Young People’s Agency and the Production of Knowledge in Migration Processes: The Federal Republic of Germany after 1945

I n 1973, two events took place inGermany that atfirst glance appeared to have nothing in common but whose wider consequences in subsequent years brought them closer together. The first was a recruitment stop. The continuous migration of workers from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey to the Federal Republic since the 1950s, regulated by bilateral state treaties, was declared at an end, and the active recruitment of such labor was halted. At the same time, the families of labor migrants already in Germany were permitted to join them. In this way, the recruitment stophad anunintended but lasting effect. A large number of women, children, and young people came to Germany, and many families began to make the country their permanent home. The year 1973 also saw the establishment of a history contest for children and youth in school, the German Federal President’s History Competition, organized by the Hamburg-based Körber Foundation. The original idea was “to try out new forms of teaching, above all in order to foster the pupils’ own initiative.” The first calls for submissions focused on standard topics in German political history