Medium-format colour photographs depict an abandoned dormitory on Rhinstrasse in the East Berlin district of Lichtenberg, once home to former Vietnamese contract workers both before and after German reunification.
This place holds special meaning for me. In the mid-1990s, I volunteered with Reistrommel e.V., a local nonprofit founded by Tamara Hentschel to support Vietnamese people living in the area, many of whom were former East German contract workers. When I first visited Reistrommel, then located on Rhinstrasse, I was struck by the vibrant concentration of Vietnamese families—the sounds and smells of cooking drifting from communal kitchens, and the lively gatherings in the central courtyard of the East German apartment block. People socialized, sold home-cooked meals and refreshments, and occasionally traded contraband cigarettes, which led to periodic police raids.
When I returned in 1999, the apartment complex had been abandoned. Many of the Vietnamese residents had moved into their own apartments, focusing on building their lives, raising families, or had returned to Vietnam or relocated elsewhere. Seeing the traces of their lives etched into the walls of the abandoned building stirred vivid memories of that earlier time.
Photos produced in collaboration with Michael Weihrauch.
