Black-humoured memories of a youth in the GDR province
Stephan Schulz reads from "Bück dich, Genosse!" on Thursday, 13 September, at the TIETZ
MDR editor Stephan Schulz will be a guest at the TIETZ Central Library on Thursday, 13 September at 7 pm. The author, born in 1972, remembers his childhood and youth, which he spent in Burg near Magdeburg - in the deepest province of the GDR. The protagonist is amazed and amused to realise how these experiences play into his life today. In his search for clues along a loosely woven biographical thread, Schulz comes across stories that can certainly be apostrophised as "typical GDR" and yet tell of quite unique events. Purple cows are ironed, fish are caught with hand grenades and the dead are brought back to life in an apprentice hostel. Isn't that all absurd? Of course it is! And if it hadn't been, then it could have been! Schulz succeeds effortlessly in drawing amusing punchlines from a number of phrases without slipping into either denunciation or "Ostalgie".
Stephan Schulz studied German, sociology and political science and realised that lecture theatre knowledge doesn't get you very far because politics so rarely adheres to science. That's why he loves writing about it - as an editor at Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk and also as an author. His first book, "What a Wonderful World - when Louis Armstrong toured the East", was honoured with the Swinging Hamburg Jazz Award.
Admission costs 6 euros, concessions 4 euros.