This article examines multiple entanglements of Afghan exiles’ biographies in West Germany with Cold War- and contemporary history. The life stories of six men who have been residing in Germany since the 1970s but were physically and cognitively highly mobile in their engagement for change in Afghanistan highlight the role of human agency in transnational history-making. The analysis shows that during the time of intense engagement connecting West Germany and Afghanistan, their lives became truly transnational, and the vernacular cosmopolitanism they practised has shaped transnational history from below. While all six life stories mirror transgressive biographies in connection with wartime events and differ from the global cosmopolitanism of elites, these life courses are neither standardised nor linear. The findings point to three types of transgressive biographies—skilled survivors, quietists and masters of crossover—that have preserved the transnational dimension that had been so significant earlier in the exiles’ lives to varying degrees and differed regarding related perceptions of failure, loss and regret.

中文翻译：

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关于和平活动家和熟练的幸存者

本文考察了阿富汗流亡者在西德的传记与冷战和当代历史的多重纠缠。六名自 1970 年代以来一直居住在德国但在参与阿富汗变革的过程中在身体和认知上具有高度流动性的人的生活故事突出了人类机构在跨国历史创造中的作用。分析表明，在连接西德和阿富汗的激烈交战时期，他们的生活真正变得跨国化，他们所实践的白话世界主义从下而上塑造了跨国历史。虽然这六个人生故事都反映了与战时事件有关的越轨传记，并且不同于精英的全球世界主义，但这些人生历程既不是标准化的也不是线性的。