Successful author Lukas Rietzschel on the GDR: “Nothing is ever told”

With the book, Rietzschel finally establishes himself as a young narrator of the East German emotional turmoil of powerlessness, hope and will to persevere. His debut novel, “Strike the World with Your Fist,” about quiet anger and right-wing violence in the 1990s, became a bestseller; the film adaptation was celebrated at the Berlinale last year.

Lead actress Anja Schneider, born in 1977 in Altenburg, Thuringia, described the mood of the post-reunification period in the Tagesspiegel interview as follows: “The shame of the parents that they no longer understand life properly and cannot find the right language for it was passed on to the children.” Lukas Rietzschel’s books find the right language for this.