Christiane Vera Felscherinow (born 20 May 1962) is a German actress and musician who is best known for her contribution to the 1978
autobiographical
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
book ''Christiane F.'' (original title: ), and the
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
and television miniseries based on the book, in which her teenage drug use is documented.
Early life
Felscherinow was born in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, but her family moved to
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
when she was a child. They settled in
Gropiusstadt
Gropiusstadt () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') within the Berlin borough (''Bezirk'') of Neukölln. It was named after the architect who projected the complex: Walter Gropius.
History
Building of the quarter, initially named Britz-Buckow-Rudow and p ...
, a neighbourhood in
Neukölln
Neukölln () is one of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is located in the southeastern part from the city centre towards Berlin Schönefeld Airport. It was part of the former American sector under the Four-Power occupation of the city. It featu ...
that consisted mainly of high-rise concrete apartment blocks where social problems were prevalent. Felscherinow's father frequently drank large volumes of alcohol and was abusive towards his two daughters while her mother was absorbed by an extra-marital relationship.
When she was 12 years old, she began smoking
hashish
Hashish ( ar, حشيش, ()), also known as hash, "dry herb, hay" is a drug made by compressing and processing parts of the cannabis plant, typically focusing on flowering buds (female flowers) containing the most trichomes. European Monitorin ...
with a group of friends who were slightly older at a local youth club. They gradually began using stronger drugs such as
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...
and various forms of pills and she ended up using
heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...
. By the time she was 14, she was heroin-dependent and a sex worker, mainly at West Berlin's then-largest railway station
Bahnhof Zoo
Berlin Zoologischer Garten station (german: Bahnhof Berlin Zoologischer Garten, colloquially Bahnhof Zoo, ) is a railway station in Berlin, Germany. It is located on the Berlin Stadtbahn railway line in the Charlottenburg district, adjacent to t ...
. During this period, she became part of a group of teenage drug-users and sex workers of all genders.
''Christiane F.''
The book
Two journalists from the
news magazine
A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or new ...
''
Stern
The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
'',
Kai Hermann and
Horst Rieck, met Felscherinow in 1978 in Berlin when she was a witness in a trial of a man who paid underaged girls with heroin in return for sex. The journalists wanted to disclose the drug problem among teenagers in Berlin, which was severe but also surrounded by strong taboos, and arranged a two-hour interview with Felscherinow. The two hours extended to two months, as Felscherinow provided an in-depth description of her life, as well as those of other teenagers, in West Berlin during the 1970s. The journalists subsequently ran a series of articles about her heroin use in ''Stern'', based on the tape-recorded interviews with Felscherinow.
In 1979, the ''Stern'' publishing house published a book based on the interviews, ''Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo''. The book chronicles Felscherinow's life from 1975 to 1978, between the ages of 12 and 15 years, and depicts several of Felscherinow's friends, along with other drug users, as well as scenes from typical locations of the Berlin drug scene at the time. The
narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...
of the book is in the
first person, from Felscherinow's
viewpoint, but was written by the journalists functioning as
ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...
s. Others, such as Felscherinow's mother and various people who witnessed the escalating drug situation in Berlin at the time, also contributed to the book.
The UK issue of the book was released by Corgi on 21 August 1981 under the title ''H. Autobiography of a Child Prostitute and Heroin Addict'' and was translated by Susanne Flatauer ( ).
The first American edition of the book was released by Bantam in 1982 under the title ''Christiane F.: Autobiography of a Girl of the Streets and Heroin Addict'', also translated by Susanne Flatauer (). As of October 2013, Felscherinow continues to receive monthly royalty payments of
€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...
2,000 (
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
2,720) for the book ''Christiane F.''
In 2013, a new translation by Christina Cartwright was published by Zest Books of San Francisco under the title ''Zoo Station''.
The film
In 1981, the book was adapted into
a film that was directed by
Uli Edel
Ulrich "Uli" Edel (; born 11 April 1947) is a German film and television director, best known for his work on films such as Last Exit to Brooklyn (film), ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'' and ''Body of Evidence (1993 film), Body of Evidence.''
