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  • The Colonization of Germany:Migrant and German Identity in Wladimir Kaminer's Mein deutsches Dschungelbuch
  • Kathleen Condray (bio)

Wladimir Kaminer is best known as a witty chronicler of everyday life in Berlin. One reviewer of his books warned potential readers not to read Kaminer in public, claiming the uncontrollable laughter he provokes would draw stares from passersby ("Kaminer, Wladimir" paragraph 8). As an integrated, first generation immigrant from Russia, Kaminer has become a multimedia presence in Germany since arriving in 1990, when he spoke no German. A sound engineer for the theatre and radio by trade, the young author (born in 1967) writes for various newspapers such as die tageszeitung, Die Zeit, and Stern. He broadcasts a radio show entitled Russendisko Club from RBB Radio MultiKulti, serves as a DJ for his famous Russendisko events, and appears as a television correspondent for ZDF's morning program. Additionally, he has published eight books in German, most of which largely detail his humorous experiences in daily life as an immigrant ("Kaminer, Wladimir" par. 1). 1 While Kaminer's Mein deutsches Dschungelbuch (2003), which documents his travels through Germany, irrefutably serves its intended purpose to entertain, it can also be read as an exposition of how Germany has become a multicultural state through its immigrants, whether Germans themselves choose to acknowledge this fact or not. This article will show how Kaminer documents the true multiculturalism of German society, first by describing the predictable aspects of what has traditionally been regarded as German culture and then by detailing the extent to which foreigners exist in this quotidian milieu. It [End Page 321] will also examine the reception of Kaminer's portrayal of a multicultural Germany by critics and the general reading public.

Mein deutsches Dschungelbuch is, like most of Kaminer's other works, a collection of short stories. This volume includes thirty-eight pieces, some of which were also published individually in Die Zeit. The impetus for the work, as Kaminer describes it in the foreword, was the assertion by the author's friends that, in spite of residing in Germany for ten years, he was in fact not truly familiar with the country, since he spent that time in the multicultural haven of Berlin. They admonished: "Du kennst dieses Land doch überhaupt nicht, Berlin ist nicht Deutschland, und der Prenzlauer Berg erst recht nicht. Du hast keine Ahnung, was hier wirklich los ist" (7). Accordingly, Kaminer decided to seek the true Germany outside of the metropolis, in the small towns.

Kaminer's research into the topic consisted of observations during his many publicity trips around Germany to promote and read from his previous work, which one could argue is not a particularly scientific method to investigate what is truly German. He encounters mainly fellow travellers, those who come to his events, and Germans in the publishing and hospitality industries. The author himself acknowledges this fact: "Von den [...] gepriesenen deutschen Frauen habe ich dagegen viele persönlich kennen gelernt, daneben natürlich auch andere Bevölkerungsschichten [...], zum Beispiel deutsche Männer, deutsche Taxifahrer, deutsche Hotelangestellte, deutsche Bahnwächter und deutsche Buchhändler" (62). However, he is a satirist and not a social scientist, and his constant travelling does seem an appropriate backdrop for a book that has much to say about migrants and foreigners. It is also interesting that these "other" Germans are encountered in even the smallest towns.

Kaminer's designation of his collected essays as a Dschungelbuch is also significant, although the author makes light of this fact. In an interview with the Berliner Morgenpost, Kaminer at first rejects any connection between his work and Rudyard Kipling's original Jungle Book ("Russen lieben" par. 3). As the interviewers press him on the point, Kaminer laughingly accepts the association: "'Der Schwabe ist also nicht der lustige Bär Balu, der Bayer nicht die böse Schlange Ka ...' 'Und ich Mogli? Doch, so kann man es sehen. Hab' ich nichts dagegen'" (pars. 4–5). In the book itself, the author describes his project in the following manner: "Ich [...] arbeite an einem so genannten 'Deutschen Dschungelbuch,' einer Studie über das Land und die Menschen hier" (250).

Of course, the person who chose the appellation of...

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