Q: What inspired you to write Walled-In?
A: We often take our freedom for granted, both our physical and our psychological freedom. I grew up with very little of both. In my memoir I try to take the reader on a trip into the realities of growing up in a divided city that is governed by other nations, of growing up behind the Berlin Wall, and of growing up with overprotective parents. In that environment, it is tough to develop independence and self-confidence.
Q: Do you think that the topics addressed in your book are universal issues?
A: Yes, I do. I think it is important that we teach our children to look at all sides of an issue before making decisions, to be responsible for and depend on themselves, and to try to discover and experiment. And most of all, we must allow them to make their own mistakes.
Q: You say you grew up behind not one, but two, insurmountable walls: the Berlin Wall and the one your parents erected. Which wall did you consider harder to scale?
A: As a teenager, I would have said the obstacles my parents created were far more difficult to overcome. Although time consuming and tedious, as West Berliners we had the ability to escape the Berlin Wall, but there was no running away from my parental walls.
For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic or current events, people, places or food.
Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls,Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
