German author discusses book, experiences Oct. 6

As part of the 2010-11 College of Arts and Sciences theme “Frontiers and Borders,” Oakland University will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the reunification of Germany when it welcomes German author Susanne Schädlich for a lively book reading and discussion from 4-6 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 6, in the Oakland Center Gold Rooms.

Born into a family of intellectuals and dissidents, Schädlich was forced to move with her family from East Germany to the West when she was 12 years old.

Her father, Hans Joachim Schädlich was a key figures in East Germany’s literary scene in the 1970s and hosted East-West gatherings in the family’s apartment in Berlin. Those meetings were eventually discovered by the East German secret police, the Stasi, who had recruited Susanne’s uncle as the main informant of the family’s activities.

Schädlich describes this betrayal in her 2009 biography "Immer Wieder Dezember: Der Westen, Die Stasi Mein Onkel und ich" (Always December Again: The West, the Secret Police, My Uncle and I) and addresses her life before and after unification of the country.

“This year, the university is hosting a number of speakers whose talks focus on migration, immigration, expulsion, expatriation and fractured identities,” said Dr. Barbara Mabee, a professor of German in Oakland’s Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. “Shädlich’s literary memoir speaks about life under a totalitarian regime and the transitions and transformations that she and her country experienced in the process of coming together as one nation with the New Europe and a changed global world.”

Free and open to the public, this event is co-sponsored by Oakland’s departments of Modern Language and Literature, English, Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology, History, Women and Gender Studies, and the Office of the Dean and College of Arts and Sciences. Refreshments will be provided.

For more information about events in the CAS Frontiers and Borders theme, view the website.