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The “wildcat” strike from August 24 to 30, 1973, and the occupation of the Ford factory in Cologne went down in history as one of the largest mobilizations of migrant workers in Germany. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Federal Republic of Germany, as a successor state to Nazi Germany, experienced an economic boom: the economic miracle. The FRG sought workers internationally who faced discrimination, racism, and poor working conditions in Germany. This led to thousands of mostly Turkish workers in Cologne fighting for pay raises, vacation rights, a slowdown in piecework, and solidarity among themselves. They wanted to prevent the dismissal of hundreds of colleagues. The strike was crushed with police force and the support of the works council and the union. After the strike was lost, however, the influence of militant migrants grew significantly, especially in IG Metall.
Memories of the strike were recorded in DOMiD, among other places. The “Documentation Center and Museum on Migration in Germany” is Germany’s largest collection of objects and testimonies on the history of migration in Germany. The collection grew out of civil society and includes more than 150,000 social, cultural and everyday historical testimonies. DOMiD is supported by an association which, in addition to exhibitions, also realizes numerous educational projects.
Since its foundation in 1990 , DOMiD’s goal has been to establish a museum that conveys migration as a “normal case” and Germany as a migration society. The museum is scheduled to open in 2027 in Cologne-Kalk on the right bank of the Rhine in Dillenburger Straße in a former hall of the industrial company KHD.
The future museum is already virtually accessible. To what extent it pays tribute to the militant history of migration – for example, the legendary Ford strike – remains to be seen.
Sources and literature:
Jörg Huwer, “Gastarbeiter” im Streik – Die Arbeitsniederlegung bei Ford Köln im August 1973. edition DOMiD, Cologne, 2013
Strike at Ford Cologne, Cologne 1973; as pdf: http://ford73.blogsport.de/images/Arbeiterkampf_1973_StreikbeiFordKln.pdf, Aufruf 1.3. 2022
http://ford73.blogsport.de/materialien-texte/, call 1.3. 2022
http://grundrisse.net/grundrisse14/14serhat_karakayali.htm, call 1.3. 2022
https://www.labournet.de/politik/gw/geschichte/40-jahre-ford-streik-in-koln-1973-ford-grevi-kirk-yil-sonra/, call 1.3. 2022