Leise, laut, verboten
('Muted, loud, forbidden')
Forbidden literature in the GDR
Today, 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is almost inconceivable just how restricted freedoms – of opinion, of art, of being able to travel – once were in the east of Germany. However, this was the reality many suffered under in the GDR – not least the artists who secretly met in kitchens and studios, and rebelled, sometimes more, sometimes less, against the state authorities, the privileged and the conformists, which was quite courageous, considering that anyone who voiced social criticism, or went as far as to actively demonstrate it, could be certain that they would be spied on, experience repercussions and might even be arrested.
The author Katja Lange-Müller, who herself was banned from attending school at the age of only sixteen for 'anti-socialist conduct', has compiled a selection of texts by GDR writers such as Wolfgang Hilbig, Durs Grünbein, Jürgen Fuchs, Gabriele Stötzer and Thomas Brasch. With their aid, the actors Annett Renneberg and Florian Lukas recall the suppression of critical voices and opinions, but also the creative opposition of the artists, and the political courage of the citizens that ultimately led to the Peaceful Revolution of 1989. The jazz percussion legend Günter Baby Sommer provides the appropriately powerful sounds that perfectly communicate the unrest, the sense of a brand new start, the expectations and the charged atmosphere of the times before Germany's reunification.
Annett Renneberg played her first lead in a TV film at the age of thirteen. Since then, she has appeared in over 80 TV and cinema productions. At the theatre, she has performed in Peter Zadek's Salzburg production of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, for example. She is well-known for her role in the TV adaptations of Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti novels, the TV series In aller Freundschaft or the three-part miniseries Die Wölfe.
Florian Lukas began his acting career at the Berliner Ensemble and the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. His performances in the films The Polar Bear and Goodbye, Lenin! made him well-known to a wide audience, and he has also appeared in countless TV and cinema productions, most recently in Weissensee, Die Wespe or in Die Drei ???, for example.
Günter Baby Sommer is one of the most important representatives of contemporary European jazz, and has developed an inimitable musical language with a highly individual collection of percussion instruments. His musical contributions to the GDR's most important jazz groups, such as the Ernst-Ludwig-Petrowksy-Trio, the Zentralquartett and the Ulrich Gumpert Workshop Band, ensured his access to the international scene. Sommer's solo performances predestined him for collaborations with authors such as Günter Grass. His discography includes over 100 released audio recordings. He is a professor at the Dresden College of Music.
