Semra Ertan was born on 31 May 1956, in Mersin, Turkey. She was the daughter of Gani Bilir and Vehbiye Bilir, who lived in Kiel and Hamburg as foreign workers. She moved to Germany at the age of 15, with her sisters following a little later. In addition to working as an interpreter, she wrote more than 350 poems and political satires. Devoted to lyricism, one of her most notable poems, "Mein Name ist Ausländer", was published in Turkish school books. She also published books in Germany regarding the "emotional and physical effects that loneliness, deprivation, and alienation have on immigrants". A few days before her 26th birthday, Ertan called the broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk to announce she would be committing suicide by self-immolation. She explained her motive as a response to growing xenophobia in Germany. The public self-immolation occurred in the early morning hours at the intersection of Simon-von-Utrecht-Strasse and Detlef-Bremer-Straße in Hamburg's St. Pauli quarter. Ertan doused herself with of gasoline that she had purchased at a petrol station that morning and ignited it. Coincidentally, a police unit was marching past the marketplace at the time and attempted to smother the flames with blankets. However, Erten died in hospital due to extensive burns. Ertan's perception of increasing xenophobia was confirmed by statistical data and sociological studies. In November 1978, 39% of Germans demanded that foreigners return to their home countries, while two months before Ertan's death, 68% of West Germans were of this opinion. In addition, violence against foreigners in 1982 was no longer an isolated phenomenon. Furthermore, foreigners were increasingly excluded from social life in the country, and contact with them by the Germans was avoided to the extent possible. With unemployment and housing shortages in Germany, migrant workers were increasingly seen by Germans as competitors to the workplace and living space.
Legacy
German novelist Sten Nadolny credited the genesis of his 1990 novel Selim oder Die Gabe der Rede to Ertan's suicide. The novel's protagonist, Ayse, is a fictionalized version of Ertan. German investigative journalistGünter Wallraff dedicated his 1985 book :de:Ganz unten|Ganz unten, which examined his experience posing as a Turkish guest worker in Germany, inter alia, to Semra Ertan. Semra Ertan, a 2013 documentary produced by Cana Bilir-Meier, screened at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and received the Innovative Film Award at the YOUKI International Youth Media Festival Austria.
