FOREWORD

This is the haunting, real-life story of Christiane Vera F.—a daughter, a sister, a student, and a typically rebellious teenager in 1970s Berlin. Like so many young people in every age and time, Christiane is eager to fit in and prove herself after her family first moves to the city. She desperately wants to wear the right clothes, listen to the right music, and hang out with the cool kids. More than that, though, she wants to find a way to deal with her abusive, alcoholic father, and learn the ropes at her new school.

Sadly, Berlin was in the midst of a major heroin epidemic when Christiane's family arrived. Nothing was cooler than “H,” and in Christiane's search for acceptance and community she was always bound to encounter heroin at some point. Unfortunately for her, it all happened very fast. By the time she was 14 years old her daily concerns had already degenerated from questions about who she should date and which party she should go to, to what kind of a client she should be willing to tolerate in order to score her next fix.

In telling her story Christiane was originally aided by two journalists (Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck), and they did a wonderful job of letting Christiane simply speak for herself. Whether she's talking about drugs, johns, clothes, David Bowie, or boyfriend troubles, her voice is always loud and clear. She is completely unguarded, and her profound self-consciousness gives us a very clear sense of what she sees when she looks out at the world; meanwhile, a fuller picture of Christiane's life is provided by the simultaneous accounts from Christiane's mother and a number of other adults involved in Christiane's life.

Christiane's story has had a major impact on German culture to this day. Locations such as the Bahnhof Zoo subway station, the housing projects in Gropiusstadt, and even certain public bathrooms have all gained a share of notoriety and fame. Christiane's book is required reading in much of Germany, and has been translated into many other languages as well. When it was first released in the United States, in 1980 (under the title Christiane F.: Autobiography of a Girl of the Streets and Heroin Addict), it became an instant hit, resonating with teens, parents, and even David Bowie—who provided music for the film adaptation.

Although Christiane's experiences on the streets of Berlin will be quite foreign to most readers, Christiane, as a character, does not wind up feeling distant on that account. In fact, even at the book's conclusion, after so much hardship and misery, Christiane remains in many ways a very typical teenager. We can all find something to relate to in the way that Christiane struggles for acceptance, resists all attempts to rein her in, and fights against herself, uncertainly. The urgency in her voice is timeless. For all these reasons and more, we are proud to be able to bring Christiane's story back to America with Christina Cartwright's excellent new translation.

Even at the darkest times, Christiane manages to maintain a surprising kind of integrity. She always sees with the same eyes and speaks with the same voice. As a result, she has provided us with a stunningly honest and vital account not only of her own teenage years, but also of the powerful forces—both internal and external—that determine the course of our lives. Sometimes they lead us away from ourselves, and sometimes they bring us back home.

Hallie Warshaw

Publisher, Zest Books