1956 Born in a small village near Ha Tinh
She still lives today in the house in which she was born.
1987 Leaves for Mühlhausen, near Erfurt
1993 Returns to her native village
Her son would like to go to Germany, and is learning German with a neighbor who likewise has spent time in Germany.

1988 Leave together for Rudolstadt, near Gera
They had met earlier in Vietnam. In the GDR they worked in the same spinning works but regulations stipulated they should live apart, in separate dormitories.
1996 Returns again to Ha Tinh
The couple has two children, and still finds it very difficult to survive in Vietnam.

1982 Born in Tho Ha in Bac Ninh Province
2000 Leaves for Nordhausen
His mother had lived in Thuringia since 1988, and set up her own small textile business in 1991. After two years in school, Minh was able to study architecture at the Bauhaus University in Weimar.
2008 Returns to Hanoi
It is very difficult for a Vietnamese architect to establish himself freelance in Germany. Minh reckons he stands a better chance in Vietnam. Innovation and quality count for less there than in Germany, however, which he thinks is a major drawback.

1968 Born in Hué
1986 Leaves for Erfurt
While training in the clothing industry, Diep lived with an elderly couple who soon became like a grandmother and grandfather to her. Until the turnaround she worked as a secretary and translator.
1990 Returns to Hué
Diep bought a house with the compensation she had received upon leaving Germany, and now rents it out to a French bakery. She runs a gallery and writes poetry, some of which has been published.

1952 Born in Hué
1977 Leaves for Magdeburg
The train journey from Hué to Magdeburg was incredibly long.
1985 Returns to Hué
On the bus journey from Hanoi to Hué, he met the woman who is now his wife.
1987 Leaves again for Magdeburg
1991 Returns again to Hué
It was above all to please his wife that he returned home, for she was very afraid that war might break out after the turnaround in Germany.

1969 Born in Hué
1991 Leaves for Munich
In the thirteen years he spent in southern Germany, Hoa worked in more than twenty-five different restaurants.
2004 Returns to Hué
Hoa was embarrassed to return home without money, but he returned voluntarily. Thanks to his fluent German he can work now as a tour guide, despite his lack of formal training. He married in Hué, and is looking forward to soon becoming a father.

1962 Born in Ha Tinh
1998 Leaves for Dresden
Khoa entered Germany illegal via the Czech Republic, and then struggled for many years to obtain a residence permit.
2001 Returns to Ha Tinh
His daughter was six years old when he left Vietnam. By the time he returned she was nine, and barely recognized him. He now sells sanitary equipment, makes more money than he did in Germany, and feels no desire at all to leave his native country.

1941 Born in Van Xuyen in Bac Giang District
1955 Leaves for Moritzburg
He studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University.
1970 Returns again to Hanoi
Phuc chose to pursue his career as a mechanical engineer in Vietnam. Seven years later, under difficult circumstances, he began to work for the Vietnamese Writers’ Union. He has since then translated several German authors into Vietnamese — Böll, Goethe, Heine, Hesse, Hoffmann, Nietzsche, Schiller, and Seghers, among others. He worked for ten years on the official translation of “Faust”.

1977 Born in Hué
2003 Leaves for Bonn
As soon as he arrived in Germany he took a language course, so as to be able to study later at the Technical University (TU) in Dortmund.
2005 Returns to Hué
Phu immediately landed a good job at the Institute of International Relations.

1989 Born in Hanoi
1991 Leaves for Wolfsburg
Nhung spent her childhood in German preschool and elementary school. Her mother constantly worried that her daughter might never learn correct Vietnamese.
1998 Returns to Hanoi
Nhung still senses how different she is from her Vietnamese friends in Hanoi. For her, that means she is too gullible, too independent, too much of a go-getter, and also that she thinks too much, says what she thinks too bluntly, and does what she likes.

1951 Born in Kim Thu, in Ha Tay District
1974 Leaves for Magdeburg
Mo was able to study civil engineering in the GDR.
1987 Leaves again for Magdeburg
He worked as an interpreter, and sent gifts home so as to improve his family’s situation a little.
1990 Returns again to Hanoi
He was unemployed for three years following his return.
He learned English in those years and now, thanks to his language skills, his professional life is going very well.

1960 Is born in Hué
1982 Leaves for Berlin
Hoai worked for six years in a lamp factory in Berlin-Hohen-schönhausen. She met a Vietnamese there, whom she later married.
1988 Returns to Hué
Hoai had to return to Vietnam when she became pregnant, as the treaties Vietnam and the GDR had signed on contract labor strictly forbade Vietnamese to become pregnant while abroad. Her husband promised to bring her back to Berlin the following year but it never came to that. Five years later, they were divorced.
Since 2002 their daughter has lived with her father in Berlin, where he manages several Vietnamese restaurants. Hoai remarried in 1993.

1960 Born in Hué
1982 Leaves for Berlin
Hoai worked for six years in a lamp factory. She met a Vietnamese there, whom she later married.
1988 Returns to Hué
Hoai had to return to Vietnam when she became pregnant, as the treaties Vietnam and the GDR had signed on contract labor strictly forbade Vietnamese to become pregnant while abroad. Her husband promised to bring her back to Berlin but it never came to that. Five years later, they were divorced.

1949 Born in Vinh
1967 Leaves for Magdeburg
His father was in the army, and Loan had finished school with good grades: reasons for him to be allowed to study abroad. He didn’t know until he left however, which country he would be going to.
1990 Returns again to Vinh
After the turnaround he no longer wanted to stay in Germany.
He is now again working as an interpreter, this time for a German development aid organization.

1959 Born in Ha Tinh
1988 Leaves for Karl Marx City (now Chemnitz)
Tuyet worked as a seamstress in the GDR. She was among the few who chose not to return to Vietnam after the turnaround. She felt hopeful of better prospects in Germany than in her native land. She moved to Berlin, and sold clothing and cigarettes.
1993 Returns to Ha Tinh
She was afraid of the German men who wanted to marry her — and of the police who had caught her selling cigarettes. It seemed better to return to Vietnam than to see her savings confiscated.

1974 Born in Nam Dinh
1998 Leaves for Dresden
Thong helped out for many years in his brother’s grocery store. He grew very fond of all the older people in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to study at the Technical University of Dresden, nor could he obtain a residence permit.
2003 Returns to Hanoi
Thong wanted more than to work in a store forever. He therefore returned to Vietnam, studied at the University of Fine Arts, and wrote his graduation thesis on Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and the art movement “Die Brücke.” He is now a successful art theorist and art critic.