Dr. Christine Schoefer - Divided: A Memoir
March 27, 2021

“Set in West and East Germany and the USA during the Cold War, the memoir Divided tells my story as a German-American woman growing up in the force field of political, cultural, and personal divisions. The memoir begins in Berlin, just a few years after the Allies defeated Nazi Germany; it reaches back in time to the Third Reich and spans the Wall era. As a child, I witnessed the construction of the Berlin Wall; as an adult, I was a Walljumper traveling between East and West Berlin; as a mother, I was there, rejoicing, when the Cold War icon fell. My family immigrated to the United States when I was twelve years old. I’ve lived a rich dual life. And I’ve always wondered: where is my home?

Without ever losing sight of the larger political and cultural context, Divided dramatizes the intimate, funny, wrenching and often visceral process of a girl becoming a woman, a woman becoming herself and ultimately finding her home in her body.”

Christine Schoefer wrote her dissertation at UC Berkeley on politics and literature in East Germany. After a period of academic teaching and researching, she became a free-lance writer. She still lives in two places: Berkeley and Rodenaes, a village in the northwest corner of Germany.

You can read Dr. Schoefer’s writing at www.christineschoefer.com

If you would like to view our archive video of the presentation, contact Dr. Marion Gerlind for access. You can view a trailer here.