The Red House: An emotional piece about Turkish guest workers

The Red House: An emotional piece about Turkish guest workers

On October 11, 2025, the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin celebrated the premiere of the production “The Red House” directed by Ersan Mondtag. This performance sheds light on the realities of life for Turkish workers and women in Germany who lived in a former women's dormitory in the 1960s and 1970s. The title refers to the “red house” on Stresemannstrasse, which served as accommodation for migrants and at the same time symbolized their fate. The production opens this year's Autumn Salon at the Gorki Theater and powerfully addresses the stories of these women.

In the production, four old ladies, played by actresses, walk across the stage and confront the audience with the question: “Are you my granddaughter?” The director's choice to use horror aesthetics represents a distanced look at the biographies of these women, but brings with it critical comments regarding a lack of emotional depth. The women's stories are presented in short biographical portraits, some of which are arranged one after the other, which means that the individual fates are hardly differentiated. An Anatolian women's choir singing Turkish love songs during the performance is intended to underline the emotional aspects, but cannot completely compensate for the shortcomings of the production.

Personal stories in context

The author Emine Sevgi Özdamar, who herself lived in one of these red houses in the mid-1960s at the age of 18, recorded her experiences in autobiographical works. Özdamar, who worked for Telefunken, remembers her time on the assembly line, which she found strenuous but formative. In addition to her work from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. - for a wage of 2.28 marks an hour - she aimed for a career as an actress and found support from the home director Vasif Öngören, a communist and Brecht lover. Her experiences were processed in her book “The Bridge of the Golden Horn”, which offers a deep insight into the experience of migrant women.

The “Red House” not only served as accommodation for around 150 women from different professions and backgrounds, it was also a place for sharing and living together. Despite the challenges of living abroad, the women undertook activities together and combined traditional and modern values ​​in their stories. These diverse establishments and conflicts among women reflect the reality of migration and the complex relationships that arise in such an environment.

A look at the history of labor migration

In order to better understand the background of the production, it is important to look at the history of Turkish labor migration to Germany. In 1961, a recruitment agreement was signed between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and Turkey, which laid the basis for the recruitment of workers. In the following years, numerous migrants, many of them women, came to Germany to fill jobs that were in high demand in German industry. These migratory movements were embedded in the economic stabilization of the Federal Republic of Germany that began in the 1950s. By 1973, German companies requested 867,000 workers from Turkey, a significant proportion of whom were female.

Despite initial hopes and opportunities, the reality for many migrants was often one of hard work and a regimented life, often in collective accommodation that offered little privacy. The challenges of integration and the study of social identity remain relevant topics today. The complex and tragic stories of these women are not only part of German history, but also of contemporary society.

The exhibition, which takes place as part of the Autumn Salon in the Palais am Festungsgraben, offers more differentiated and personal perspectives and highlights the individual history of the women living in this context. Trying to convey these stories in theater remains a challenge that draws attention to the diverse experiences and memories of migrants and reveals the deep wounds behind the term “guest worker.”