Twenty years ago, we imagined the so-called reunification differently. I’m more in favour of saying that German unity has been restored. The word ‘Wende’ is a bit suspect to me. In an interview in the early nineties, I said that I was born in Germany and now I’ve arrived in Germany again. We didn’t even know what was waiting for us and how many people were suddenly coming here and making bargains and throwing bananas at us. I don’t like eating bananas at all. I didn’t go to Karl-Marx-Platz because of the bananas. Now I’m quite indignant and angry about a lot of what was expected of us. My idealism, which has accompanied me all my life, is not broken, but it is dampened.

I am not a resistance fighter. I don’t want to be one of those who now claim to be. I came to the conclusion that I always showed my colours when I was challenged to do so. I often reacted spontaneously and then sat at home with trembling knees. At the time of the Neuberin, it was still: “Take away the laundry, the comedians are coming.” In the meantime, we’ve been moulted into birds of paradise. Even in the most dogmatic times, we still had a certain freedom to be fools. […]

In October 1989, my now grown-up son said, hugging me: “I’m grateful to you for one thing. You never brought me up to conform.” That was one of the greatest compliments he could have paid me.

Read more: in „Mother, don’t worry. Everything is fine here. Everyday life from 1989“. Publication of Frauenkultur Leipzig, 2009; 2nd edition in 2021. click here->