Suche Wohnung

Olingo
Emile Itolo, GDR 1966, 11 min., German with English subtitles

Black is Black
King Ampaw, FRG 1968, 12 min., German

Zum Thema Lektion 8 und 10: Ist die Wohnung noch frei?
Institut für Film und Bild in Wissenschaft und Unterricht (FWU), FRG 1977, 13 min., German

Followed by an input by Cihan Sinanoğlu (DeZIM / NaDiRa), Alexander Thom and Ezgi Özcan (Berlin Office for the Prevention of Discrimination in the Housing Market, Fair mieten – Fair wohnen)

When Emile Itolo moved to Berlin to study film at the Babelsberg Film School, and King Ampaw went to Munich to begin his studies at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF Munich), both encountered a housing market shaped by exclusion and racism. They processed these experiences in their short films Olingo (1966) and Black Is Black (1968) – testimonies to a social reality that persists to this day.

Starting from these films, in which Itolo and Ampaw critically reflect on their experiences and document the realities faced by migrants in their search for housing in West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, we draw a line to the present and ask: What forms of discrimination continue to shape the housing market today, and how can they be challenged?

Housing is a human right and, in principle, applies equally to everyone. Yet the social reality of the German housing market continues to tell a different story. The NaDiRa Monitoring Report (2025) shows that discrimination and racial inequality persist: racially marked groups face lower chances of accessing housing, are more likely to live in overcrowded or overpriced apartments, and are disproportionately affected by environmental and infrastructural disadvantages. Housing in Germany is still far from equal.

Cihan Sinanoğlu from the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM) will present the findings of the latest NaDiRa monitoring report and provide insights into the current mechanisms of discrimination in the housing market.

The Berlin Office for the Prevention of Discrimination in the Housing Market, Fair mieten – Fair wohnen, run by asum GmbH in cooperation with the Turkish Union in Berlin-Brandenburg, offers insights into lived experiences of discrimination, informal practices in the rental market, and possible avenues for change. In a short presentation, the team will share key findings from their counselling work.

Afterwards, the conversation moves on to the foyer, where questions and support services can be discussed and experiences exchanged. By collecting different perspectives, we hope to explore ways of navigating Berlin’s housing market more successfully despite ongoing inequalities.

The event will be held in German. For participation, a fee of €3 is charged.

OLINGO – Digitization and Restoration by Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, supported by the Film Heritage funding program, financed by BKM, Länder and FFA