Barbara.de: Hello dear Linda, you have recently been able to hear your podcast "Gute Deutsche". Would you like to tell what it's about?
Linda Zervakis: Of course. "Gute Deutsche" is a podcast in which I speak to people with a migration background. I talk to them about how this migration background is actually noticeable, whether it caused problems, whether it also has advantages and how they grew up with it. The aim is to loosen up a bit the severity that is always associated with this term. It would be nice if I could do it, at least a little bit.
Who have you already met for an interview? Who will be your guests
Salwa Houmsi is there. She is a music journalist and DJane. Giovanni di Lorenzo is there, Jorge Gonzales. Then I spoke to Mark Forster, who is half Pole.
I did not know that…
His real name is Marek Ćwiertnia. But then he was told: “So if you want to make music, you can't win a flowerpot with the name. You have to come up with something else. ”He also tells the story of how he became Mark Forster. But at home he is still called Marek, I found it quite surprising. I thought: well, he has Polish relatives somewhere and that's it.
And then I meet the rapper Megaloh. Megaloh's mother is Nigerian and his father is half German and half Dutch. Gerald Asamoah has agreed. And of course current events should always play a role. So it will be exciting.
Was there a conversation so far that particularly impressed you?
Yes, for example, when I talked to Megaloh, I was also totally unsure: Am I going to say black or dark-skinned? What's the right label so I don't hurt it? And what I found really exciting was when he said he was in Nigeria and was white there for the Nigerians because they saw that he was a mix of two cultures. Or Jorge Gonzales, who always comes along as a funny bird, fled Cuba because of his homosexuality and always made an incredible effort at school because he could then get a scholarship. So at 17 he went to Slovakia, where he could live out his sexuality. He is a person who is actually always happy, but he also had moments when he was thoughtful and calm. And it is these moments that particularly fascinate me. Or Giovanni di Lorenzo, who came to Germany in the 1960s and still heard the sentence from his senior student advisor at school: "Giovanni di Lorenzo, this Itaker should be hung up." That is unthinkable today. So these are insights that I didn't expect.
Many of us have these insecurities that you had. And this very concept of "people with a migration background" sounds like a pigeonhole …
… yes, it always sounds like you have to use tweezers to touch these people because they are different. And that's exactly why I'm doing this podcast because I don't want to come with the heavy club, but rather want to watch it more relaxed. That can be a positive thing and you don't always have to use that stupid word. I didn't like that either when I became the daily news announcer for the main edition at 8 p.m. It was not said: "Linda Zervakis is the new Tagesschau spokeswoman", but instead it was: "Linda Zervakis, the first Tagesschau spokeswoman with a migration background." And I thought like that: Huh? Who do you mean? Oh, you mean me. So this: Oh yes, I really do. I want to say that I had no problem with it before and suddenly I had such a stamp. That was for me, who was born in Hamburg and never had a problem dealing with it in a job or in a circle of friends. You don't say family doctor with a migration background either, in the end it's about people. This is what I hope that you no longer think so much in categories, but that you simply decide whether you find people likable or not – at least that's how I go about life. I don't care about anything else at the moment.
What do you say when asked where you are from?
I say I was born in Hamburg and I have Greek parents and then everyone can do what he or she wants. So there again: Must there be a drawer? Is this important so that you can judge it in the end?
That doesn't have to mean negative. But the question alone is so filled that you don't dare to ask it. How do you feel about that?
I am not uncomfortable at all. But it is also the generation in which I grew up. In the eighties and nineties I didn't feel that way. I was in high school and there were three other foreign children in the class with me. But that may also be an occupational disease. If you would get to know someone in a bar in the evening, don't ask: “Hello, what's your last name? Ahja, I thought your hair was much too dark for a German. “You would simply decide whether I continue to drink with him or her, due to the fact that one is sympathetic or not. But Germany is unfortunately also very good at it, in the very well functioning bureaucracy and the very organized environment, that you always need drawers here, in which you can classify someone, so that this is clarified. But if you look at yourself personally, it doesn't matter at all.
