,,Субота на банхофу“: Свакодневица југословенских радника на „привременом раду“ у СР Нeмачкој и Аустрији
«Saturday at the Bahnhof» : Everyday Life of Yugoslavs «temporarily employed» in FR Germany and Austria

Summary/Abstract: Based on the fact that in 1971 there were 671 thousand Yugoslavs «temporarily em-ployed» abroad, and backed by the archival records, oral history interviews, press and literature, this paper discusses less known segments of this phenomenon: lodging and free time. Workers who left for Austria and FR Germany, had no private life in the beginning, because they stayed at homes for foreigners or shared private flats or even beds. Only later did the workers consider renting, but then they were exposed to discrimination, since they did not speak the language nor there were no appropriate services to protect them. Since there was no privacy in the shared dwellings, free time was spent mostly outdoors. Places of special significance for them were pubs and city railway stations, places where each worker encountered the «wide world» for the first time, and returning there meant reactivation of a trauma. Those were also the places where news could be heard, mail or money be sent home, and it was an unoffical job market. By bringing families along, structure of free time changed, so the Gastarbeiters (guest workers) started spending more time in the parks and in the open.

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