On Thursday 22 October at 7.00 pm, the City Library invites you to a reading with the author Bernd Sikora and the actor Lutz-Uwe Kraus in the event hall on the 3rd floor of the TIETZ. They will be reading from Bernd Sikora’s novel *Aufgewacht*, which deals with queer life during the GDR era.
Admission costs 8 euros, or 5 euros with a concession. Tickets are available at the museum ticket office on the ground floor of the TIETZ. You can register via the event booking link.
The book
Leipzig in the 1960s. The young architect Sebastian Berger lives in a world caught between new beginnings and constraints – artistically ambitious, torn from within, politically trapped in a system that knows no freedom. When he meets a young sportsman on a tram, his life is turned upside down: for the first time, he realises that his longings lie in a different direction.
With a keen eye for contemporary history and the nuances of human experience, Bernd Sikora tells the story of gay life in the GDR – of friendship, hiding, courage and the quiet awakening of an identity amidst state control and social constraints. Spanning 15 episodes and an epilogue, a panorama of the GDR’s final decades unfolds. A literary document of its time, exploring love, art and self-discovery in a country that is just beginning to fall apart. A reflection of the queer scene in the GDR.
