19 Facts About Freya Klier

Freya Klier was born in Dresden, the child of working-class parents.

Freya Klier nevertheless devised a plan to escape with an acquaintance from a Swedish theatre group, armed with a false passport and travelling aboard a Swedish merchant ship.

Freya Klier was sentenced "for attempting to flee the Republic" to a sixteen-month jail term but served only twelve months, after which the four month balance was "suspended" for two years.

Freya Klier took "behind the scenes" work with the Dresden Puppet Theatre.

In 1970, thanks to the intervention of a Party Secretary, Freya Klier was able to embark on a study course at the Theatre Academy in Leipzig, emerging with a degree in 1975.

Freya Klier tried to present her criticisms both politically and through her artistic work.

Freya Klier became increasingly involved with the Pankow Peace Circle in East Berlin during the early 1980s.

Freya Klier was nevertheless internally conflicted because of her professional goals, and tried to integrate her artistic ambitions and her political goals.

Freya Klier had herself been a single mother since the birth of Nadja, her daughter, in 1973: she knew from personal experience that there was a stark contrast between official propaganda and the actual condition of women in society.

Freya Klier had won first prize at the 1981 National Song Festival and was, naturally, a party member.

Krawczyk had by this time become something of an iconic figure, especially for younger East German fans: later in 1985 he and Freya Klier were both served with what amounted to a nationwide ban on professional work, which was linked with exclusion from the national "Theatrical Union".

Freya Klier conducted structured interviews with young people and, from 1986, with teachers, revealing a picture of a society riddled with dishonesty, depression and hopelessness.

Nevertheless, unlike her sixteen-year-old self, Freya Klier was now determined to stay the course and not to abandon East Germany.

In October 1986 Freya Klier was a co-founder of the "Solidarity Church", an opposition group that sought to create a network across the country that took a critical position in respect of the one- party dictatorship, and she became a member of its co-ordination committee.

Freya Klier was nevertheless not without her own criticisms of it.

Freya Klier's contribution was more individualistic and less "collegiate" than that of many of the opposition activists in the build-up to the so-called "Peaceful Revolution".

Freya Klier always remained in touch with the more important of the opposition groups, however.

Freya Klier retains a role as a political activist, working in political education and making regular presentations in schools.

Freya Klier remains active in the movement which provides support for her own research projects.