“When I ate schnapps cherries with Hitler” – A Reading, Discussion & Workshop with Manja Präkels

Co-sponsored by the Center for German & European Studies and University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

In her autobiographical novel, Als ich mit Hitler Schnapskirschen aß (When I ate schnapps cherries with Hitler), Manja Präkels describes teenager Mimi’s perceptions of internal and external forces in the years before, during, and after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. This reading of excerpts from Präkels’ award-winning book will be in German and English. School, work, spare time, food, fashion, families, neighborhoods, communities, politics—no aspect remains unaffected by Germany’s reunification in her small Brandenburg town. Especially Mimi’s childhood neighbor Oliver morphs into a Neo-Nazi, and Mimi and her friends try to counter him wherever possible. This novel does not sugarcoat how life in the former GDR changed after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. It depicts aspects of right-winged extremism from the close perspective of a protagonist refusing to succumb to it and who still manages to find beauty in genuine relationships with family and friends. The text voices concerns relevant today in US society, describes ways and attempts to fight extremism and ceaselessly presses for the necessity of further anti-fascist efforts.

The readings will be in German with projected English translation.

Manja Präkels was a local reporter in Brandenburg in the 90s and today works as a freelance writer, musician, and singer in Berlin. Her autobiographical novel When I ate schnapps cherries with Hitler, published in 2017, describes the last years of the GDR as well as the social upheavals and right-wing violence in the years of reunification in a small town in Brandenburg. She was awarded the Youth Literature Prize and the Anna Seghers Prize 2018 for the novel. World in Echo or was that a plastic bag?, was published in 2022 and is a collection of essays from her long-term observations of East German living environments in transition. As part of the Robert Bosch Foundation’s Weltenschreiber program, she conducted teacher training and writing workshops with school classes in Germany.

More information about Manja Präkels can be found at www.gedankenmanufaktur.net