Abstract:

During this summer's UEFA Euro 2008, some football fans were interviewed after Turkey lost a semi-final match against Germany. They were Germans of Turkish origin and could hardly contain their anger against Germany at Turkey losing understandably, since Turkey had played the better game. But when asked at the end of the interview whom they would now support in the final, they shouted without hesitation: Deutschland! In our paper and presentation we take a fresh look at multi-cultural identities. We explore what it means to be 'Deutschtrk' (or Turkisch-Deutsch), how cross-cultural identities are formed and what this means for research and marketing. We show how through the combination of two cultures, a new third culture emerges which is in many respects very different to the 'origin cultures' and how this can lead to cultural complications and misunderstandings. In preparation for the paper, we have conducted an extensive piece of research with first and second generation Turks living in Germany using a community based approach combining Focus Blogs and Groups. The research was conducted before Euro 2008 but during the tournament we could predict that there would not be any serious conflicts during and after the match between Germany and Turkey! In our paper we will explain why.