Okan Golge’s “charisma” makes him an important player on and off the field, according to Tom Maxon, the soccer head coach. “It is never quiet when Okan is around” is what Tobi Sadler, a classmate, says about the Morningside soccer player.
Golge is German, however, his roots are back in Turkey. Golge is the product of a very common migration phenomenon in Germany. After the Second World War, Turkish citizens migrated to Germany because they were in the need of workers. In 1961, 825,000 people were recruited from companies under the working agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and Turkey. Those people did not plan to stay but never left, in fact, their families migrated too and started a new life in Germany. The following generations now start to become German citizens and contribute to the multi-cultural German population.
Roughly 1.5 million Turkish citizens live in Germany, states a statistic from 2019. However a statistic from 2018 states that 3 million people in Germany have a migrational background from Turkey. Therefore almost 1.5 million people are just like Okan Golge, who are Germans on paper but with non typical German names.
A fun fact is that Golge’s last name means shadow in Turkish.
Okan also has a “high temper”, which is “typical” for the Turkish, is what Coach Maxon said about Golge. Coach Maxon has some sort of experience with the German-Turkish. Not only did he grow up in Germany during the time of the migration in the 1960s, next to Murat Turan and Okan Golge, Musa Aktuerk is his third German-Turkish payer in the past 4 years.
Work and a brighter future was the motivation for the Turkish to migrate to Germany in the 1960s. However, the German-Turkish relationship began back in the 11th century. The first alliance was established between the Holy Roman Empire and the Sultanate of Rum. The first military alliance between the Germans and Turkish, called the Germany-Ottoman alliance, was formed right before World War I in 1914. The Ottoman Empire at the time was at its downfall after the Balkan and Italo-Turkish Wars. A non aggression pact in World War II, the Treaty of Friendship, between the two countries was signed in 1941.
When looking at the German soccer national team, one may find an example of how diverse the German population really is. Players such as Mesut Oezil or Ilkay Guendogan share the same background like Golge and exemplify the ideal integration into our community.
“It is hard to imagine a world without them being around, if not for the Turkish people, we wouldn’t have the famous German-Turkish dish ‘Doener'” explains Noah Aniser, a student at Morningside.