His ''Ra ...
and produced by
Bernd Eichinger
Bernd Eichinger (; 11 April 194924 January 2011) was a German film producer, director, and screenwriter.
Life and career
Eichinger was born in Neuburg an der Donau. He attended the University of Television and Film Munich in the 1970s and bou ...
and
Hans Weth
Hans may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People
* Hans (name), a masculine given name
* Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician
** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans
** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...
. The screenplay was written by
Herman Weigel
Herman Weigel (born 22 March 1950 in Moers) is a German film producer and screenwriter. He is one of the writers and producer of the television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a tele ...
and
Natja Brunckhorst
Natja Brunckhorst (born 26 September 1966) is a German actress, screenwriter, and director.
Brunckhorst was 13 years old when she was selected by director Uli Edel for the leading role as Christiane F. in the critically acclaimed 1981 dramatisat ...
played the role of the titular character. Its title in Germany was ''Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo'', and in
English-speaking
Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...
countries ''Christiane F.''
Much of the movie is shot in the actual surroundings of Gropiusstadt and Bahnhof Zoo.
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
, Christiane's favorite singer at the time of the interviews that informed the book, appears as himself in a concert. Bowie also provided the movie's
soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...
that was released in Germany in 1981.
In a December 2013 interview, Felscherinow stated that she attended the German premiere of the film with Bowie, who picked her up in a chauffeured limousine: "I thought David Bowie was going to be the star of my movie, but it was all about me." Felscherinow agreed that the film was an accurate portrayal of her life at the time, but revealed that she does not like the film "that much":
Post-''Christiane F.''
After the initial success of the book and the film, Felscherinow found herself becoming something of a celebrity, both in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and other countries in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. A subculture of teenage girls in Germany began to emulate her style of dress and spent time around the
Bahnhof Zoo
Berlin Zoologischer Garten station (german: Bahnhof Berlin Zoologischer Garten, colloquially Bahnhof Zoo, ) is a railway station in Berlin, Germany. It is located on the Berlin Stadtbahn railway line in the Charlottenburg district, adjacent to t ...
, which became an unlikely tourist attraction. This development concerned drug experts in the youth field, who feared that, despite the film's bleakness and numerous drug-related scenes (particularly those portraying the reality of heroin withdrawal), vulnerable teens might regard Felscherinow as a cult hero and
role model
A role model is a person whose behaviour, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, especially by younger people. The term ''role model'' is credited to sociologist Robert K. Merton, who hypothesized that individuals compare themselves ...
.
Between 1982 and 1985, Felscherinow lived in
Zurich with the Keel family, owners of the
Diogenes
Diogenes ( ; grc, Διογένης, Diogénēs ), also known as Diogenes the Cynic (, ) or Diogenes of Sinope, was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynicism (philosophy). He was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea ...
publishing house. During this time she met
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Friedrich Dürrenmatt (; 5 January 1921 – 14 December 1990) was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-g ...
,
Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith (January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley.
She wrote 22 novel ...
and
Patrick Süskind
Patrick Süskind (; born 26 March 1949) is a German writer and screenwriter, known best for his novel '' Perfume: The Story of a Murderer'', first published in 1985.
Early life
Süskind was born in Ambach, Bavaria. His father was writer and jo ...
.
In 2013 she explained that she "lived between literature stars and the heroin scene" and described
Platzspitz park
The Platzspitz park is a park in Zurich, located next to the Swiss National Museum.
History
History of the park goes back to the Middle Ages. Positioned between the Sihl and Limmat rivers, it was originally used as a hunting and shooting ground ...
in Zurich as "like Disney World for junkies"; however, Felscherinow further explained that the area became "a heap of garbage" as people died after contracting the
hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...
and
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...
viruses, and rival gangs engaged in violent conflict.
In the early 1980s, Felscherinow's boyfriend was
Alexander Hacke
Alexander Hacke (also known as Alexander von Borsig, Alex Hacke, Hacke, born 11 October 1965) is a guitarist, bass guitarist, singer, musician, record producer, writer and filmmaker from Germany. He is primarily known as a longtime member of the ...
