During the 1960s and 1970s BMW in Germany had recorded the highest numbers of Greek migrant employees in history.
Some, narrate their unique stories in a doco-book, recently published by the Greek Club ‘Doriforos’ based in Munich.
Through their experiences, come alive the memories of first and second generation Greek migrants, who left their homes and families behind in search of a better life in Germany.
The book is titled ‘Chronicles of Greek migrants at BMW 1960-2018’, with the individual stories focusing mainly on the period from 1960 to 1970 when Greek migration to Germany was at its highest.
“Round the end of the 1960s two Greeks were walking in downtown Munich and saw a street-sign which wrote that Munich would host the 1972 Olympic Games. One turned to the other and said: ‘Do you think we’ll still be here then?’. They both returned to Greece as pensioners, in 2004 and 2006 respectively,” this is one of the excerpts included in the book.
“We wanted the protagonists to have a chance to tell their stories themselves, removed from political or other influences,” Kostas Tatsis, the Chair of ‘Doriforos’ and editor of the book told Deutsche Welle (DW).
What was thought to be a chapter of the book, became the book, when migration records showed that the largest number of Greek workers outside work dominated BMW. At the Germany factories alone in 1966, there were 3,572 employees from Greece, 27 per cent of BMW’s manpower at the time. Within four years and by 1971, that number had almost doubled reaching 43,3 per cent.
“Indicative of the large number of Greek employees dominating the industry was the fact that every night, at the end of the afternoon shift, at 23:00, outside the central gate there was for years a Greek newspaper man selling Greek newspapers,” Mr Tatsis writes in the book’s intro.
“No wonder during the Dictatorship in Greece, resistance organisations chose exactly that gate to distribute their announcements to Hellenism”.
The book was recently presented in Munich with both the first and second edition copies being sold out. As DW reports there will be a third edition in the Greek language while it will also be translated in German.