On the trail of black history: My walk through the Olympic village of Berlin Perspective Daily

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Jesse Owens was the Olympic hero in 1936 before racism relentlessly caught up with him. The cabaret artist and author Michaela Dudley visited the historic setting of Elstal and explored how black life is still oppressed today.

by Michaela DudleyN.N.

Elstal in Brandenburg. Nothing but a marshalling yard with a roundhouse. That's the first impression. The second impression is not much different either. That is not by accident. A good century ago, the village was built from scratch as a railway settlement. During the Second World War it was partly reduced to rubble and ash, then rebuilt eclectic. One way or another, Elstal has become a corner of the future.

I came with the RE 4. Rather pilgrimage. Because I'm on the search for the sites and stations of black history. Here of all places. Yes, a pilgrimage through Half an hour earlier I was standing on the platform at Potsdamer Platz. Should I do it to myself?

Whoever makes a pilgrimage is probably a stranger. Or better or worse. It follows from the etymology, but do I really see myself that way? As foreign? Isn't it more the job of others to look at me like that? gawking at me like that? The task of those others who see themselves as the only ones

Cover photo: N.N.-CC BY 4.0

Topics: SocietyGermanyUSA

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