we begin with the go to medal which is an annual award given by germany's international cultural organization the institute there are 3 prizes and they often own germans who have contributed to the cultural landscape of this country always awarded on his birthday august the 28th in weimar and i'll be talking about this year's winners with my colleague melissa holroyd but 1st this report about one of them a turkish writer though i. finally i'm in berlin after the train arrives and so look at your garden train station i'm already over the age of 40 hobbit still excited i know from the footnote in our history books. i was murdered in cold blood by an armenian on a berlin street on march 15th 1921. born writer joanna calmly is an historical and literally detective persecuted storyteller who news between

fact and fiction between languages and countries to come is novels deal with historical violence state oppression and memory 4 of them have been translated into german the most recent one madonna's last dream is a literary search for traces from the moxie era. i started writing in germany. my wife my child and i were all tortured in turkey and we came here as damaged people. writing is my weapon. it's the only thing i can do. through writing i raise my voice against injustice. it's my instrument of resistance. they didn't. ready ready come i was born in 1957 an odd thing in north eastern turkey as a member of the outlawed revolutionary communist party of turkey he was imprisoned several times in 1000. and he too he received political asylum in germany although

he's no longer a turkish citizen he's repeatedly targeted by the turkish state upon entering turkey and 2010 conley was arrested and detained for several months for his alleged role in a robbery in 1998 he was eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence in 2017 the long arm of the turkish state reached all the way to spain a comely was on holiday at the time and at the request of turkey the spanish police arrested the writer in his hotel room in an autobiographical short story calmly tells of his experiences with prison torture and psychological terror there's a. big issue especially after the failed coup attempt rights violations and the suppression of freedom of expression have increased enormously. it's had the biggest effect on writers and journalists. it's a forest $51.00 in the end it's turkey loses being given.

a new force so many intellectuals to leave the country will end up at a dead end. job on a candle is an exiled writer whose work plays out between germany and turkey through his commitment to civil society and his writing he has called for the genocides of the 20th century against the armenians and the jews to be examined repeatedly. this is dealing with the past is the only way to prevent it from repeating itself. all roy my colleague is here to tell us more melissa as we've seen dawn writing a straight lot of tension between berlin and ankara but yet he's getting a prize for cultural understanding doesn't seem to add up. yeah certainly. his arrest that did come as a result of his work and his and his writings did cause

a strain in tensions between germany and ankara particularly his arrest in spain. you can see him here getting his medal but it is other writings that we heard about in the piece to do with the armenian genocide and also the holocaust also do contribute to cultural understanding and take a stand a very strong stand against discrimination and violence speaking and writing the truth even if they are uncomfortable truths still helps in addition to his writing a country is also involved in plenty of work that encourages dialogue between different cultural groups so in 2002 he started giving turkish german guided to his in a form of gestapo prison in cologne is also spoken to groups of turkish young people about the persecution of jews and the national socialism and is lectured on anti semitism in the immigrant society and he started his writing after he'd gone into political exile yeah that's right most of his work yeah that's right he says that

he says that being in exile in germany actually gave him the head space and time to produce most of his work to write and get through his own experiences he writes from his own experiences a lot of the time even something as unimaginable and awful as being tortured got him interested in violence and that by the state and ultimately led him to write judges of the last judgment about the armenian genocide ok what about the other 2 winners who are ok so there's mongolian nc that rose on he worked for several years as a photographer but today he's a publisher and a bookseller and a political journalist through his articles and interviews rosen campaigns for the modernization of the mongolian education system and for freedom of expression there and finally someone who lives in exile like don't want to come and this is the the artist. syrian national yes she's in raney and born woman who she's a visual artist who lives in new york city she's been banned from even visiting

iran for the past decades her work often has a melancholic feel and she says that this she said in interview that this is partly due to the fact that she is separated from her home country she works with film video and photography her artwork is highly stylized and minimal it centers on the contrasts between islam and the west the lives of muslim women and dictatorial regimes public life and tribe that life work also looks authentic witty and modernity and the borders between the say these subjects and how they affect each other how they bang up against each other she says herself that she doesn't want to make political odds bought over the years her work always seems to return to the political she's a she better known internationally in the number 2 and she's actually won lots of big awards and as well as the ghost of medal that's right she's won loads of big awards in 1990 was awarded the venice biennale is golden lion for her film turbulent she's also women of color from the 1990 s.

was one of her 1st big works that was very well received and is still shown around the world here we see impressive large format black and white portraits of muslim women neshek contrasts femininity violence and poetry some of the women there we saw were in the shade or others had firearms and there their hands and faces are all inscribed with persian calligraphy the theme of this year's go to medal by the way is poetry in truth and i think she really hits the mark ok melissa thank you very much tony is right this is recipients of the go to medal. we come to meet the germans were very investigates the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the locals and today she's looking at something that is very prevalent in the english language but in. small talk yes there is a kind of small talk adjustment but it's peppered with sometimes so is it really

just small talk to explain the norris's of what i'm talking about here is rachel with well with more details. yet. great. chorus. the germans don't even have the right word for it a german english dictionary describes it as a. superficial conversation out. germans do get very public when english speakers greet them in the street with a commentary and then walk on by without actually expecting all of them but that doesn't mean the germans don't have their own version of the key difference is that when germans engage in chit chat they want facts they want numbers they want statistics so you arrive somewhere by car else where people might casually ask how the journey was i don't really care about the answer. but a german won't let you get away that's easily but ask how long the drive took and

how many roadworks you came across the ask you which route you took and expecting to answer with names and even motorway accidents. if the journey was long enough they might even without one of their favorite questions how much did it cost to fill up your time it's just a thing here when germans return from holiday they'll be eager to tell you about 3 things the beaches. prices. should always do some basic research before entering a social situation in germany. people had to talk about news and politics should also have the number one seem like common inhabitants of your hometown when you go on to the topic of where you live your german conversation on one of the measurements as in how big is your apartment in square meters with the bonus points are you ready with the average price per square meter living space in your area of the city. ok let's see how good the germans are in german small. i just might just do you since trying to do many little. just.

because you told. me to keep a little. hendrix's told me that's going to be so since i had to move to move. on the 1st trip up to the search go. to. read. and read your top even if i did you $20.00 too much time for change has described direction of. the much russia. as another very important topic that you have to muster in order to smalltalk in germany as a brit i thought i had this topic down but it turns out the germans can give us a run for our money i'm talking about the weather specifically complaining about the weather it's too hot too cold too way too snowy it's too. weather is the word for susceptibility to the weather it's better through the tides and the

germans will blame the changing weather for all sorts of ailments and a final tip to german small talk practice draft. whatever context be in a proxy or in the office germans absolutely love to talk about drafts and the various stages of entering a room a classic scene one german walks into the room and says here is the sticky sticky and here they decide it's time to go it's love or give the room and. then someone else will invariably walk in and say oh seat that means there's a girl. going to be around that night grumble about getting ill and close the windows. german windows even have a special air and position. the hinge technology must be really strong to cope with the constant opening and closing so you see german small talk is easy really drop the niceties know your numbers and have a strong opinion as a nation so you next time i'll feed us in. the ole after size of meat

germs can be found on our website at b.w. dot com slash culture has all sorts of stories all the all imes cultural things are around the well but that's all for this edition thanks for watching and join us at the same time tomorrow the shaft for myself and all the crew here in berlin and.

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