On Monday, Federal President Steinmeier will fly to Istanbul on a state visit. On board: Berlin snack bar operator Arif Keles and a shock-forged kebab skewer. This is not a joke, but a bow.
Morning in Berlin-Schöneberg. The usual traffic rushes under the rusty bridges on Yorckstrasse, passers-by rush from subway to S-Bahn to hardware store and back, past a small house with an extension. “Hisar Fresh Food” is written in squiggly writing above the canopy. The shutters open with a loud rattling noise. A man wearing a white chef’s jacket steps outside. Arif Keles, born 38 years ago in Berlin, is the third generation to run a kebab shop here, strategically well located.
His phone rings, it’s ringing a lot at the moment. The correspondent from the Turkish news agency Anadolu was just there, now here he comes star, and prime time for the kebab business is about to begin: the lunch break. Arif Keles still serves a cup of black tea in a friendly, calm manner. “So,” he then says, “what do you want to know?”
Mr. Keles, on Monday you will fly with the Federal President on a three-day state visit to the Türkiye. How did that happen?
The head of the Federal President’s Office called me, he wanted to come over for a coffee and told me about the idea of taking me on the state visit. I just thought: What an honor!
There are 1600 kebab shops in alone Berlin, the kebab capital. No offense intended, but: Why you of all people?
The trip is also about the guest worker story. I think it’s very good that the Federal President thought of us. My grandpa opened the first kebab stand right here in a trailer container in 1986, when I was one year old. I spent my childhood here in the store. Everyone had to help, but it was fun. In 2005 I took over the business, took out a loan and built a real shop. Nothing else was an option for me. In the third generation you can’t give up what you’ve built as a family. Maybe that’s the reason for the invitation.
It could also be that football professional Antonio Rüdiger is to blame?
Yes, perhaps. Toni is not a customer, he is a friend. As a teenager, he often came over after training to eat a kebab. In 2016 he brought a few guys from the national team with him; they were at the training camp. And last year after the game against Turkey, the entire national team was my guest.
Now you are entertaining the Federal President. There will be a reception at the embassy residence in Istanbul on Monday. There you will serve your Berlin kebab. Do you know the saying: carry owls to Athens? Isn’t that similar?
That’s a misunderstanding: There is no kebab in Turkey like the one we make here in Berlin. That is exactly the idea of this gesture: that the descendants of the Turkish guest workers who came to Germany 40 or 50 years ago are now serving Berlin kebab in Istanbul. The skewer is already ready, flash-frozen, and on Monday it will fly with me to Turkey on the Federal President’s plane. Of course the sauces too.
In 1972, the kebab is said to have been invented around the corner in Berlin-Kreuzberg by the Turkish guest worker Kadir Nurman. What else is German about the kebab?
The sauce, for example. Of course, grilled meat skewers have been around in Turkey for centuries, but they were only ever available as a dish with rice and vegetables. The guest workers have developed this further here in Germany. They put the meat in a piece of flatbread with salad and sauce – quickly, quickly, they didn’t have much time during their lunch break. They had discovered a real gap in the market. Today the kebab is the most popular fast food in Germany. An entire industry has emerged around it.
Back to kebab diplomacy: A state visit is not just about food, but also about politics.
Not for me.
For example, you could explain to the Federal President why so many German-Turks voted for Recep Erdoğan? Or make the Turkish president aware of the German perspective on him?
No, no, I was born and grew up here in Germany. I go to Turkey three or four times a year to visit friends and relatives, but I don’t live there.
How annoying does it actually bother you that Germans only understand kebab when it comes to Turkish culture?
Yes, of course that’s annoying. But what bothers me more is the lack of appreciation for the kebab. There’s so much work behind it. The salad has to be washed, chopped, the sauces, the meat, the bread – but when people look at the price, it is still too expensive for some people.
On average, a kebab in Berlin currently costs 7.50 euros.
I still offer the kebab for 6.50 euros, but we will probably have to increase the price too. Everything has become more expensive. I used to buy a kilo of kebab meat for 5.50 euros, now I have to pay 8.50 euros. The price of bread has doubled, vegetables even more. Energy, rent, minimum wage – everything has increased.
Some people are already talking about “kebab inflation”.
A burger or a pizza costs a lot more, so no one complains.
Wherever the Chancellor appears, young people are demanding that he introduce a “kebab price cap”. Good idea?
Well, then we can close it straight away. Believe me, we kebab sellers have it hard enough as it is. For example, it is becoming increasingly difficult for us to have offspring.
This is the case in all industries.
Yes, but for us there is a special reason. In the past, there were simply offspring automatically because there were always family reunifications from Turkey due to weddings. And because many of them couldn’t speak German, their only option was to work in the family business. But who wants to work in a kebab shop today?