They Wish Us to Hell

Though unloved, guest workers don't want to leave

FOREIGN MECHANIC, 36, GOOD-LOOKING, SEEKS WEST GERMAN GIRL TO

MARRY FOR MONEY; SUBSEQUENT LIVING TOGETHER NOT EXCLUDED.

FOREIGNER, 26, OFFERING GENUINE MARRIAGE OR IN NAME ONLY, FOR HANDSOME SUM.

Such advertisements have appeared regularly in West German newspapers in recent months. Bachelor Gastar-beiter (guest workers) are offering between $870 and $2,200 for frauleins to be their brides. So far, several hundred women are believed to have said I do to these marriages of convenience, bringing with them very valuable dowries: permanent residence and work permits for their husbands. With these documents, Gastarbeiter are almost certain of keeping their jobs in West Germany at a time when Bonn is attempting to reduce the number of foreigners working in the country.

In the boom years of West Germany's economic miracle, the Gastarbeiter (primarily from Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy and Spain) were welcomed by labor-hungry industries. Major reason: they willingly accepted menial jobs disdained by most West Germans. But since unemployment began to rise in late 1973, the foreigners have found themselves treated as excess baggage, even though most continue to hold jobs and gratefully work long hours. Bonn has barred German firms from hiring new Gastarbeiter from countries outside the European Community. (Common Market rules guarantee citizens of its member states freedom of movement within the Community.) The government has also imposed tough new conditions on the renewal of residence and work permits. As a result, the number of Gastarbeiter in West Germany has dropped from its 1973 peak of 2,595,000 to about 1.9 million (plus 2 million dependents).

Most of those remaining live crowded in urban slums. Nowhere is their plight more dismal than in West Berlin--a painful embarrassment for a city that proudly boasts of being the "window on the free West." After a tour of the foreign workers' quarters there, TIME Bonn Bureau Chief William Mader cabled this report:

To many West Berliners, their Greek and Turkish Gastarbeiter are "simpletons," "primitives" and "Dreckschweine" (filthy pigs). Italian and Spanish foreign workers seem to rate somewhat better treatment, probably because their lifestyles more closely resemble those of northern Europeans. Isolated and lonely strangers, West Berlin's 115,000 Turks have created miserable ghettos for themselves in Kreuzberg, Wedding and Neukolhi, the poorest sections of the city.

The rare West German who wanders into these neighborhoods may feel that he has somehow been transported to Anatolia.

The aroma of heavily spiced cooking wafts through the air. Mustached men in dark suits and cloth caps, answering to such names as Ali, Niyazi and Suleyman, hang about the local taverns. Their women, heads modestly covered with kerchiefs, are dressed in billowing pantaloons and long topcoats, even on hot summer days. Streets have informally been given Turkish names, and the shops purvey flat pita bread, mutton, sheep cheese and garlic instead of the Wurst, Bauernbrot (dark bread), veal and pigs' knuckles familiar in stores that serve a German clientele.

In crumbling, century-old buildings that still bear the ravages of World War II, the Gastarbeiter have crowded their families (often huge) into dilapidated apartments that lack private baths and toilets.

West Berlin officials have tried to limit the numbers of Gastarbeiter living in these squalid sections, but the Turks find it almost impossible to move. Explained a young Turkish woman in Neukolhi:

"When I telephoned to check about a vacant apartment in another neighborhood, the landlord hung up on me as soon as he heard that I was Turkish and had three children." The grim living conditions in the ghettos foster not only broken homes but also a climate of violence--murders, knifings and muggings.

There are about 12,000 school-age Turkish youngsters in West Berlin.

Language problems make it difficult for them to keep up with the work required by German schools, and an estimated 70% never complete their studies. Yet without the vital school "leaving certificate," they will find it almost impossible to get a job in a skilled trade, even as an apprentice. West German authorities have established special schools offering remedial courses, but few of the foreign youngsters attend; to do so invites ridicule from their peers. Somewhat more popular have been the few day nurseries, play centers and youth clubs opened by the Berlin government.

Despite the hardships of life in West Germany, most Gastarbeiter dread leaving because of the poor economic conditions in their home countries. Advertising for brides is one sign of their determination to remain. Conceded a Greek Putzfrau (charwoman) a bit exaggeratedly: "I know the West Germans wish us to hell, but we stick it out because at home we would barely have enough to eat." -

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