Let's imagine the following: The economic miracle after the Second World War took place not in Germany, but in Turkey, and German guest workers helped to rebuild Turkey. It was not Bonn that welcomed the new arrivals, but Istanbul. With a strikingly simple reversal of perspective and based on their own family experiences and questions they ask themselves about home and arrival, director Selen Kara, author Akın Emanuel Şipal and musician Torsten Kindermann tell the tragicomic life story of Bonn guest worker Klaus Gruber in the foreign and dazzling metropolis in ISTANBUL. In the 1960s, he had to leave behind his wife, children and his beloved football club, 1. FC Köln, and came to a country whose language was foreign to him. His wife Luise and children soon followed him. Initial difficulties were gradually overcome, and the family settled in. At some point, the children spoke Turkish better than German. The family settles into the vibrant city. Yet, a conflict remains: Klaus continues to build the house in Bonn he's been saving up for in Istanbul, even though he no longer seriously intends to return to Germany with his family. Between workbenches, bazaars, the vibrant nightlife, and teahouses (none of which serves hand-brewed filter coffee), we experience everyday life as an expat in German scenes, while the longing for happiness, love, and home is sung in Turkish. The focus is on the songs of Sezen Aksu, the queen of Turkish pop, who have accompanied three generations of Turkish society around the world.

EPSG:4326

Istanbul

Schauspielhaus Bad Godesberg

Four migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti and Guinea tell us their true stories.

216 million [UA]

They represent the Bonn Republic, stand by while their men engage in politics, stand on the terraces of their Bad Godesberg villas and gaze at the Rhine river landscape, where the Nibelungen treasure is hidden somewhere. Gold and crowns, dented by rolling pebbles, like carnival medals, next to a Nazi emblem, quickly thrown into the water as the American tanks approached. Those who know too much and talk too much have their memories "corrected" in a luxury sanatorium.

Women in front of a river landscape (UA)

When Donald Trump was first elected President of the United States in 2016, Elfriede Jelinek began writing AM KÖNIGSPEG (The Royal Road). In November 2024, two weeks after Trump's renewed victory, she published her epilogue to this royal road: FINAL VICTORY.

On the Royal Road / Final Victory

The Federal Cabinet recently approved a catalogue of no fewer than 111 measures to combat loneliness. Loneliness, it states, increases the risk of obesity, depression, heart attacks, and Alzheimer's disease, and is a complex problem affecting society as a whole, one that incurs high costs and can become a threat to democracy. There are 14 million lonely people in Germany alone, and as a result of the pandemic, the number of those who describe themselves as at least occasionally lonely has risen to over 40 percent. Everyone knows what it feels like to be lonely.

Sophie Basse

Events

Upcoming events

23 - 30 May, 2025

Comedy of Loneliness · Theater Bonn

Past events

Apr 17 - May 15, 2025

Istanbul · Theater Bonn

Apr 12 - May 9, 2025

216 million [UA] · Theater Bonn

About

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