I certainly wasn’t a revolutionary, but I tried to do a few things differently. For example, I was on first-name terms with my pupils. They weren’t even ten years younger than me. They almost helped raise my son Philipp and we had a good relationship of trust, so at some point I asked them how they would feel if we were on first-name terms. Of course, the school management found out. I did say: we can really only do that between ourselves. But they really enjoyed calling me by my first name when the principal was standing next to us in the courtyard. Or I allowed them to come to the FDJ events without an FDJ shirt. I said: If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. That was almost an offense back then. I didn’t think it was revolutionary. Other people did completely different things.

In the fall of ’89, I was pregnant for the second time, with Laura. I was a German and English teacher at three schools in Mockau and Thekla and a class teacher. Because there were few female English teachers back then, I was always commuting between three schools. … I had to tell my class that I was pregnant again, because I had promised them that I would guide them through the exam no matter what. It was a class that had already had several changes of teacher. They were quite stubborn at first, because I was one of many, but they quickly got used to me and carried me on their hands. I enjoyed that too. They didn’t want to be left again – I understood that too. I told them that no matter what, I would see it through with them to the end. That’s what I did, by the way, and I took all their exams myself when I was heavily pregnant and had the baby shortly afterwards. […]

I was invited to Vienna by friends. That was the first time I had seen the West. I had a proper culture shock – because of all the glitter. But our friend didn’t just show us the glitter, he also showed us the corners where the junkies sat. That’s when I had my second shock. But I also got to know a fantastic women’s scene there – with women’s publishing houses, women’s cafés, feminist schools and women’s bookshops. I felt such a longing for it that I knew I had to move to Vienna or do something in Leipzig.

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->