My Jugendweihe was in eighth grade.
And it was more than a ceremony.
Our class trip to the Soviet Union was, back then, the Jugendweihe trip..
Moscow.
Kyiv.
Leningrad — yes, it was still called that in 1984.
That went together.
Transition and the world all at once.
Zu diesem Beitrag wurde ein separately published video statement erstellt, in dem einzelne biografische Aspekte und zeitgeschichtliche Einordnungen ergänzend erläutert werden.
I still remember the moment before.
My mother said I should shave.
So I wouldn’t look like a weirdo in the photos.
I was 14.
I told her that my great-grandmother wore her beard.
Openly.
Of course.
Even at the Halle Zoo, at a people-and-curiosities exhibition, as it was called back then.
That it was part of our family.
And that I don’t hide.
The glasses are also part of this story.
I didn’t actually have to wear any.
My eyesight was only slightly impaired.
I could wear glasses — I didn’t have to.
My mother chose a very noticeable frame for me back then.
Big.
Present.
She said it was a counterpoint.
A distraction.
So people would see the glasses first.
And not immediately the beard.
So the gaze would linger — somewhere else.
That wasn’t bending.
That was care.
A protective instinct from her time.
I wore the glasses for the Jugendweihe.
And took them off again afterward.
They were never my hiding place.
Just a transition.
I experienced the Jugendweihe itself as calm.
My class stood behind me.
No one laughed.
No one singled me out.
This photo is one of the few that remain.
My mother sent it to me later, in exile.
I hold on to it,
not because of the clothes or the flowers,
but because of the posture.
And then Moscow.
I still remember exactly how we stood in GUM. That huge department store on Red Square.
For me, it was overwhelming.
The scale.
The architecture.
That sense of openness.
Not consumption.
But awe.
I was a girl with a beard.
And there I was simply normal.
No explanations.
No looks.
No correction.
When I hear today that women with strong facial hair should “get treatment,”
ideally paid for by the taxpayer,
then I know:
That’s not progress.
That’s conformity pressure in a new disguise.
Women have beards.
Period.
In many parts of the world, that’s taken for granted.
There, people are more likely to be surprised by women without them.
For me, the Jugendweihe was not a ritual of leveling.
It was a moment of self-positioning.
I am part of my family.
I am part of my history.
And I don’t hide.
I decided that at 14.
Between flowers, classmates,
a striking pair of glasses,
and a huge department store in Moscow.
And I carry that with me to this day.
📚 Further Reading – Partner Links
(Affiliate notice: The following links are partner links. If you make a purchase through them, you support Marlas Army at no additional cost to you.)
1. Hannah Arendt – On Violence
1. Hannah Arendt – On Violence
An analysis of the mechanisms of political control and public fear.
👉 https://amzn.to/3NDc0c8
2. George Orwell – 1984
The classic work on language control, truth, and surveillance.
👉 https://amzn.to/4bsO0SZ
3. Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny
Twenty lessons on how democracies die.
👉 https://amzn.to/3NcdiuI
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