Book: Christiane V. Felscherinow and Sonja Vukovic
“Christiane F. – Mein zweites Leben: Autobiografie (Christiane F. – My Second Life)
Today Christiane F. is a 53-year-old woman who after her extensive work “Christiane F. – We Children of Bahnhof ZOO” became famous for the film based on the book inspired by her drug use in the late 1970s. “My Second Life” is a sequel in which she writes of her life after the events described in the first book. She began her music career in the early 1980s together with her boyfriend Alexander Hacke, a member of the band Einstürzende Neubauten. She hung out with Nick Cave, Depeche Mode and Billy Idol and attended cocaine parties with Van Halen. She flew over Berlin with David Bowie in The Rolling Stones’ private jet. In the 35 years following after Bahnhof ZOO she was constantly struggling with heroin addiction. In 2008 she lost custody of her now adult son. Interestingly enough, despite the chaos she was in, she managed to maintain financial stability better than many famous people, carefully saving the profit from her first book. Overall, it seems as an interesting book. The book is only available in German for now, however translations in other 20 languages are announced. We hope to have the opportunity to read it in Macedonian as well.
http://www.amazon.de/Christiane-F-zweites-Leben-Autobiografie/dp/3943737128
Film
Christiane F. – We Children of Bahnhof ZOO (Christiane F. – Wir kinder vom Banhof ZOO)
Christiane F. – We Children from Bahnhof ZOO is a German film from 1981, directed by Uli Edel that portrays the drug scene of West Berlin in the 1970s. It is a story of a young girl that becomes introduced to this scene at the age of 13, and is already a heroin addict and a sex worker at 14. The film is based on the book with the same title and the hours of tape-recorded conversation with Christiane F. The film immediately gained a cult status, which remains till today. David Bowie appearing both as himself and the soundtrack composer contextualized the plot. Christiane’s story describes life of postwar generations in West Berlin and society’s inability to answer the many needs of young people. The traces left by war and the postwar reconstruction of West Germany on Christiane’s family force her to search for her own road to adulthood.