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cabarets, and film studios. The impressive rebuilding of Berlin following the misery of
post-war years also attracted workers from East European countries who came looking
for better job opportunities. In fact, one of Berlin’s most densely-populated and colorful
districts (Kreuzberg, often nicknamed ‘Little Istanbul’ because of a strong Turkish
concentration) was known at the turn of the century as the Easterners’ neighborhood. But
despite the presence of foreigners in Berlin from the Huguenots to the Jews to Bohemian
Protestants to the Polish and eastern German migrants, Berliners have not always been
very welcoming to newcomers, particularly with those who are racially different (Richie,
1998). Currently, about 440,247 immigrants, representing 184 countries, call Berlin home
(13% of the city’s total population). Almost one-quarter are under 18 and more than 60
percent of legally registered foreigners under 18 were born in Germany, a phenomenon
German officials prefer to call "immigration by birth."
Radio MultiKulti came, therefore, as an answer to this ever-changing social
structure. The purpose of its multicultural program was (and still is), as summarized here
by the radio’s Director, Friedrich Voss,
…to pursue three goals: Firstly, it was to offer a forum for ethnic
communities to retain and secure their identities, secondly, it was
to provide extensive information on Berlin as a center of vital
interest, offering services and guidance, and thirdly, it was to
further better integration, which for the ethnic communities meant:
sustaining as much as possible and giving up as much as necessary
of their originality. It was not going to be a melting pot, but rather
a salad bowl. (Voss, 2000: 3).
There are signs, however, the salad bowl is not a preferred outcome for the
country’s conservative party (CDU), whose parliamentary leader, Friedrich Merz, has
recently sparked a heated debate by laying out the details of what he termed ‘Leitkultur
Convention