The family of Christos and Evangelia Chardaloupa, Greek immigrants in Munich, 1962-1975

Christos Chardaloupas was born in 1932 in Platanos Almyrou in the prefecture of Magnisia. His wife, Evangelia Kariotou, was born in 1936 in Omvriaki Domokou in the prefecture of Fthiotida. They grew up in their birthplaces, but later both their families moved to Volos. That’s where the couple met, got together, and eventually got married. Due to rising unemployment and financial difficulties, they decided to migrate to Germany. Even though they didn’t have a support network there, they migrated to Munich in 1962, intending to only stay in Germany for a short period of time. They didn’t encounter any particular problems when gathering all the necessary travel and migration documents and were deemed eligible to work. The couple left Greece alone; no friends or relatives migrated with them. Sadness and grief cast a pall on their departure, and these feelings were only compounded upon their arrival in Germany, where they experienced the loneliness and alienation which came with missing all the loved ones they had left behind.

No one was waiting for them at the Munich train station and they first stayed at the dormitories of the Siemens factory, which were divided by gender. Even married couples had to live separately. The main obstacle at first was communication since they didn’t speak the language. ‘They had difficulty learning the language. My mother used to tell me that she would sit in the tram, listen to each stop announcement and take it down in her notebook. That’s how she learned her first German words all by herself’, says Giochanna Chardaloupa, the couple’s first daughter who was born in Munich in 1965. After staying in the dormitories for a while, Christos and Evangelia moved to an apartment, sharing their kitchen and bathroom with another Greek immigrant couple. Their native German neighbours treated them with caution and were distant at first. ‘Just until they got to know them, then they would often invite them over’, explains Giochanna.

Soon, relatives from Greece arrived in Munich looking for employment: Christos’ siblings and Evangelia’s brother, who rented a room in the building where she and her family were living. Her husband’s siblings also found accommodation near their home, so on the weekends they would all get together and have fun. Giochanna still remembers the neighbourhood where she spent her childhood:

‘It was a typical city neighbourhood. The apartment building was old and didn’t have an elevator, just large stairs and a window between the floors. We lived on the 2^nd or 3^rd floor. There were two apartments on every floor and an inner courtyard that had monkey bars. I remember this clearly because that’s where I fell and broke my arm for the first time! Our house was near the river that runs through Munich. On weekends, we would walk along the river with my father and I would roller skate’.    

After a while, probably after the end of his initial contract, Christos Chardaloupas changed jobs in search of higher wages, and for the rest of his years in Munich he worked in construction as a welder. Evangelia also left the factory and did various jobs. According to her daughter, Giochanna:

‘Our mother worked as an ironer for a large hotel, then a cleaner at a company’s offices, and finally at a knitwear factory’.

The family led a decent life on the parents’ wages and managed to save enough to also go on trips and do some travelling. However, everyday life must have been hard and tiring for the couple. On the weekends, they would have fun with their Greek immigrant friends and relatives, but also with Germans who invited them into their homes.

Giochanna was born in 1965 and stayed in Munich with her family until 1975, when her parents decided that after thirteen years, a lot longer than their original plan, it was time to return home. Her first memories from her life in Munich are linked with her school, the place where she spent most of her day:

 ‘I remember very vividly the Greek school in Munich. It was housed in the building of a German school. Everything was really nice, clean and orderly. I remember fondly the teacher I had in the first and again in the fourth grade. It was difficult to develop friendships with our classmates because they all lived in different parts of the city. We could get together and talk only during the long recess and towards the end of the school day, before we left!’

The decision to return was made in 1975 and coincides with the birth of the family’s second daughter, Konstantina, who was also born in Munich, but had resettled in Greece by the end of the year with the rest of her family.

‘My sister’s birth was the reason for our repatriation. I guess our mother pushed for it. I remember packing up our things, loading the car and that was it!’

Repatriation and resettlement in Volos were nothing like what young Giochanna had imagined. She had been excited to see her parents’ homeland which she only knew through stories and photos. However, when she arrived at her parents’ birthplace, she felt, if not ‘foreign’, definitely ‘different’, as reflected by the incident she describes on her first day at her new school:

 ‘[I faced difficulties] From the get go! I will never forget my first day at the Greek school!!! Unfortunately, we returned to Volos at the beginning of September and my mother had had no time to buy me a school uniform!!! She sent me to school in trousers!!! ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE! A teacher started shouting at me and calling me names right there in front of everyone standing in line. I didn’t even know why! When I got home, the first thing I said was: “I want us to go back now!!!”’

Oral interview of Giochanna Chardaloupa, conducted on 8.7.2022.

*Giochanna Chardaloupa works as a German teacher in secondary education.