, from the German industrial band
Einstürzende Neubauten
(, 'Collapsing New Buildings') is a German experimental music group, formed in West Berlin in 1980. The group is currently composed of founding members Blixa Bargeld (lead vocals; guitar; keyboard) and N.U. Unruh (custom-made instruments; perc ...
, and together they released two albums under the moniker
Sentimentale Jugend, including a cover version of the
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
song "
Satisfaction", on the Das Cassetten Combinat label. They also appeared together in the 1983 German film ''
Decoder
Decoder may refer to:
Technology
* Audio decoder converts digital audio to analog form
* Binary decoder, digital circuits such as 1-of-N and seven-segment decoders
* Decompress (compression decoder), converts compressed data (e.g., audio/video/im ...
'', which also featured
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...
and
Genesis P-Orridge
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was a singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmissions arti ...
. Felscherinow explained in 2013 that Hacke was a "friend of a friend" who used her residence to hide from the media who were aware of his problematic heroin use at the time. She also stated that she is glad that Hacke's life has become stable: "I'm happy he got rid of his problems and has a family now."
On 10 October 2013, Felscherinow released a new autobiographical book titled ''Mein Zweites Leben'' (''My Second Life'') in which she elaborates on her life following the release of the ''Christiane F.'' book. In a promotional interview, prior to the autobiography's release date, Felscherinow revealed her motivation for writing the second book: "No, there's no message
n the book
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
It was just that I wanted to make a counterstatement. There was all that junk, all the headlines! I finally wanted to describe what it was really like."
However, she counters this statement in a December 2013 interview:
Felscherinow contracted hepatitis C from an infected needle in the late 1980s. She suffers from
cirrhosis of the liver
Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...
and rejects
interferon
Interferons (IFNs, ) are a group of signaling proteins made and released by host cells in response to the presence of several viruses. In a typical scenario, a virus-infected cell will release interferons causing nearby cells to heighten the ...
treatment because of the side effects.
[ In 2013, Felscherinow stated: "I will die soon, I know that. But I haven't missed out on anything in my life. I am fine with it. So this isn't what I'd recommend: this isn't the best life to live, but it's my life."]
Drug use
When Felscherinow was 19 years old, she went to the United States to promote the film about her; she was arrested for heroin and opium possession and had to leave the country.
She lived with her son (born 1996)[ in ]Teltow
Teltow [] is a town in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany.
Geography
Teltow is part of the agglomeration of Berlin. The distance to the Berlin city centre is , while the distance to Potsdam is .
The Teltow Canal links the ...
, Germany, but, in 2008 after they both relocated to Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, Felscherinow temporarily lost custody of her son in August 2008, after authorities intervened in Berlin. In late January 2011, Felscherinow was searched during a drug raid in Moritzplatz
Moritzplatz is a Berlin U-Bahn station located on the line.
Peter Behrens constructed this unusual subway station in Berlin in 1928. It was closed briefly in 1945, and between 1961 and 1990 it was the last station in West Berlin, after which t ...
, a Berlin subway station then known for its drug market; however, the search did not reveal any drugs.
In an October 2013 interview, Felscherinow expressed her frustration with public perceptions of her since the publication of ''Christiane F.'':
Felscherinow stated in a December 2013 interview that while she continues to consume methadone and occasionally smokes a cannabis joint
A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw ...
, alcohol is her main drug issue at the age of 51 years. In response to a question of why she never discontinued illicit drug use, she explained: "I never wanted to give them up. I didn't know anything else. I decided to live a different life to other people. I don't need a pretence to stop."
Discography
Singles
* "Gesundheit!" (1982)
* "Final Church" (1982)
* "Wunderbar / Health Dub" (2003)
References
External links
Christiane F. Community
Christiane F. at Discogs
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christiane F.
1962 births
Living people
Writers from Berlin
People from Neukölln
Heroin in popular culture
German autobiographers
German prostitutes
German film actresses
German pop musicians
Child prostitution
Women autobiographers
Victims of underage prostitution