A woman goes through her life lived in a province town of eastern Germany: born in 1909 at times of the German empire, married, children during the Third Reich, then, getting older in the GDR and subsequently under the rules of a very different system – and finally the reunification, the Federal Republic. Gertrud’s emotions range from resignation to rage and irony; not only to express her own hopes or fears, but her voice stands for a whole generation, its historic tragedies and inner conflicts.
EINAR SCHLEEF, born in 1944 in Sangerhausen. He worked as a stage and costume designer at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and Berliner Ensemble. He left for West Germany and studied to become a film director, worked for a radio station and left then for the Schauspiel Frankfurt to work there as a director. At the same time he wrote his own dramatic work, photo textbooks and the novel “Gertrud” in two volumes. In the 90s Schleef worked at the Berliner Ensemble. He died in 2001 in Berlin.

Performed by actors of Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin.

Photo: Bettina Stöß