‘We should remain mobile and always decorated.’
10 September 1964, Cologne-Deutz railway station, flurry of flashbulbs and applause. Iconic images and future titles such as the words ‘millionth’ and ‘guest worker’ are created. The ‘one millionth guest worker’ Armando Rodrigues de Sá, who has just arrived from Portugal, and the gift presented to him, a two-seater Zündapp moped, can be seen.
The event and the pictures taken for it are still reproduced today as images of labour migration to West Germany – and have been increasingly questioned in recent years. For example, the largely unknown story of Rodrigues de Sá's life and death and the lack of alternative visual representations of this period have been criticised. The portrayal of Germany as a welcoming country – a measure that was also taken to reassure companies – ignores the different realities of life experienced by the immigrants and their descendants. The location of the railway station, a symbol of mobility, is also worth a second look, as it seems to refer not only to the arrival but also to the departure of migrant workers. These contemporary receptions testify to a changing approach to the culture of remembrance of migration to Germany.
FLOWERS
I have in front of me
the picture of the - cheated -:
one millionth guest worker
in Cologne, an anxious man,
next to many smiling Germans.
Back then he was given:
a bunch of flowers
and a motorbike.
Only now do I realise
that the course for today's
foreigner policy was already set back then:
- Flowers were the payment
for our work.
- The motorbike was
the return bonus
for the tired guest worker.
We were supposed to stay mobile and always decorated.
Tell me where the flowers are!
Manuel Salvador da Silva Campos, 1982