Sonia Rossi

Sonia Rossi (* 1982 ) is one of Italy coming writer who autobiographical writes novels in German. The name Sonia Rossi is a pseudonym , the real name of the author is unknown. She lives in Berlin , says she works as a programmer in an IT office and has two sons.

Life

According to media reports, Sonia Rossi comes from Sicily , according to other sources, from a small southern Italian island. She described her parental background as middle class. In 2001 she moved to Berlin and enrolled there to study mathematics . She initially earned her livelihood - Bafög support was not possible because of her non-German nationality - with waiters . In order to improve her precarious financial situation, she worked as a prostitute while studying . After first experiences with Webcams on porn - sites , she worked in various establishments - including a Neuköllner massage parlor, a brothel in Wedding , a nudist club in Charlottenburg , and - in intermezzo-like, temporary form - in different whorehouses outside Berlin.

In 2008, four years after starting prostitution, she published an autobiographical report under the title Fucking Berlin . Both the book and the author subsequently received some response. In order to protect her anonymity, Rossi appeared in public formats wearing sunglasses and a wig. At about the same time as the book was published and when she graduated from university, she stopped working as a sex worker . Two more autobiographical book titles followed ( Dating Berlin. In Search of Mr. Right and, as an e-book , Kinderwunschtage ).

After the publication of Fucking Berlin and graduating from university, Sonia Rossi took a job in the IT industry. She has two children. Her parents and her closest friends, said Rossi, have meanwhile informed her about her previous job.

Fucking Berlin (2008) and Dating Berlin (2010)

In her autobiographical debut novel Fucking Berlin from 2008, Rossi describes how, in addition to studying mathematics in Berlin, she started working as a prostitute and worked for several years in residential brothels and other forms of establishment. It was translated into Bulgarian , Estonian , Italian , Dutch , Slovenian , Spanish , Czech and Turkish in 2009 and into Mongolian in 2010 . Fucking Berlin was Svenja Jung starring filmed and released in October 2016 DVD.

Her second book, Dating Berlin. Looking for Mr. Right is from 2010. In it Rossi describes how she regained a foothold in civil life after leaving prostitution and tried to find a partner via online portals and by participating in speed dating events Find. The following title attracted some press coverage - for example in the tabloid Bild and in the Berliner Tagesspiegel . Dating Berlin was unable to build on the commercial success of the debut .

In 2014, the third book was the autobiographical report Kinderwunschtage as an e-book.

Positions

As herself affected, Sonia Rossi underlined the central statement of Fucking Berlin - the direct connection between pay sex jobs and financially tight situation - both in the book itself and in relation to the media. She told the daily Die Welt that she would have needed at least an intermediate diploma for a well-paid job at the university, as a student assistant, from a waiter or from a call center job, she could not have made a living. Rossi: “I needed money, not for luxury, but for a certain standard of living, for a cell phone, clothes, rent and electricity.” Another motive for working as a sex worker is - according to an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung - comparative Relaxed working atmosphere in some establishments and the collegial cohesion. “We always waited a long time for customers and played cards, ate and drank together - you don't do that in a normal job.” Rossi continues: “I don't think I'll ever have such a nice job again in my life. "

Referring to statements made by the press spokesman for the German Student Union that nobody has to prostitute themselves in Germany in order to be able to study, Rossi confirmed her point of view in an interview published in the student magazine Unicum . Said representation, according to Rossi, only applies if you live in a one-room apartment without furniture, only eat slices of toast with margarine and walk around with broken shoes. Another important concern that motivated her to write her experience report was the lack of social acceptance of prostitution and the unrealistic view of the conditions of prostitution. Rossi told Der Spiegel: “The majority of women do the job because they want to earn money quickly and easily - more than they could in a normal job. For many it is a means to an end; it's not her dream job, but it makes money. Most do it voluntarily and can stop at any time. "

