The two-day conference in Erfurt on October 01-02, 2026, will explore the history of migrant agency and (post-)colonial entanglements in East and West Germany from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Looking at the history of migration to the “two Germanys,” the event invites experts to explore the experiences and agency of different groups of migrants who are often associated with the Global South.
We will discuss whether the term Global South is, in fact, an appropriate analytical category, and whether it can, for example, also be applied to labor migrants from Southern Europe. We also seek to identify alternative criteria that characterize the collective experiences of migrants from the Global South, the term’s biographical proximity to colonialism and decolonization or migrants’ own self-positioning within a postcolonial context.
The conference is co-organized by Carsta Langner and Florian Wagner, both conducting subprojects on “Voluntariness and Solidarity” and “Voluntariness and Repatriation/Return Migration” in our research group at the University of Erfurt. We cordially invite you to participate in the conference. It will take place on campus at Erfurt University, Research Building “Weltbeziehungen,” room C19.00.04 (ground floor).
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Download the conference program here. For participation we ask to register via email to Carsta Langner and Florian Wagner in advance. Thank you!
THURSDAY | 01 OCTOBER 2026
13.00 | Arrival, Registration, Coffee
13.30 | INTRODUCTION · Carsta Langner and Florian Wagner (both Erfurt)
14.00 – 15.00 | PANEL I | Chair: Silvan Niedermeier (Erfurt)
Carlos Sanz Diaz (Madrid) · Voluntary? Rethinking Spanish Labour Migration and Return through Migrants’ Experiences in West Germany (1960s-1980)
Christopher Molnar (Flint, online) · Racism and Return: The Case of Bosnian War Refugees
· Coffee Break ·
15.15 – 16.15 | PANEL II | Chair: N. N.
Grazia Prontera (Salzburg) · Italienische Migration in die Bundesrepublik Deutschland seit 1955: Formen, Erfahrungen und Darstellungen
David Templin (Osnabrück) · Arrival Infrastructures and Migrant Agency in Hamburg in the 1970s/80s
· Coffee Break ·
16.45 – 17.45 | PANEL III | Chair: Felix Krämer (Erfurt)
Tobias Santosh Großmann (Nürnberg) · Daughters, Nurses, Migrants: Catholic Women from Kerala in West Germany in the 1960s
Yonson Ahn (Frankfurt) · “Yellow Angels”: South Korean Nurse “Guest Workers” in West Germany
19.00 | Conference Dinner
FRIDAY | 02 OCTOBER 2026
08.30 – 10.00 | PANEL IV | Chair: Kien Nghi Ha (Tübingen)
Florian Wagner (Erfurt) · Gastarbeiter Activism in West Germany (1960s-1980s)
Jan Schubert (Florence) · Interwoven Narratives. How did Experiences of French Colonialism Shape Oral History Narratives of Algerian Labour Migration to the GDR?
Émelie Bosselmann (Erfurt) · Memories of Migration: An Oral History Project on Memories, Narratives and Experiences of Greek Labour Migration to Germany
· Coffee Break ·
10.15 – 11.15 | PANEL V | Chair: Birgit Schäbler (Erfurt)
Sara Pugach (Los Angeles, online) · Marxism-Leninism, African Socialism, or Something else? The Politics of African Students in and beyond the GDR, 1951-1980
Anja Schade (Hildesheim) · Spaces of Agency in Exile: Self-Organization and Participation of Exiled ANC Members in the GDR
· Coffee Break ·
11.30 – 12.30 | PANEL VI | Chair: Birgit Schäbler (Erfurt)
Tom Drechsel (Potsdam) · Mozambican Labour Migrants Under the Auspices of the Protestant Church in the late GDR
Emilia Henkel (Jena) · Asylum Seekers Resisting their Involuntary Allocation to East German Camps (1990/91)
12.30 – 13.00 | Final Discussion
14.30 | Short Walking Tour Decolonize Erfurt (optional)
