DUOs

Spa treatment in Bad Salzuflen

I was born in 1939, three months before Nazi Germany started World War II. I...

Inner peace

In the late 1980s, I worked at VEB Textima-Elektronik in IT organization. It was supposed to be a...

From VEB to own business

At 16, I began an apprenticeship as a model maker at my father's state-owned company. Without my father...

A disaster

Despite the mass deaths of workers managed (but not necessarily caused) by the Treuhand...

My father's drawing board

My father worked from 1983 to 1990 as a designer for special machinery at VEB Tisora in...

Enjoying a late victory

At the end of 1990, I was standing on the escalator in the department store at Berlin's Alexanderplatz when I suddenly...

Individuality vs. Creativity

As teenagers in the 80s, we were very creative in having unique clothes and jewelry.

Repairs

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was, among other things, a senior engineer in the product group "Repair of Electrical Machines"...

TYPOPLEX

Everyone remembers decorating greeting cards with these colorful stickers. Th...

The fish in the water

My parents were always very different. My mom was more of a crazy one. She wanted...

Two paths in life

I associate my family's fate with the fall of the Berlin Wall. A prolonged pain. At the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was relatively...

Training

When I finished 10th grade in 1997/98, there were more young people starting apprenticeships...

The wall

I felt an inner cry of joy when Schabowski stammered on GDR television about freedom of travel...

First own apartment

My dream is to have my own apartment someday. This is the first decoration I've...

The SOFA pianist

One day, an older man came to the counter at the SOFA cultural café and asked me if he could...

Recreation room

We planned our retirement in time to explore countries, people, and ourselves in our VW bus after...

My wish

One evening, I mentioned that I'd like to get my nose pierced. First...

This smell

There's this smell that's usually associated with this feeling! Neither the smell nor the feeling...

Self-discovery

I used to ask myself what I wanted, who I wanted to be, until I was at a party, and I...

I am not a tree yet

I'm so self-conscious because I've decided NOT to be so open anymore. I'm no longer...

Torn from the river

For me, translating and writing are self-realization. Gratefully, I forget everything, the world around me...

Heartfelt wishes

When I became unable to work in my first job and realized that it was no longer my...

Small for the two of us

To fulfill her dreams, the young woman moves from Lübeck to Bremen—also a very nice...

The doctoral thesis

I only knew my great-aunt Dorothea as a child. She was a distinguished and noble old woman...