Themen
- deutsche Einheit
- Mauerfall 9. November 1989
- Bildung/Erziehung
- Sport
Sprache
- Englisch
Biographical information
1971 Born in Rostock
Until 1988 Polytechnic secondary school
Until 1990 Extended secondary school, Abitur
1991 Au-Pair in Manchester
1992–1999 Study of landscape planning in Berlin
1999–2014 Employment in various fields and occupations in Berlin and Glasgow
Since 2014 Working as a writer
Profile
Dorit Linke grew up in Rostock. Like many of her peers, she came to know that there were many secret and forbidden things in the GDR – things she should not talk about with anyone, such as, for example, the fact that she sold individual pages of Bravo (a popular West German teenager magazine) on the pier in Warnemünde. As an athlete, she had insight into the world of the GDR’s high-performance sports. Her sport being swimming, she worked as a lifeguard on the Baltic coast. Towards the end of the 1980s she was very much aware of the sense of political awakening and no longer willing to obey rules and prohibitions, but wanted to decide for herself. Dorit Linke participated in the ‘Thursday Demonstrations’ and the citizens’ movement vigils in Rostock in the autumn of 1989. As was true for many, her life changed for good when the Wall came down. A year later she completed her Abitur in Rostock and went on to study landscape planning at the Technical University of Berlin. Living in, among other places, Lübeck, Manchester and Glasgow, she began her professional career as a writer. In her GDR-based novel Jenseits der blauen Grenze (‘Beyond the Blue Border’), nominated for the German Youth Literature Prize and recommended by the Goethe Institute, she digests the 1980s and her own generation’s multi-faceted political and personal experiences while growing up in the GDR. Dorit Linke is a member of the association ‘Autoren helfen’ (‘Authors Help’) which raises awareness around humanitarian and social issues.
Videointerview
„Mein Leben ist durch den Mauerfall anders verlaufen, als es sonst geschehen wäre“, sagt Dorit Linke in der Videoreihe „5 Fragen an …“ der Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung. Die Autorin und Zeitzeugin spricht außerdem darüber, wie sie den Prozess der Wiedervereinigung als Abiturientin in Rostock erlebt hat, warum sie danach nicht Medizin studieren konnte, sondern als Au-pair nach Manchester ging und weshalb Literatur für die Geschichtsvermittlung so wichtig ist. Das Video entstand 2020.
Berichte
"Aufbruch im Osten" - In einem Interview beschreibt Dorit Linke die angespannte Stimmung in der DDR vor dem Mauerfall und ihre Kindheit in Rostock. Ihr Buch "Jenseits der blauen Grenze" bespricht sie ausführlich. Deutschlandfunk, 10.01.2015.
Man durfte nicht traurig sein - Dorit Linke schildert in einem Interview mit einer Literatur-Bloggerin die Aufbruchstimmung in der DDR 1989, 25.10.2014.
Weitere Informationen
Im privaten Foto-Archiv von Roland Hartig finden sich zahlreiche Bilder zur Friedlichen Revolution in Rostock, von den "Donnerstagsdemonstrationen" und den dazugehörigen Andachten in der Marienkirche bis zur Volkskammerwahl der DDR 1990.