Family, children… were important.

So for me, the GDR was always a space that wasn’t free and I grew up with my parents always saying: “Be careful, don’t tell everything at school. You can tell everything at home.” And somehow that was always a bit less than honest.

And I wanted to do that or we wanted to do that differently with our children. For example, we didn’t give our children to the pioneers. That wasn’t easy. And we already knew that they would be outsiders. It was common for all children to go to the pioneers. We had different groups of friends. Some Christian, some non-Christian. And we had discussions there too. I still remember a friend saying: “Well, you’re now putting your ideas on the backs of your children, because you’re actually ruining their future.” Of course, that was crass for our conscience. We didn’t want that. I then took great pains to ensure that they were treated equally; for example, we made an effort to get into the parents’ active programme. I succeeded with our older daughter. With the twins, who started school a year later, my husband wanted to join the parents’ collective. He didn’t succeed at first. The class teacher stood in front of the door, rang the bell and said: “The headmistress said you won’t be putting your twins in the Pioneers either. That’s why we can’t include them in the parents’ programme.” And then I said: “I now expressly insist that you accept us. We won’t accept a reason like that.” And then she left again… that made me really angry too. I don’t know what I would have done then. There weren’t many chances, but I would have fought first… And then, for whatever reason, the headmistress decided to take us in after all… […]

On 9 October, I drove into the city with a friend and we were already scared. We wanted to drive in early enough to get to the church to pray for peace. And yes, we did meet up. My husband rang me at lunchtime. He had a friend at university and he called him and said: ‘They’re shooting here. We’re getting the operating theatres ready. Be careful. So my husband called me and said: “You’d better not go, think about it.” But somehow I had made an appointment and I also wanted to go to the peace prayer.

After the peace prayer in the Reformed Church, we walked through the city to Karl-Marx-Platz and we could see from afar that the square was full. It was a crazy feeling. And somehow it was such an atmosphere – it still gives me goosebumps. We said to each other on the pitch: “No, they can’t shoot. There are too many of them.” And everyone was kind of happy. And I also remember the call that came over the loudspeakers from the six Leipzigers for non-violence. And then it remained peaceful. We then went home and said: We have to come back every Monday. Somehow it was like that. Then they said: Yes, next time everyone has to bring someone else. But I never brought my children with me at the beginning. I was still always afraid that if something happened, something would happen to them. Others did it differently. They said: “Nah, if we bring the kids, they won’t do anything.” But I didn’t take them with me until much later – and yes, that was the case…