We children from Bahnhof Zoo

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Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo is a biographical book published by Stern magazine in 1978 that describes the situation of drug addicts children and adolescents using the example of Christiane Felscherinow (born 1962) from Gropiusstadt in the Berlin district of Neukölln . The authors of the book are Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck . The original edition is introduced by a foreword by Horst-Eberhard Richter . The title of the book refers to the Berlin Zoo station , which was a central meeting place for the West Berlin drug scene in the 1970s and 1980s . In order to protect the protagonist's identity, she was shortened to Christiane F. in the book . In the course of the 1980s, reinforced by the filming of the book in 1981, Felscherinow developed into a prominent guest on television talk shows.

The book became the most successful German non-fiction book of the post-war period . From 1979 to 1981 it was number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list for 95 weeks .

Emergence

In 1978, Horst Rieck pursued the trial of a businessman who had paid underage prostitutes for sexual services with heroin in the Moabit Criminal Court in the course of his research into the drug scene and procurement prostitution . Rieck asked one of the witnesses, then 15-year-old Christiane Felscherinow, if she would give him an interview. The originally planned interview, which was supposed to last two hours, turned into two months, during which Felscherinow told Rieck her life story almost daily with the tape running. Rieck called in his colleague Kai Hermann and, on the basis of the tape recordings, wrote a first-person narrative from the perspective of her protagonist, formulated with cool distance. The manuscript was initially rejected by several publishers, including Rowohlt Verlag, because it was a case study that was considered not for sale in Germany . The text was finally published in extracts as a twelve-part series in Stern magazine and in the autumn of 1978 with the title Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo as a book by Stern-Verlag. Before publication, the manuscript was edited without the knowledge of the authors. a. a rape scene that was central to Kai Hermann's assessment was highlighted.

The book tells the story of the heroin addict and her friends in minute detail and in clear words. The vicious circle of personal and social problems, drug addiction , brutality, crime and prostitution is shown . At the beginning excerpts are reprinted from the indictment against Felscherinow and the judgment against them - on June 14, 1978 Felscherinow was the district court Neumünster because of continued willful violation of the Narcotics Act in coincidence with control receiving stolen property found guilty and the punishment probation been suspended. The mother of the girl and people around her, as well as social workers , therapists and police officers , also have their say in the form of uncommented, italicized statements that are seamlessly integrated into Felscherinow's stories .

The book was the first of its kind and gave a wide audience an insight into the drug problem. It was the best-selling book in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1980 and 1981; In many German schools, Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo became compulsory reading. After several editions in Germany, the book was translated into at least 15 other languages ​​and sold more than three million times worldwide. For example, the title of the French version is Moi, Christiane F., 13 ans, droguée, prostituée ('Ich, Christiane F., 13, drug addict, prostitute') . The title of the Russian version is Я, мои друзья и героин ('Me, my friends and heroin') .

action

At the age of six Christiane moved to Berlin-Kreuzberg with her parents and younger sister . Christiane's parents want to open a marriage agency. When that didn't work and money was running out, the family had to move to a cheap apartment in the high-rise housing estate Gropiusstadt . The father cannot come to terms with the situation and is repeatedly violent against his children and wife. After domestic violence escalated, Christiane's mother eventually left her husband and moved with the children to her new boyfriend. Christiane doesn't get along with him and always finds a reason to argue. Her sister can't take it anymore and moves back to her father.

When Christiane started high school, she was impressed by Kessi, a classmate who pretended to be very adult and already had a boyfriend. She befriends her and they both regularly visit Haus der Mitte , a youth facility of the Evangelical Church. There Christiane smokes hashish for the first time . From this point on, Christiane regularly smokes weed with her new clique, drinks alcohol, and later takes trips and pills like ephedrine , Valium or Mandrax . She begins to neglect school and lie to her mother. Soon she's going to the Sound discotheque regularly on weekends . There she makes new friends, and Christiane falls in love with a boy named Detlef. When the sound of the drug heroin became fashionable, Detlef tried it too. Christiane is initially against it, but at a concert by David Bowie (in the Deutschlandhalle on April 10, 1976) she also tries heroin, but only through her nose . At this point she is 13 years old.

