Punk-Frauen und die DDR - Lesung und Gespräch

“Being a punk was, in itself, already a provocation. But for a girl to go around like that probably meant breaking two taboos—something like sacrilege in the GDR’s understanding of ‘real existing socialism,’” says Nancy, one of the protagonists in Geralf Pochop’s new book *Dance on the Volcano: Rebellious Punk Women in the GDR*.
In interviews, diaries, and their own writings, 23 women recount their experiences with repression, imprisonment, and juvenile labor camps—and the consequences that are still felt today. Only three of them have been rehabilitated; many are still waiting for recognition of the injustices they suffered. Pochop has encouraged his former comrades to go public with their stories, thereby bringing to light the female side of the punk movement in the GDR.
We ask: How did GDR society react to nonconformist women? Was there gender-specific persecution? What were “Tripperburgen”? And what did young people experience in GDR prisons and juvenile labor camps?
Geralf Pochop was a punk himself. As a squatter and conscientious objector, he came into conflict with the GDR authorities. After several arrests and six months in prison, he fled to West Germany in 1989. Today, he researches and writes about the GDR’s past, most recently in his autobiographical book *Untergrund war Strategie. Punk in der DDR: Zwischen Rebellion und Repression* (2019).
The event series is being held in cooperation with the Saxon State Commissioner for Coming to Terms with the SED Dictatorship.