In Search of Kurdistan: The Kurdish Question in German Literature for Young People

Abstract

The kidnapping on February 15, 1999 of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan outraged the Kurdish community in Germany, and the Kurdish-Kurdish conflict was translated onto the streets and schoolyards of a number of major German cities. The local and national authorities turned to the teachers to help them in the battle against racism and xenophobia. Several educators, in turn, had long before anticipated the problem and had written, translated, published books for the younger generation that address themselves to the problem of the “Other” generally; several books have also tried to answer the troubling question: “Where would you find Kurdistan on the map?” For the German reading public this question had been satisfactorily answered back in 1881 by the still popular travel writer Karl May. The urgency of the question, however, has been revived during the last two decades. The authors have written to inform and to rouse the interest and sympathy of their readers; they have also contributed to the inter-cultural and -religious dialogue that the German authorities deemed so necessary.