A theatrical journey through Anatolian coffee houses in Berlin Kreuzberg and Neukölln.

The words “Club members only!” are written on many opaque windows of Anatolian coffee houses in Berlin Kreuzberg and Neukölln. A glance inside reveals men sitting at tables playing backgammon, sipping mocca or black tea. For outsiders, these kahvehane are empty spaces in the cityscape, spaces which are looked at or noticed from the corner of one´s eye, but are not entered.

When the first kahvehane opened in the early 1970s, it was a reaction to the lack of infrastructure for the Turkish population in German cities. It was not unusual for the new guests from Turkey not to be allowed into German pubs and bars.

However, kahvehane are also a link to the homeland. They have names such as Dersim, Gediz oder Yavuzeli which point to the history of German-Turkish migration. They are the names of cities and villages which the recruited workers left in the early 1960s on their way to Germany.

The project links 12 artists to one coffee house each. Taking a kahvehane as a spatial starting point, the artists create works which look at and question existing images and myths from various perspectives. These interventions create exceptional situations as closed spaces are opened up for the public, occupied in contradicting ways and seen in a new light.

The theatrical journey consists of 12 theatre productions, performances and installations linking the past and present of the coffee houses in Berlin Kreuzberg and Neukölln. The spectator walks from one kahvehane to the next and takes on the point of view of a flaneur: the urban space becomes part of the artistic creation.

The mapping of the coffee houses and their names reveals the relationship between urban Berlin and Turkey, one route in Kreuzberg becomes an imaginary journey through Anatolia. Drawing attention to the coffee houses makes the history of migration visible: amusing details, sad sketches, common views, a typology of the kahvehane is created.

* We borrowed the title from Deniz Göktürk´s text Turkish delight ‒ German fright: Migrant identities in transnational cinemas.