Zeitzeuginnen Ost

In the organizer's words:

"East & West" are - even 35 years after reunification - not categorizations of the 90s, but often still current stereotypical attributions of our present. Images and judgmental opinions about "East women", for example, usually reflect little knowledge about the lives and achievements of East women. An impressive counter-strategy to this:

Making authentic, biographical life journeys of positioned, committed contemporary witnesses public ... and sharing them live.

Live here today : CHRISTIANE EISLER

"I was always a freelancer. That had to do with the fact that I was a somewhat unpopular student in 1983 because I dealt with certain topics - with punks and the Jugendwerkhof. ... At the HGB, it was common at the time for students, graduates, to receive job offers from industrial companies or cultural institutions, where they then worked as photographers. And nobody really wanted me because I was somehow a bit opportunistic."

Christiane Eisler, graduate photographer - was given permission in 1982 to photograph the 160 young girls in Crimmitschau on a daily basis as they went about their daily lives in the youth work yard and during their work in the three-shift system at the Volltuchwerk. In the GDR, youth work yards belonged to the so-called special homes - which were intended to re-educate children and young people who were considered "difficult to educate" and did not fit in with the state's view of society.

More than 30 years later, Christiane Eisler and journalist Gundula Lasch spoke to former inmates of this juvenile detention center - and created a touching photo/text exhibition and documentary entitled "The Youth of Others", featuring unique photographic documents and portraits of the inmates decades later. The documentation makes everyday life at the time accessible and shareable - as well as the effects of this time on the entire lives of the very young protagonists at the time.

Further talk rounds Live here: Zeitzeuginnen Ost will take place in the coming months.

Next date: 24.08.2025 with Sabine Maruschke on the beginnings of intercultural work in Leipzig

Price information:

Entry according to self-assessment