From then on, Christiane regularly uses heroin and commits small crimes in order to raise money. When she was 14 years old, she let a junkie pressure her. From then on she injected regularly until she got jaundice on a school trip . When she comes out of the hospital, Detlef tells her that he is now prostituting himself at the Zoo station . Since she wants to be with Detlef, she visits him regularly at the train station and also gets off his heroin. They sleep together for the first time in a friend's run-down flat.

From December 1976 Christiane and Detlef suffer from withdrawal symptoms ( Turkey ) as soon as they are without heroin. The procurement of heroin is thus becoming a constant necessity. When Christiane is approached by a man in the car on the street, she gets into the car with him. She pleases him with her hand and receives a lot of money for it. From now on, Christiane goes on the line and gradually gets freelancers . However, she promises Detlef not to allow sexual intercourse .

Together with Babsi and Stella, two friends from the Sound era , she forms a clique of drug prostitutes . The group atmosphere is constantly burdened by the fact that everyone only thinks about the next shot.

When Christiane injects heroin in her mother's apartment, the mother also notices that her daughter is a drug addict. With their support, Christiane and Detlef go through a painful withdrawal in the apartment . After surviving the withdrawal, Christiane and Detlef go back to their friends at the train station out of habit and inject heroin again. They stay away from the drug scene, but still become dependent again and have to prostitute themselves. Christiane keeps her relapse into drug addiction a secret from her mother. During this time she felt like a “fixer star” until her friend Atze died of a “ golden shot ” of a heroin overdose .

After Christiane was picked up by the police, her mother regularly checks Christiane's arms for needle marks. During the holidays she sends Christiane to her grandmother so that she can get away from heroin there. Christiane actually goes into withdrawal and recovers. But when she found out about the death of another friend in Berlin, she was so shocked that she immediately fired another shot. From then on she started using heroin again.

The drug counseling service gives her the address of Narconon , a Scientology addiction facility . There she completes therapy programs, but repeatedly fled to buy heroin. After all, her father takes her in against her will. The father tries to change her mind with rules and work plans for the household. But Christiane regularly goes to the nearby drug scene in the afternoons. There she always gets some heroin from dealers, which she sniffs . Detlef is meanwhile in jail because he stole from a suitor.

Christiane notices that she has become addicted again. In order to be able to take a shot, Christiane goes to Bahnhof Zoo, meets Babsi and Stella's regular customers and has sexual intercourse with him. The two meet regularly, and he tells her that Stella is in jail and Babsi is going into rehab at Narconon. However, Babsi escapes from the hospital where she is treated for jaundice. A little later she appears in the newspaper as Germany's youngest drug death.

Christiane's father notices that she is meeting a suitor. He locks her up at home so she can evade, but the patron brings heroin. Christiane escapes, but then returns to her father. She persuades him to get Stella out of prison through the youth welfare office so that both of them can go through rehab together. In truth, however, the two continue to inject heroin and prostitute themselves to finance their addiction.

Physically and mentally exhausted, Christiane finally goes to the Karl Bonhoeffer Psychiatric Clinic voluntarily to be treated. There she is treated like a madwoman. She got a fungal infection , so she was taken to a hospital and ran away from there. Then she gets jaundice, comes back to the hospital and runs away again. The authorities and her mother give them up. After a failed suicide attempt with an overdose of heroin (Golden Shot), she and Detlef move in with a suitor, and both try to finance their addiction with drug trafficking .

When she is picked up by the police again, her mother takes her to relatives near Hamburg. It is difficult for her to get used to it, but she can attend secondary school. However, when the school management learns that she is a former fixer, she is transferred to the secondary school . But here, too, she tries to be a good student. She makes new friends who smoke hashish regularly but don't use heroin. She achieves a good secondary school leaving certificate, but does not get an apprenticeship . With her new clique, she spends a lot of time in nature and dreams of a better life, a "good trip".

Reflections on Christiane's life in the book

Christiane F. is not only the main character of the story, but also the narrator, who makes comments about her previous life from her presence. In addition to the role difference, the difference between the narrated time and the narrative time must be taken into account. The latter is after June 14, 1978, on which the court judgment on Christiane F., which is taken into account in the book, was passed. The fact that the text was actually written by two professional journalists cannot be seen from the fact that they do not appear as instances in the text.

The story contains a large number of comments on Christiane's behavior in Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein. The comments made by the narrator, who is now 16 years old, are interwoven into the narrative text, while the statements made by adults in the text contain independent perspectives that partly confirm Christiane's representations but partly contradict them.

