Madalena Sampaio
Dossier: Germany Multikulti – Integration at the Café
November 2010
Flavour and tradition: The galão (right) made in the Portuguese coffee bars and pastelarias is the “coolest” beverage in Hamburg
What makes a good galão?
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FOTOS: MADALENA SAMPAIO
trong, rich frothy coffee with steamed milk and extra foam. That is the formula used in the preparation of a good galão. But what makes the Portuguese “latte machiatto” made in Hamburg so special? It is prepared with more coffee (espresso) than in Portugal, where
the drink is served with no foam. In the café “A Transmontana”, for example, the galão is famous for its quality. At this place was born the idea to serve the coffee in a transparent glass mug, a trend that was immediately followed all over the city by many bars and restaurants. The galão
is recommended for those who appreciate a good coffee and want to stay away from the big coffee chains. A better price and a nice atmosphere complete the ingredients. To visit the “Portuguese neighbourhood” in the Internet, go to www.portugiesenviertel-hamburg.de
Integration at the coffee bar Galão culture: The success of the Portuguese cafés in the German city of Hamburg by Madalena Sampaio he order is always the same: “Ein Galão bitte” (one galão, please). In the vivid Schanzenviertel, one of the most famous neighbourhoods in Hamburg, this sentence surely is spoken more than any other one. Galão is the Portuguese word for coffee with milk. In the hanseatic city everybody knows it. It was served for the first time twenty years ago and never stopped conquering new fans. Whether in the morning or in the afternoon, the warm smell of coffee and the appealing cakes lined up in the glass vitrines are an invitation to get in. At the Portuguese “pastelarias” (patisseries), clients come and go all the time, wait in lines in order to get coffee and typical croissants, “pastéis de nata” (pudding cakes) or other specialties. Welcome to Hamburg, “the most Portuguese city in Germany”. While Berlin is the German capital for Turks, Hamburg, the second largest city, is the place with the biggest Portuguese community: almost 10.000 live here by the river Elbe. One of them is Emília Carvalho. The 52 year old is the owner of “A Transmontana”, surely the most famous Portuguese café in the Northern German city. Probably she can be named the mother of the galão boom here. “I didn’t expect such a success. It was outstanding”, confesses Emília Carvalho. She opened the place 21 years ago, in the center of Schanzenviertel, at
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Schulterblatt Street. “There are many street fights there, but we never had problems with them. We always lived together and they helped us by being our clients”, she adds. “A Transmontana” stood there alone for seven years, before the pastelarias boom. Slowly the galão trend spread all over the city and now even typical German places and Italian bars serve
The pioneer: Emília Carvalho started to serve the galão in her café 21 years ago and the trend keeps on
it. Others even added the Portuguese coffee to the menus just to attract more clients. “New cafés are opening all the time, but the first is like the first love. People might go, but they come back”, she explains.
PORTUGUESE IN GERMANY SOURCE: CENTRAL REGISTER OF FOREIGNERS
The place is open everyday and brings together all kind of people: doctors, actors, writers, journalists, artists or students. Many families go there on Sundays just to have breakfast together. “Here we are all the same, no matter the profession. That is what fascinates me the most”, says Emília, a good example of the integration of the Portuguese community. More than 90% of the cli-
There are around 114.500 people with Portuguese passports living in Germany. The majority lives in Hamburg (see main story). There has been a Portuguese Jewish community in the hanseatic city from about 1590, since the arrival of the first Sephardic (descendents from the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the late 15th century). In the 1960s, West Germany signed agreements with Portugal that allowed the recruitment of “Gastarbeiter” (guest workers) to work in the industrial sector. Since then, many Portuguese are in Germany for good.
ents are German. It’s like being home, many say (see box). Other nationalities also feel attracted by this atmosphere. “Galão is my favourite coffee. In Indonesia we also drink much coffee and here we can find the best one”, tells Miki, a 39 cook and a regular customer. “There are many coffee shops like bakeries, but they don’t sell coffee, it’s just dark water”, underlines his friend Hesram, 40, a construction ingenieur from the same country.
Happy integrated people There are more than 70 Portuguese coffee shops and “pastelarias” in Hamburg. Besides
Schanzenviertel, which is also called the “Galão Line” (Galaostrich), the “Portuguese neighbourhood” (Portugiesenviertel) born in the 1990s near the harbour is famous for attracting many tourists to the hanseatic city. The list of restaurants and coffee shops is long and is also part of the local marketing to promote the city. Another sign of this strong integration is the introduction of Portuguese products like galão and “pastéis de nata” in the local gastronomy. In many hotels in Hamburg the Portuguese little cakes are even served for breakfast and many cafés just cannot live without them anymore. The Portuguese community has a good reputation in Hamburg. Going back to the motherland is not part of the plans from the majority. “I feel integrated here. I don’t want to go back to Portugal, just for vacations. Since I have two kids I also need to think about the future”, says Madalena Gonçalves, a 33 year old from Lisbon living in Germany for 18 years. She cannot imagine changing the German health system for the Portuguese, for example. She also enjoys working at the coffee bars “Coffee & Cakes” e “Sul” in the Portugiesenviertel. “Germans love the Portuguese coffee and our croissants. Galão is the number one here”, says proudly Madalena, who speaks perfectly German and Portuguese. With three sons working in the family business (pastelarias chain “A Transmontana) and four grandchildren born in Germany, Emília Carvalho is also in Hamburg to stay. “I love living here because people are sociable and very honest”, she points out. Emília is in Hamburg for almost 30 years, but she doesn’t speak much German. Nevertheless, the communication with the clients is not a problem. “I
have my sons and my grandchildren, who speak German and Portuguese”, she justifies. She feels happy in her café, where everything started two decades ago. And can’t hide her feelings: “Once in a German soap opera someone ordered a galão. That was so emotional for me. It’s really a phenomenon!”, she says and turns around. The next customer is just coming in for another hot galão.
“EIN GALÃO BIT TE!” Why Germans love the coffee ■Ina Rothmann, 49, dresser: “I notice that the culture of drinking coffee in Germany is following trends. First it was capuccino, than coffee milk and nowadays everbody is drinking latte macchiato or galão. I simply drink what the other people drink too. It is really delicious.” ■Felix Schubert, 22 years, student: “I drink galão because it is not so strong as capuccino but it´s much more tasty than latte macchiato. On the other hand, I think that in Hamburg the galão culture is very special and that the Portuguese coffee has more tradition than the Italian or the Spanish. I do love it.” ■Sandra Beganovic, 35, teacher: “Galão is very delicious and here I can enjoy it in a very nice atmosphere. It´s like a little piece of home. I used to live here, but I moved to Berlin. I miss the Portuguese cafés and I come back whenever I can. Galão tastes really good, it’s not too big and it´s hot - just perfect!”