reception

Fucking Berlin sold well and was on the Spiegel bestseller list for weeks . A number of media - including Welt, the Süddeutsche Zeitung as well as Spiegel and Spiegel Online - took the publication as an opportunity for a portrait of the author or a story on the subject of “prostitution among female students”. The immediate reviews of the book varied. Ursula März , literary critic of the time , accused Rossi's treatise of a certain contradiction: “Obviously the accusation of double standards falls back on the poets of the horizontal. They expect their profession to be viewed like any other profession. However, they complain by writing an entire book about their employment, its particularity. So what now? ” Helge Rehbein from Spiegel wrote that Rossi's descriptions of everyday life were reminiscent of “ Heinrich Zille's Berlin milieu drawings ”. They were about "lubricating cream and potato soup, about solidarity and violent hostilities, about little tenderness, a lot of drive and even more violence. When you step into the brothel with Sonia and the modern-talking hit 'You're my Heart, you're my Soul' penetrates your ears, at some point you think the young girl really deserves a decent guy. "

A feature of Deutschlandradio Kultur , which had the topic "autobiographies of prostitutes" as its content, portrayed Sonia Rossi and her book as part of a treatise on different biographies. The résumé of feature author Margarete Groschupf: The title of the book is "(...) misleading and deliberately ambiguous, the language plain, the content honest to the best of my knowledge and belief." Even apart from the established media business, Rossi's book found different, sometimes controversial Feedback - for example in the Gothic and Metal webfanzine Schwarzes Bayern, on the literature website Literaturreport.com and in the weblog Die Stachelbeere .

In the WDR talk show Plasberg personally , moderator Frank Plasberg expressed doubts about the truth of the autobiography. Plasberg to Rossi: “Isn't your disguise also a marketing ploy to sell your book? Do we have to be afraid that one day you will tear your wig off your head and say: Ätschi-bätschi, I'm not a math student at all? ” In an interview after the broadcast, Plasberg once again voiced the suspicion that Rossi's story was largely part of it invented.

Publications

• Fucking Berlin. Student and part-time whore , Ullstein Verlag 2008, ISBN 978-3-548-37264-8 .
• Dating Berlin. On the hunt for Mr. Right , Ullstein Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-548-37315-7 .
• Fertility days , epubli GmbH (e-book) 2014.

Secondary literature

• How does a book become a bestseller? - Representation based on Sonia Rossi's “Fucking Berlin” , essay by Sarah Böhme (e-book), GRIN Verlag GmbH 2011, ISBN 978-3-640-81938-6 .

Web links

• Sonia Rossi in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

Note: The biographical information is taken from the individual references listed at the end of the main section.

1. ↑ ^{a b} Mrs. Rossi is looking for happiness , interview in the Berliner Morgenpost of March 30, 2010, accessed on January 21, 2015.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Sex book: Whore or hairdresser? , Ursula March, Zeit Online, September 26, 2008.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Part-time job: The confessions of a student part-time whore , Uta Keseling, Welt, August 18, 2008.
4. ↑ Excerpts from "Fucking Berlin" on the Britte Young Miss website , accessed on January 21, 2015.
5. ↑ Filmstarts.de , accessed on October 7, 2016.
6. ↑ Bild's web portal and press reviews on the book's page at UllsteinVerlage
7. ↑ A prostitute tells: In the beds of Berlin , Peter Wagner, Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 17, 2010.
8. ↑ Prostitution during studies: "That was my free decision" ( Memento of the original from January 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Jens Wiesner, Unicum.de, December 1, 2014. 
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Paperback bestseller: Prostitution instead of precariat , Helge Rehbein, Spiegel Online, August 18, 2008.
10. ↑ Autobiographies of Prostitutes , Margarete Groschupf, Deutschlandradio Kultur, December 30, 2008 (PDF)
11. ↑ 5 years as a student, hooker, wife and lover ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Gothic and metal fanzine Schwarzes Bayern, February 20, 2012. 
12. ↑ An excursion into fornication ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , literaturreport.com, July 29, 2008. 
13. ↑ Fucking Berlin ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Literature blog the gooseberry, December 6, 2011. 
14. ↑ Plasberg is tender but fair in his new show , Welt-Artikel from October 4, 2008, accessed on January 21, 2015.
15. ↑ Sunday questions to Frank Plasberg ,quote meter interview from October 5, 2008, accessed on January 21, 2015.