Is that something typically German for you?
Well, it's a very well functioning country and maybe that's just part of it. Maybe that's related to that, yes. I don't know now how it is in other countries, but I can find out in the podcast whether people are treated differently.
When you go to Greece with your family, is it more of a vacation or a home feeling?
There is something in between. When I go to Greece, it takes between a few minutes and a few hours that I am immediately in the daily rhythm. I don't have that when I go to Italy or Spain. It's all more familiar in Greece. That's why there's something in between.
What makes the difference between Greece and Hamburg for you?
Most of my family is in Hamburg. This is my usual, beautiful environment with people who have been with me for a very long time. This is primarily my home. And in Greece I just appreciate the hospitality and the relaxed nature of the people. They are so hospitable and warm even in the crisis that you can still get a canister of oil and homemade soap. Then the German comes through in me, which says: But I would like to pay you and then the Greeks are really pissed off. You can't practice that, they just have this relaxation and generosity in them. I deeply admire that. When I was there, I also accept this mode and after four or five weeks here I am again hectic, punctual and controlled. (laughs)
How was it for your parents The first years here?
My parents always felt like strangers. When I talk to my mother about it, she says it too. They were always treated well, but they felt like we were doing it for a year now and then going back. And then things turned out differently and that was difficult at the beginning because there were no integration courses either, which is now a matter of course. They had to laboriously collect and learn everything themselves. My mother learned to read alone in the kiosk.
Of course that was also bumpy. Of course, a lot came through us children. We had no problems, not even at school. We always had Greek, but I didn't have the feeling that it was exhausting for us.
Did you feel different as a child?
The feeling different actually came more from the social. I was a worker child. That came inevitably. I marginalized myself because I couldn't afford certain things and couldn't keep up with my friends. For example, I saved my driver's license myself through jobs during the summer holidays, while everyone else was in Mallorca or somewhere else.
Would you say that it helped you grow up afterwards?
Yes, just dealing with people in my parents' kiosk. All sorts of people came in and not always just pleasant ones, including drunks or people who smelled unpleasant. But I'm just a workhorse. I always lend a hand everywhere. I'm a little bit afraid of existence somewhere because I have heard my parents' fears and I also know how to fill out applications for the social welfare office – and that is humiliating – but I would still know if there was no daily news, I would do something else do. This also raised me to be self-employed and to tackle it. Somehow it works. And because you have just had tougher years, I can sometimes not believe this and think: Hopefully it will last a bit, because it is actually quite nice.
Would you say growing up with two nationalities is more of a privilege, or is it more of a factor of uncertainty because you may not know exactly where you really belong now?
Of course, this is also totally individual. I see it as an absolute asset to have two cultures in me.
How did you experience that with your guests?
Megaloh, for example, has a German passport and lives here too, but he still cannot feel German because so much racism is pounded on him here and still does. For me, on the other hand, it was relaxed to grow up in Germany.
You were raised bilingual, right?
Yes, I also went to a Greek school.
And how do you do that with your children now?
I knew that was coming. Yes, of course I don't. (laughs)
I also know that this is a big mistake and I see the day coming when they say, "Why didn't you do it?" But it is difficult. My husband is German and I also speak German better than Greek. I found this switching between languages extremely exhausting, others can probably do better. I'm just saving for the two now and then they can go to Greece a year later and decide for themselves whether they like it or not. I can't do it – but you can't be totally perfect.
Linda Zervakis, Hamburg native with Greek roots, talks to prominent guests about her origin and home country in her new podcast and takes a look at their cultural influences together with them. The podcast “Linda Zervakis presents: Good Germans” celebrates being equal and different in a colorful, open world.
The pilot episode and the second episode of the Spotify Original Podcast will be released on June 15th. Every Monday there is a new episode exclusively on Spotify.