Journalist and author Silke Kettelhake presents her gripping book SONJA: “negative–decadent” – A Rebellious Youth in the GDR. It tells the true story of 16-year-old Sonja, who in 1968 in Rostock was arrested for her youthful rebellion against the GDR regime and sent to the Torgau juvenile detention center — a story of love and betrayal, dependence and power, and the cry for freedom.
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Rostock, May 1968: “We were stuck here. While the streets burned in Paris and Berlin, we were branded as bums and watched by the People’s Police and the Stasi.” Parkas, jeans, long hair, and the beat from a portable radio — 16-year-old Sonja and her friends hold a sign, nothing more than a piece of cardboard: ‘Russians out of Czechoslovakia!’ They laugh. They are full of life and naïve. They overestimate themselves and underestimate the power of the state. Sonja is arrested. Her punishment: the Torgau juvenile detention center …
Tea, coffee & sandwiches included.
Admission: €2.50
#berlinfreedomweek
Additional information
Dates
November 2025
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