About the Book
Cross-Border Interactions and Encounters between Germany and Korea offers a rich, interdisciplinary examination of the evolving relationships between Korea and Germany, illuminating a dynamic yet often overlooked field of study.
Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplines, the volume traces how migration, cultural exchange, and intellectual transfer have produced layered and shifting forms of connection between the two contexts.
Across three thematically organized sections, the book moves from lived experience to cultural production to institutional and discursive representation. The first part examines Korean migration in Germany, highlighting how diasporic identities are negotiated through race, family life, labor, and entrepreneurship, and how new migratory patterns are reshaping established Korean communities. The second part turns to cultural interactions, exploring how artistic practices, ethnographic collections, and translation mediate and transform understandings of “Korean culture” in German contexts and beyond. The final section investigates representation in media and academia, analyzing how ideas, historical events, and scholarly traditions are interpreted, contested, and institutionalized across national borders.
Taken together, these contributions reveal cross-border exchange not as a linear process of influence, but as a multidirectional field of encounters shaped by power, memory, creativity, and negotiation. By foregrounding both historical depth and contemporary developments, the volume offers new insight into how transnational relationships are produced and reimagined over time.
In doing so, it not only advances Korean–German studies but also demonstrates why examining such entangled, transnational dynamics is essential for understanding cultural globalization in a more nuanced and grounded way.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction by Yonson Ahn and Jihye Kim
Part I: Korean Migration in Germany
Chapter 1. Challenging “Other-ness” in Berlin: German Koreans, Multi-raciality, and Diasporic Resources by Helen Kim
Chapter 2. Mothering Practices of Korean Healthcare Workers in Germany by Yonson Ahn
Chapter 3. Korean Newcomers in Germany: The Changing Sociodemographics of Korean Immigrants by Jaok Kwon
Chapter 4. Recent Immigration and Self-Employment: Motivations and Factors in the Rise of Korean Restaurants in Frankfurt by Jihye Kim
Part II: Cultural Interactions
Chapter 5. P'ansori in Germany: Korean Singing-Storytelling, from Representation of Culture to Creative Collaboration by Jan Creutzenberg
Chapter 6. Ethnographic Collecting and Transculturally Shaped Images of Korean Culture in Germany Towards the End of the Choson Dynasty by Katharina Süberkrüb
Chapter 7. Translation as Cultural Transfer between Korean and German by Yuri Ko
Part III: Representation in Media and Academia
PART III: REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA AND ACADEMIA
Chapter 8: Discursive Conflicts in the Transfer of Ideas and Institutions across Borders: Narratives of the “German Model” in South Korean Media by Jin-Wook Shin and Boyeong Jeong
Chapter 9: German Diplomats' and Journalists' Perspectives on the April Revolution in South Korea by Hannes B. Mosler
Chapter 10: Initiating German Korean Studies in Context: 1930s,the GDR, and the FRG by Yvonne Schulz Zinda
Chapter 11: The History of German Language and Literature Studies in South Korea: A Female Philologist's Personal Perspective by Yonsuk Chae
Index
About the Contributors
About the Author :
Yonson Ahn is professor, chair of Korean Studies at the Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany.
Jihye Kim is lecturer in Korean Studies at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK.
Review :
“Commemorating the 140th anniversary of Germany-Korea diplomatic ties, this pioneering collection fills a central gap in both German and Korean studies. This insightful work reaches far beyond the customary focus on economics, high politics, and history to delve into interactions, representations, migration, mobility, cultural exchanges, and, notably, the influence on the German-Korean relationship exerted by 'otherness' portrayals across media, art, migration and academia. The book interweaves the micro-context of Koreans' lives in Germany with macro-interdisciplinary perspectives, including gender, intersectionality, and cultural representation. This approach sheds light on the repercussions of eurocentrism, colonialism, and Western discourses in their shared history. A must-read for those seeking insights into German-Korean relations, this book is likely to become an invaluable resource for students, policymakers, regional experts, and enthusiasts intrigued by the interplay of changing cultures and ideas.”
“This book unravels the multifaceted exchanges and representations of Germany and (South) Korea from different academic disciplines. It explores an impressive breadth of themes including migration, media discourses, art, literature, translation, and education. The contributions help to deepen our understanding about sociological, political, historical, and linguistic phenomena and developments. The chapters shed light on various topics that not only enrich the scholarly debate, but also provide to readers an excellent overview on the rich body of multidisciplinary research within Korean studies and in the broader context of German-Korean relations. Moreover, the contributions foster intercultural understanding between the societies of Germany and Korea. All this makes the book a very informative, inspiring, and quite comprehensive read for everyone interested in the topic.”
