Rita Schumann, Kaş, Turkey
Rita Schumann is an expat from Germany who moved here a few years ago. Rita does a regular article about foreigners in the area for the Aydın Haber weekly Kaş newspaper. She kindly agreed to do an article about the community of German expats living in Kaş.
Who are the Germans that live here? Why do they live here? How do they live?
Here is what she found out in her own words…
I asked some German women at the market what are you doing in Kaş? The first reaction I got was “feeding cats!” Yes, of course that is what many German women like. They care for animals, they support the “Kaş Animal Friends”, others are supporting the children in Kaş while helping at the “Busy Bees” or doing it anonymously, but that is not all.
There are many different groups of Germans in Kaş with various contacts and connections. There are those who are married or partner with a Turkish man or woman, those who live here permanently, those who come and go, there are vacationers and those who have left to go back to Germany.
Two examples of permanent settlers are Bettina who had the idea for the Papillon Café, and Gabi who helped to set up the Barakuda diving school. Therese is another who is working at the Barakuda office and is a good contact for information.
Papillon Cafe entrance, Kaş, Turkey
More than twenty years ago Bettina established Papillon Café by making sandwiches and later included baking German cakes and serving filtered coffee, espresso, ice-cups, and waffles on her menu.
Many people are so impressed with Kaş and quickly loved this place that they bought a holiday home at first and later they stayed here permanently.
Uta tells it like this and says what many Germans also think: “Many Germans (in Germany) are working a lot and hard. The stress factor in Germany is very high and people have to function. Already by staying for holidays in Kaş people feel Kaş’s mystique and the domination of the nature and they can find themselves again. Life here is not as perfect as in Germany, but more relaxed, more human and authentic. Man can live here much more better with his own weaknesses. The people here do not accept that pressure and don’t like to fix dates. Sometimes one is astonished that the craftsman does not come on the arranged date, but then unexpectedly comes and sometimes works until night time. The life and privacy of many craftsmen, shop keepers, bank workers and the authorities is not that strictly separated. It is nice to watch nature activities, the seasons and the phases of the moon. Here I feel much more free than in Germany because most of the year I can live outside. I also like that the nature thrives during the whole year.”
There are Germans living on the Peninsula who have chosen Kaş because of the nice houses and the sea view. Everybody is living his own life and they do not come so much in touch with each other. Some do not know each other personally. Marlies Diemont says: “At the Peninsula we live a little bit separated and sometimes we do not know what happens in Kaş.” She and her friend Petra Bonomi are artists for experimental paintings. “We were the first, many years ago, who opened an exhibition together with Valentine van Herpen.”
Some German people who live on the peninsula include Uschi and Tamer who are keeping the Hadrian Hotel, where many of their guests are German, and Peter Becker who has written the virtual book Faszination Lykien.
There is a trekking group that meets regularly in spring and at the beginning of the late summer. Also the Dutch, Austrians, Turks and Finns take part in these groups. They don`t have a fixed programme and sometimes they look for their own path on their treks and find them. They also make long or big tours, for example, they went to Cappadocia for trekking.
The German women who are married or partnered are not living here for the relaxed life and fine weather, but rather it is due to their family or work. Some live here partly because they can work in their own office or shop, or as an employee in one. They all are part of the social and cultural life in Kaş sharing that life made by Turkish neighbours. For the women it is important to meet and to talk in their own language, but it is difficult during the tourist season. After finishing the season, they start meeting again during the wintertime. Some of these women have both Turkish and German nationalities.
Speaking the Turkish language is a very important aspect of their life which awards them with acceptance and helps give them self determination. In the education of their children and at school there is a difference from what they know from their home country and what they would normally expect. “We grew up with rules that we don`t want to eliminate, because sometimes they are very helpful”, they told me in an interview for Kaş Aydin Haber.
The more the mothers are involved in their children’s school, the more they accept the differences. Martina for instance has been a speaker for the parents in her son’s class for several years.
Kirsten Wagner, Kaş Delicatessen
Kirsten Wagner, who owns Kirsten’s Kitchen or the Kaş Delicatessen Café is an exception, because for five and a half years she lived here alone with her daughters Felicitas and Lea. The girls do not want to separate from Kaş because it is their home.
The German tourists who come to Kaş are mostly individual travellers, often they are scuba divers or hikers. Some first came to Kaş accidentally many years ago when it was much smaller. They nearly all came again. Others come to Kaş because their family members or friends are living in Kaş.
Belly Dancing Ladies (göbek dansi), Kaş, Turkey
Many of those who come regularly to Kaş fix a date to come back and see each other again. For example, some women from Bremen have fixed their calenders so that they come to Kaş in May and in October for yoga and belly dancing (göbek dansi). Gabriele and her friends are part of this changing group. This year some of them came for the 14th time along with some who came for the first time.
