Love, Deutschmarks and Death

In the early 1960s, the so-called guest workers from Anatolia and other parts of
Turkey were recruited by the Federal Republic of Germany. From the beginning,
there was something that always accompanied them and was part of their cul-
ture: their music – a piece of home in a foreign land. Over the years, indepen-
dent musical directions developed in Germany that did not exist in this form in
their mother country.

The exciting cinema documentary "Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm" / LOVE, DEUTSCHMARKS
AND DEATH by Cem Kaya tells the unprecedented story of an independent
musical culture of immigrants from Turkey, their children and grandchildren in
Germany in an entertaining and very complex way with never-before-seen ar-
chive footage. Far from home, strangers in the new country, melancholic musi-
cal styles such as the Gurbetçi-Lieder (songs from abroad) emerged at the be-
ginning of their immigration. Those songs were presented by artists like Yüksel
Özkasap, called the Nightingale of Cologne, or Aşık Metin Türköz („Mayestero").
They were followed by younger musicians such as the duo Derdiyoklar (song
„Liebe Gabi"), Ozan Ata Canani (song „Deutsche Freunde") or Cem Karaca and
the Kanaken („Mein Freund, der Deutsche"), who sang in German for the first time in their socially critical songs and thus shaped both migrant and German
pop culture. Hip hop became the voice of the second and third generation who
had grown up in Germany. Pioneers of German-Turkish Hip hop likeFresh Familee,
King Size Terror or Islamic Force were also pathbreakers of contemporary pop
music in Germany.

The film title "Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm" is inspired by the poem of the same name by
the author Aras Ören, which was set to music by the German band IDEAL in 1982.