Berichte von der "bauštela duha": die kroatische katholische Mission in Berlin zwischen Seelsorge und Identitätsstiftung

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to ongoing endeavors to investigate organisations by and for working migrants in Germany. It particularly focuses on the Croatian Catholic Mission in West Berlin (HKMB), intending to help further illuminating its work as well as its goals from the late 1960s until the early 1980s. Departing from the assumption that all forms of group belonging are necessarily situational and contextual, identity politics as pursued by the mission shall be scrutinized. Furthermore, the paper investigates fractions and continuities regarding their representation paying close attention to temporal and spatial aspects. The author argues that from the late 1970s onwards the HKMB increasingly sought to articulate something that will be referred to as “Croatian identity in Berlin”. This development has to be understood against the background of both the demographic situation in Berlin as well as of concurrent efforts of the Yugoslav state to address “its” citizens abroad.