Talk and Reading: "Zingster Straße 25"
Tickets
With Eva Weißenborn, Sonya Schönberger, and Kito Nedo
Sonya Schönberger © Stefanie Schweiger, 2024
November 5, 2025
7 PM
Dramatic reading with Eva Weißenborn from “Zingster Straße 25,” by and with Sonya Schönberger, followed by a talk with Kito Nedo
In order to provide the population with urgently needed housing, the GDR government began relying on industrial prefabricated construction in the mid-1950s. New housing estates sprang up on the outskirts of cities, and their apartments were very popular due to their modern amenities. One of the last large housing estates built in East Berlin was Neu-Hohenschönhausen. Erich Honecker himself laid the foundation stone in February 1984. By 1987, many multi-story buildings were ready for occupancy, including the high-rise apartment building at Zingster Straße 25.
Three decades later, artist Sonya Schönberger asks what became of the building's first residents. Who is still there? Who has moved in? The stories in this booklet, based on interviews, provide insight into different everyday realities that are nevertheless connected by the outer shell of the “Platte” (prefabricated concrete slab). In a very personal way, they speak about everyday life in the GDR, the change of political systems, and the present in reunified Germany.
Read by actress Eva Weißenborn.
Sonya Schönberger is a participating artist in the exhibition Wohnkomplex and will talk about her work with curator Kito Nedo following the reading.