Recruiting “guest workers” ("Gastarbeiter")

In the German Liaison Office in Istanbul, these boards have been campaigning for workers since the recruitment agreement between the Federal Republic and Turkey in 1961. For example, "lathe operators", "milling cutters" and "spoolers" were wanted or, as on these signs, "factory workers" and "packers". Photo: DOMiD archive, Cologne

With the aim of closing gaps in the German labor market at short notice, the German government began to recruit workers from neighboring countries of the Mediterranean (and in 1963 also from South Korea) with the German-Italian recruitment agreement ("Anwerbeabkommen") in 1955. Workers had previously come from abroad, but the bilateral agreements now enabled the West German government to exercise a certain degree of control and recruitment on a larger scale. The Federal Republic concluded the contract with Turkey in 1961. A German Liaison Office has been set up in Istanbul to select coordinated migrant workers. In addition to the respective job titles, the advertising boards posted there also contained the current number of workers required for the various professions. It is interesting that many of the professions described at the time no longer exist today.

The employment contracts that the migrant workers received at the liaison office in Istanbul provided for a contractual commitment of only one year. Following the so-called rotation principle, the workers should then be exchanged for other workers: the "guest workers" were born, and among them numerous women, who are often not mentioned in the historiography. The problematic term is still frequently used in everyday language for the former migrant workers. The continued existence of the term refers to a still existing exclusion of immigrants and their descendants who had previously immigrated as labor migrants.

Typewriter of the pediatrician and radiologist Dr. Sukil Lee, on whom he wrote all correspondence for the recruitment of Korean nurses in the 1960s. Photo: DOMiD Archive, Cologne, E 1359.0046

Telegrams from Dengin K. to Süheyla K., 1971. Süheyla K. also tried to bring her husband to Germany by name. In a first telegram from May 27th, 1971, he confirmed that the request had been received. In the second, he declares that he has “passed” - he has passed the health check-up and can leave Turkey the following Saturday. DOMiD Archive, Cologne, E 1382.2237, E 1382.2238

The recruitment process was fraught with hurdles: once foreign workers applied, they first had to undergo a strict health check. In addition, the German Federal Employment Service meticulously checked, on a case-by-case basis, whether there might be suitable German candidates for the respective recruitment concerns of a company (“national resident”). If this was the case, they were preferred as workers. Otherwise, the companies could choose from which country they wanted to recruit the required male or female workers.

Migration thus becomes an aspect that can be controlled and regulated.

The regime of "guest work" in Germany led to a "stratification" of the world of work. While the migrant workers took over the unpopular and poorly paid work in heavy industry, road or underground construction, the German employees rose to foremen by virtue of an “elevator effect”. Inequalities have been reinforced. Solidarity and a common commitment to better employment relationships were hardly possible.