German-Turkish cultural asset
After 30 years the creator of the “Dönermannes” was tracked down
A small order became cult: the kebab logo with the thick man is emblazoned on bags and T-shirts. Only who took the picture that not only knows all of Germany?
Everyone knows the “Dönermann”, which adorns countless napkins, in which the delicious kebab skewer salad mixture “with everything” is in a flatbread. But nobody knew who had created the full gentleman with a mustache, spit and stab knife. Amazing, because someone must have invented the logo. But the Creator stayed in the background and earned nothing with the millions of copies.
Dönermann was created from a template
For three years, from 2021 to 2025, the research took before the ARD podcast “Obsessed: Doner Papers” by journalist and author Aylin Doğan presented the author. The logo had little beginnings. It was created almost 30 years ago as a order for a Turkish restaurant by Mehmet Unay. The German-Turkish graphic artist is now retired, at that time he worked for a Turkish travel company. He also accepted orders from the Turkish community.
He didn’t think that his “Dönermann” would get out so big. It was a small order with a low budget. So Unay tackled the task routinely. He took a cooking of a cook from a catalog, replaced the rolled roast with a kebab skewer and added the long scrapeter. He needed an hour for his “kebab man”. The lettering “Döner Kebab” was later added.
This was the story for Unay. When the “Dönermann” reached cult status, he did not speak publicly. This was because he did not see the logo as individual creation, since he had only “donated” one template. Others who had nothing to do with the project complained to themselves and registered trademark rights. The ARD Podcast team is now certain that Unay’s exact memories confirmed it as a creator.
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Symbol of German-Turkish culture
The logo has now become a symbol of German-Turkish culture and the integration of Turkish immigrants in Germany. The mixture of scraped meat and flatbread salad is actually a German-Turkish invention. In Turkey you separate the ingredients on the plate. Singing in the bread ply-almost an answer to the burger from the USA-is an innovation of the German-Turkish community. So the “kebab” became a street food that can be taken while walking.
The “Dönermann” not only adorns kebab bags, but also T-shirts, cola doses and reebok collections. It even appears on anti-Nazi demos. Unay is happy about the popularity, but remains modest: in the podcast he laughed that his “Dönermann” keeps the knife wrong.
Source:
kra
Source: Stern
