On Tuesday 28 April at 7 pm, interested parties are invited to a reading and discussion on the history of punk women in the GDR with the author Geralf Pochop at the Kaßberg Prison Learning and Memorial Centre, Kaßbergstraße 16c.
Participation in the event is free of charge. We recommend that you register by clicking on the event link.
On this evening, Geralf Pochop will present his book "Tanz auf dem Vulkan. Resistant Punk Women in the GDR". In it, he analyses how GDR society reacted to non-conformist women. In the book, 23 women talk about their experiences with repression, imprisonment and youth work centres - and about the consequences that can still be felt today. Geralf Pochop encouraged his female companions at the time to make the female side of the punk movement in the GDR visible.
Kim, another contemporary witness, will talk about her experiences on this evening. Born in 1964, Kim was the first female punk in Karl-Marx-Stadt. The State Security labelled her a "punk inspirer of a negative-decadent youth association" and opened the "Park" operative case. Hundreds of pages can now be read about how the State Security tried to fight them and persuade them to leave the country. Not least, they also tried to take advantage of Kim's open behaviour as a lesbian woman and to discriminate against her. Kim left the GDR in 1985.
The event will be moderated by Ulrike Geisler and is a cooperation between the Saxon State Commissioner for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship, the Lern- und Gedenkort Kaßberg-Gefängnis e. V., the Saxon State Centre for Political Education and the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre as part of the "Controversies on Site" project.