The 16-year-old narrator has learned that she has to get away from heroin use if she wants to continue living beyond the age of 20. During her first withdrawal attempt, she dreams of a life of regular hashish consumption. In Schleswig-Holstein she joins a clique in which young workers “turn themselves on” with hashish in order to leave the frustration of the working week behind. In her new clique, Christiane deals with black magic , parapsychology and Buddhism : "We were just looking for people who are on a good trip." The fact that Christiane F. has not yet overcome her addiction in Schleswig-Holstein can be seen in her reaction on the H scene in Hamburg and Norderstedt clearly.

Throughout the book, people who live “normally”, to whom Christiane is supposed to adapt, are referred to as “philistines”. Christiane comments on the stories of her friend Stella about her contacts with the terrorist Monika Berberich in custody with the words: “[...] I thought [...] that those from the RAF might have the perspective after all. You could only change this shitty society with violence. "

At Narconon, the "hot sect", Christiane was constantly asked to "confront". According to the teachings of Scientology, this language usage ("confront" + accusative object), which differs from the usual German, means that problems supposedly disappear through "confrontation". Christiane maintains the desire to "confront" problems until the end. Christiane's mother finds that her daughter has been "brainwashed" at Narconon.

Christiane's mother expresses the view in the comments that Christiane was “seduced” into drug use, and that is why she has to leave Berlin somewhere where this seduction does not exist.

Her daughter puts this view into perspective: “I don't know anyone who was practically fixated against their wishes. Most youngsters come to the dog all alone when they are ready for it. ”Likewise, if you want to, you can get heroin anywhere.

The mother assumes that Christiane is someone who “has not done anything to anyone”. However, Christiane has repeatedly committed thefts to finance her addiction.

Adaptations

Announcement of film recordings for the series

A film adaptation was released in 1981 under the title Christiane F. - We children from Bahnhof Zoo . Horst Rieck, Kai Hermann and Christiane Felscherinow also had a certain say in this film. There is also a theatrical version by Peter Märthesheimer and Pea Fröhlich , which is based on the original protocols.

Implementation as an eight-part television series began in 2017. The production company Constantin Television and the producer Oliver Berben commissioned Annette Hess ( Ku'damm 56 , Weissensee ) as head writer to write a screenplay.

Award

In 2006, the book was awarded the Buchliebling literary prize in the youth book category 12-14 years .

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Germany acute . TV broadcast, November 27, 2013, 30 min. - Moderator: Claus Strunz , on the subject of “After we children from Bahnhof Zoo”, other participants in the conversation: social worker Christian Hennis and journalist Sonja Vukovic. Discussion on the occasion of the publication of the autobiography "My second life" (Deutscher Levante Verlag) by Christiane Felscherinow. Produced by Schmidt Media OHG, Nierstein , for N24
  2. ↑ Wilhelm Wittorf: Something crazy has to go . In: Der Spiegel . Edition 15/1981. April 6, 1981.
  3. ↑ Stern No. 32, May 7, 1998, p. 30.
  4. ↑ Patrick Goldstein: Drug addiction: Christiane F. - forever child from the Bahnhof Zoo. In: welt.de . August 11, 2008, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Stern No. 32, May 7, 1998, p. 30
  6. ↑ From Star No. 40, September 28, 1978 to Star No. 51, December 14, 1978.
  7. ↑ TIP Editor: A visit to "We Children from Zoo Station" author Kai Hermann. In: tip Berlin. October 29, 2013, accessed March 27, 2019 .
  8. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 197
  9. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 364
  10. ↑ a b We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 365
  11. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 347
  12. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 363.
  13. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 299
  14. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 258
  15. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 269
  16. ↑ Confront ( Memento of May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 363
  18. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 278
  19. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 267
  20. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 89
  21. ↑ We children from Bahnhof Zoo (Carlsen edition). P. 339
  22. ^ Die Zeit , April 3, 1981
  23. ↑ Christiane F .: "We children from Bahnhof Zoo" becomes a television series . In: Berliner Zeitung . ( berliner-zeitung.de [accessed on March 18, 2018]).
  24. ↑ Alexander Attimonelli: "We children from Bahnhof Zoo": Green light for series adaptation. In: Golden Camera. Retrieved March 2, 2019 .