Whether in TikTok videos, memes, on Instagram posts or on Jan Böhmermann's show, the Ausländeramt is currently experiencing an unprecedented pop cultural moment in Germany. 

For decades, the state institution, previously called the Ausländerbehörde, has been cruelly limiting the lives of non-German citizens and was largely out of the public eye. What had to happen for it to be catapulted into the German mainstream?

What significance does this state institution have for different people and communities in this country? And who has what to fear from it still?

In this conversation, مشترى هلال (Moshtari Hilal) and சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா (Sinthujan Varatharajah) will address the Ausländeramt from a cultural-historical perspective.

சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா (Sinthujan Varatharajah) is an essayist and political geographer living in Berlin. Their first book An Alle Orte, Die Hinter Uns Liegen was published by Hanser Verlag in September 2022.

مشترى هلال (Moshtari Hilal) is an artist, researcher and curator living in Hamburg. Her first book Hässlichkeit will be published by Hanser Verlag in the fall.

In October 2022 their first book, English in Berlin, was published by Wirklichkeit Books.