© Nihad Nino Pušija

Name: Karin H.
Mother tongue: German
Occupation: Psychologist, Cultural Scientist
My object: watering can from Uzbekistan
My story about it:

My European solidarity and identity
As member of a student construction unit I traveled to Tashkent/ Uzbekistan in 1982.
One day, our hosts invited us to a football match between Pachtakor Tashkent and Zenit Leningrad. There were about 25.000 spectators – 24.999 Uzbeks and a young away fan from Zenit in Leningrad, a student like us. We met him by chance in front of the stadium and promised him to spur on his team. This however, became dangerous. In the end, we had to be escorted out of the stadium by a double row of policemen. In the evening, we were asked to appear in front of a political assembly and had to explain ourselves, why we had not cheered for our host, Pachtakor Tashkent. Spontaneously, we answered: “Because we are from Europe!” I had never felt this way before.