A Younger Europe Today

07.12.2006: BBC, World Service

For one week Europe Today invited students from Berlin and Warsaw to guest edit. They have chosen some of the programme's agenda as part of the BBC's Generation Next series, a week of special programmes designed to look at the world through the eyes of its two billion under 18s. They have decided the issues, and we have worked with them to put together the material you will hear.

Berlin

Identity

Our first editors came from Berlin, their school is in Kreuzberg, an area situated right next to where the Berlin Wall once stood. The area is known as "Little Istanbul" because of the large numbers of people with immigrant backgrounds who live there. The Robert Koch school has 682 students and 620 are from non-German families, mainly Turkish.

Students vs the Politician

This issue of identity is one which faces all generations living in the Kreuzberg area. Some of the other students at the Robert Koch school sat down with a green party politician to quiz him about his identity and how he feels about Germany. Özcan Mutlu was born in Turkey but came to Berlin as a child. He graduated as an engineer in 1993 and in 1999 he was elected to represent Kreuzberg in Berlin House of Representatives. He calls himself a Kreuzberger. Here's what happened when he met the students...

Students vs the Politician (click the link below to listen)

Kreuzberg

To get a better feel for what Kreuzberg is really like, one your classmates took us on a tour. (click the following link to listen)

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/europetoday/news/story/2006/12/061207_gen_next.shtml