Punk-Frauen und die DDR – Lesung und Gespräch mit einer Zeitzeugin und dem Buchautor Geralf Pochop über Widerständigkeit in der DDR

“Being a punk was in itself a provocation. But for a girl to go around like that probably meant breaking two taboos—something akin to 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 youth labor camps—and the consequences that are still felt today. Only three of them have been exonerated; many are still waiting for recognition of the injustices they suffered. Pochop has encouraged his former comrades to bring the female side of the punk movement in the GDR to light. 

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 prisons and juvenile labor camps in the GDR?

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 taking place in cooperation with the Saxon State Commissioner for Coming to Terms with the SED Dictatorship.

The event is part of a series organized by the “Kontrovers vor Ort” project, a collaboration between the Saxon State Agency for Political Education, Saxony’s adult education centers and sociocultural centers, their respective state associations, and many other partners in Saxony.

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