Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen - Genres

The neglected diversity of immigrant gardens in Germany - examples from Bonn
soldiers founded families here, on the other side of the Alps, and not all German
slaves returned to the North after being released. Both sides adopted and integrated
elements and crops of the foreign culture into their own cultural system. The same
process is happening thousands of years later: the Italian preferences for special
vegetables of American origin are well known, as the examples of peppers, tomatoes
and zucchini illustrate. Italian restaurants exist in all parts of the world now.
After World War II, the reestablishment of the economy of the destroyed and divided
Germany was achieved with the help of guest-workers from many different countries.
Germany planned to host them for a couple of years - as long as their own population
was too low. Many of these guest-workers preferred to stay in Germany afterwards,
for a longer period or permanently. They took their families, wives and children with
them and feel at home here now. They go back to their home countries as visitors
and guests during vacation and holidays, some of them several times per year.
Religion and culture are also influenced this way. The communication between the
German population and the immigrants increases from generation to generation, and
many children speak their mother tongue as well as German fluently. At the very
beginning, the German market did not provide special food, clothing, etc. for the
cultural demands of the immigrants. Thus, they started to produce these things
themselves as far as possible or to get them via exchange with family members
remaining in the respective country of origin.
However, immigrant groups started to provide these things for themselves very soon,
and there are more and more Germans now accepting the broader and more
colourful products offered by immigrant traders. There are many different regions of
the world and many nationalities represented in the city of Bonn, for instance.
Eastern and western European immigrants dominate, followed by those from western
and southern Asia and northern Africa. Persons from the Americas and Africa were
not the focus of the present studies. Many people come e.g. from Turkey, Palestine,
Morocco, Italy, Romania and from the former Soviet Union.
Garden and plant uses
In the example of the southern border of the former German capital of Bonn, gardens
of immigrant families were visited to talk with the people and were checked focussing
on typical and especially rare and less-known cultivated plants (GLADIS 1999). The
cultural differences between German and foreign people in neighbourhoods are
obvious. Within the town, representative and ornamental gardens dominate but at the
border, where more immigrant families live, more and more gardens are used to
produce vegetables, fruits, spices, and as a place to relax and spend leisure time.
Many of the immigrant families, some of whom originate from countries in the centres
of genetic diversity for particular crops, described by VAVILOV (1926), prefer to spend
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