subject of a photography exhibition titled «Greek Migration to Germany: 1960-1980,» recently inaugurated by the wife of President Karolos Papoulias, May Papoulia, at the Goethe Institute in Thessaloniki. The exhibition runs to October 28. There are very few families in the north of Greece who have not experienced the departure of one of their own and the mixed sentiment of high expectations for a better future clashing with a sense of nostalgia for family and home. Today, the majority of the first generation of those Greek migrants are at the age of retirement, while much of the second generation became assimilated in the fabric of the host society and the third lives permanently in this «second home.» The mass migration began with the signing of a labor recruitment agreement between Greece and Germany in March 1960. Then the so-called German Committee was set up in Thessaloniki, where German factories could recruit hands for their assembly lines. The committee was also responsible for assessing whether these laborers, men and women, would be of benefit to the German economy or not. Those who succeeded in acquiring the much-coveted «green card» set off on the journey north. They were the first Greek «gastarbeiter» (or guest workers). The port of Piraeus was often the site of emotional farewells, a trying period for those leaving as well as those watching the Kolokotronis pull out of port. The atmosphere was equally heavy at Thessaloniki’s train station, where special routes were scheduled to convey hundreds of Greeks to Munich, the Ruhr Valley, Berlin and other German cities. The long journey took some through Italy and others through Yugoslavia, but all travelers ended up at the Munich railway station on Line 11, or the «line of hope.» From there they would be dispatched to factories that were scattered all over the country. The exhibition represents the third and final part of a project on migration developed by the German Federal Cultural Foundation in 2002. The 40 photographs that have been selected «are not just a record of the enormous contribution of the migrants to both the German and Greek economies, but also a presentation of the migrants themselves,» explains the curator, Manuel Gogos.
