Semra Ertan

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Semra Ertan (born May 31, 1956 in Mersin , Turkey ; † May 26, 1982 in Hamburg ) was a Turkish migrant worker and writer in the Federal Republic of Germany who publicly burned herself to death in protest against racism . She worked as an interpreter and technical draftsman.

Life / background

Semra Ertan was the daughter of Gani Bilir and Vehbiye Bilir, who lived in Kiel / Hamburg as foreign workers. As a child, shortly after her parents came to Germany, she also moved to Germany with her six sisters. Very soon she devoted herself to poetry. One of her most famous poems "My name is foreigner" was published in school books in Turkey. Furthermore, her poems were published in Germany in some books, but have hardly received any attention to this day. She wrote over 350 poems and political satires.

Circumstances of suicide

Ertan announced her suicide by self-immolation by calling the NDR . In this phone call, the 25-year-old also explained the motive for her act: The increasing xenophobia in the Federal Republic of Germany was the reason for her decision to die in front of the German public.

Semra Ertan's public self-immolation occurred in the early hours of the morning at the intersection of Simon-von-Utrecht-Strasse / Detlef-Bremer-Strasse in the Hamburg district of St. Pauli. Ertan's last words were a curse on all those who, in their opinion, drove them to this act.

Situation of foreigners in the Federal Republic of Germany at the time of the crime

The young woman's subjective assessment of a drastically increasing xenophobia in the Federal Republic of Germany immediately before her death is supported by statistical data and sociological studies. In November 1978, 39% of Germans supported the demand that foreigners should return to their home countries, while two months before Ertan's death, 68% of Germans were of this opinion. Rightly motivated acts of violence against foreigners were no longer an isolated occurrence in 1982. In addition, there were citizens' initiatives and political groups with names such as Ausländerstopp or the Kiel List for the Restriction of Foreigners , which were demonstrably able to attract considerable numbers. Furthermore, foreigners were increasingly excluded from the social life of the FRG, and contact with them on the part of the Germans was avoided as far as possible. The reasons for this were to be seen in the growing unemployment and shortage of housing in the FRG, which led to the fact that the migrant worker was increasingly seen by the German society as a competitor for jobs and living space. The scarce contact between these two social groups also intensified negative prejudices against former guest workers based on their own experience .

Reactions

In response to the crime, the major Turkish daily Milliyet ran a full-page headline on June 3, 1982 with a bilingual appeal (Turkish and German) to German politics and society to take the necessary steps against xenophobia in Germany.

Various musical processing of the fate of Semra Ertan z. B. Semra Ertan (1982), an Adagio and Scherzo for octet by Enjott Schneider or Ilhan Mimaroglu's English-language Immolation Scene (1983), which included the suicide's poems translated from Turkish into the overall concept.

Günter Wallraff dedicated his book Ganz unten 1985 by name, inter alia, to Semra Ertan.

Web links

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  1. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt from June 1, 1982 ( Memento from July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Walter Friedrich: Xenophobia and right-wing extremist orientations among East German youth. Digital library of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, total. November 2007
  3. ↑ a b c Harenberg, Chronicle of the 20th Century. P. 1183
personal data
SURNAME Ertan, Semra
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 31, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Mersin , Turkey
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 1982
Place of death Hamburg