Being Jewish in the GDR and afterwards. Autobiographical writings, poems, songs and Jewish-leftist perspectives. Reading and discussion with Wolfgang Herzberg and Sabine Kebir

On the evening of the event, Wolfgang Herzberg will recount his eventful life story before and after 1989, quoting from his own songs, poems and books.

In conversation with Sabine Kebir, he will explore the central questions underlying his work: What does it mean to be Jewish in the GDR and afterwards? How did Jewish people live in the GDR and in reunified Germany? How does he view Jewish life in Germany today?

Wolfgang Herzberg was born in Leicester, England, in 1944, the son of Jewish-German emigrants. After his parents returned to Berlin in 1947, Herzberg completed his Abitur and an apprenticeship as a film projectionist. After studying cultural studies, he became director of the cultural centre at the Berlin Glühlampenwerk in 1971 and worked as a freelancer for DEFA. Herzberg initially wrote rock lyrics for the band Pankow and has continued to write his own songs and poems to this day. Since 1981, he has published biographical books featuring eyewitness accounts from the GDR, as well as numerous newspaper articles.

Sabine Kebir was born in Leipzig in 1949, lived in East Berlin from 1956 onwards, studied Romance languages and literature, and worked as a literary scholar specialising in Italian studies at the Academy of Sciences. Since completing her habilitation in 1989 on Antonio Gramsci, she has worked as a freelance author of non-fiction, children’s books and fiction, and as an academic journalist in various media. Her books on women who collaborated with Bertolt Brecht are bestsellers.