Some students and their teacher from Offene Schule Waldau in Kassel came for the 7th time in September on a student exchange (ögrenci değişimi). This social and cultural exchange has become an important part of Kaş school life. At the school exchange last year Felicitas had an important job. She not only took part but she had to help by translating because her Turkish is very good.
Felicitas told us that “My friend is German-Turkish, my sister and I are German and we enjoy speaking German so that nobody Turkish understands us. But when we go into a shop, sometimes a shop employee will try to ask too much money from us so we tell them that we live in Turkey and they should be ashamed of the way they try to treat foreign customers.” Felicitas says that she does not miss the life in Germany but sometimes she would like to have more shopping or be able to go to a cinema. They can watch German television shows in Turkey so they are always up to date.
Tina from Gökseki tells a little bit about her life as a pensioner in Kaş. For five years she and her husband have lived with three parties in the “German House” in Gökseki. “In our social life we feel very good. One is looking after the other, without bothering each other. We are sharing garden work, helping each other with crafts work, and everybody is sharing what they can do. My husband Harald is well known for his home-made bread.” Germans like their healthy bread that Turkish people call cake, because the ingredients are more than grain, oil, eggs, and water. The pensioners in Kaş say that here they can live a life that would not be possible in Germany. Some are artists and take part in exhibitions. Some go to see Ton the Dutch painter to take lessons.
Many Germans in Kaş meet regularly to play backgammon (tavla), Okey, Billiards, Skat and other card games. They also have parties together, for example, on birthdays they meet for coffee or brunch. They used to have “Oldies” parties at Sadik in the Kapadokya Restaurant, but they don’t anymore. Sometimes they meet at Sadik to have a meal together, because if a guest wants to, they are allowed to cook and here they can also meet with different nationalities.
For the pensioners there is not only a German life, they also meet with many foreigners who live in Kaş. Tina tells us that “Our help is mutual. Here we are much closer to our neighbours and friends than in Germany and we live with a kind of relaxed life. Although Kaş has changed and is getting bigger, Kaş is still small. In earlier times we foreigners were something special. The Turks invited us and we invited them. There was a lot of contact with the Turkish residents although we did not know their language, but nowadays tourism and earning money are dominant. The contact between us has become less.”
Rita says that “for 12 years we were together in our apartment with our Turkish neighbours and they took to us very well. They accepted us as Germans fully. Our integration is complete.”
As for the Turkish language there is a big difference in abilities. There are Germans who speak Turkish very well, those who are learning, those who gave up and those who know Turkish speaking
people who can help them. Ulli says “Sometimes it is hard to use Turkish because the other person knows what I want. For example: If I want to order water from the “sucu”, the waterman, he sees my telephone number on his display and everything is clear. But if I go to the harbour watching men fishing and I say: “Rastgele!” (good luck) they look astonished and feel lucky.”
Many of the Germans like to travel around Turkey and are interested in archaeology, like Tina for instance.
Many wanted to make their dream of their own home on the Mediterranean come true, but not everybody did this because they hesitated to decide to live in Kaş and then prices rose much higher.
The German pensioners have their health insurance in Germany, that means most of them also still have a home in Germany.
As nice as it is in Kaş and the fact that they do not miss Germany that much, many still care for German traditions on Christmas and Easter. Then they decorate their homes and the children learn about Christian backgrounds. “Unfortunately it is hard to find a nice Christmas tree and so we use one made of plastic, something that I never would have done in Germany.” says Petra. “My husband and our children like our tree very much and for us it is the most beautiful Christmas tree.”
Probably the most athletic husband and wife are Margarete and Jochen. Margarete jogs every day for about an hour. Jochen, who is 66 years old, participated in The Likya Festival (Meis to Kaş Swim Race) in June this year and finished among the young swimmers in the middle field after the Meis to Kaş swim.. To reach this goal he started training one month before.
Meals are very important to German people. They cook what they like, what they want, what is fresh and in season. For many, German and Turkish cooking is mixed. Many German meals cannot be made originally because one cannot get all the ingredients in Kaş. The fresh vegetables and fresh fish make the menu much richer than would be possible in Germany. Rita and Ulli let us know: “We like to make olives and find some variations.” We also like making liver sausage, pastete (köfte) and meat in aspik (Sülze).” (The English word is aspic: “A jelly made with meat or fish stock, usually set in a mold and used as a garnish.) “Because we cannot buy it in Kaş we miss this taste and so we tried it by ourself. In Germany there would have never been such an idea” Rita says.
The Internet, telephone and German TV are very important and nobody wants to live without these connections to their home culture.
I am sure that there is much more to tell and there may be many questions without an answer, but one thing is very clear in all the interviews that I made: There is no isolated German or European life in Kaş, but it is life together with Turkish people.
