Christian W. Staudinger

Bayerischer Hof in Waltershausen – home

Staudinger as a child, with his father's camera

Staudinger was the son of a hotel and restaurant manager, Gerhard Staudinger (b. April 20, 1923, in Erfurt, d. February 3, 1988, in Waltershausen), and his wife Edeltraut (b. January 30, 1927, in Wandersleben, d. December 11, 2011, in Waltershausen). He grew up in the village of Schmira near Erfurt and from 1956 in Waltershausen, where his parents ran the Bayerischer Hof restaurant, a member of the state-controlled Restaurant Trade Organisation (German: HO). In Schirma they ran the Hotel Welcome, a private, independent business, but in 1956, about the time when Christian's brother Ulrich was born, they moved to the state-controlled hotel in Waltershausen, as they had to give up their independent operators' license. Staudiger had a happy childhood although there were arguments with his parents about politics. His parents were still influenced by the politics of the Nazi era, and were extremely critical of the GDR. The national flag was not flown when it was required to be and his parents never voted in GDR elections, although these were both officially required duties in the GDR. However, members of the Stasi hierarchy visited his parents' restaurant because of the good food. Christian Staudinger was an enthusiastic communist, avidly read communist literature, and was a keen drummer in the local fanfare band in Waltershausen, guided by his teacher Otto Müller.

His paternal grandfather, Wilhelm Staudinger, was a German nationalist, who ran Hotel Welcome with his wife Paula, before his son took over. During the Nazi period he gave extra bread and milk to forced labourers. The village teacher betrayed him. He was arrested, tortured at Petersberg Citadel in Erfurt and died a few days later as result. Staudiger's maternal grandfather, Phillip Orth, worked for the Deutsche Reichsbahn and co-founded the Communist Party of Germany in Neudietendorf shortly after the First World War. To protect the family, he sent his daughter to the League of German Girls, a Nazi organisation. He was not bothered by the Nazis and died when Staudinger was 16 years old. His uncle, Sigmar Orth, was a liaison officer between the police and the Stasi, who encouraged Staudiger's interest in history and enthusiasm for the developing communist German state.

At age 16, Staudinger left home and went to Erfurt, where he began his apprenticeship as a waiter after his original career aspirations of being a sailor in the merchant navy and, thereafter, the boatman on inland waters had been rejected by the Stasi. People in the GDR needed a permit from the state for their career aspirations. In Erfurt he fell into circles around Eberhard Häfner and others.[2] They had passionate discussions about politics and art, listened to the music of the so-called imperialist Staatsfeind and he came in contact with THC and LSD-25. He read Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego and Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud, which he had received from Eberhard Häfner. He tried to use these writings in his final examination paper—then viewed as an affront. His teacher, Mrs. Richter, expressed her enthusiasm privately but could not vote because literature of the "State-enemy" had been cited. The day after his practical test, from which he made a parody and therefore failed, Staudinger went to escape from East Germany. He wished to leave his beloved home, because emerging and fast growing doubts about the integrity of the system were growing in him. He had read the classics, but all that did not stand in comparison with reality. In addition, he wanted to become a skydiver. He was in the Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik, but in order to jump one had to be in the National People's Army or in the Stasi. The Stasi began to be interested in him and tried to recruit him as part of the OPK (operational checks on persons). He felt honoured and loved those discussions with the Stasi officers who at home always encountered violent counter-arguments. But soon the Stasi was tired, wanted names that he refused to provide, prompting the never-forgotten threat received by many former GDR-citizens: "Either you are with us or against us. Join in and out you can be something. If not, you will croak on the machine!"

GDR-document about act of dismissing

At the age of 18, in 1971, Staudinger and a friend made their way to Bulgaria in order to leave the country to travel to Turkey. This was the route many so-called "Republic-refugees" had chosen, as Stefan Appelius,[3] a professor of Political Science, has researched. Only his brother was informed he was leaving so as not to endanger the family. At the Veleka river[4] they failed to escape because the maps were wrong.[5] They were arrested and tortured[6] and put in a Bulgarian prison. But Staudinger lived, unlike other refugees.[7] The Stasi in Bulgaria brought him back to East Germany, and he was put into the Stasi prison, Andreasstrasse,[8] in Erfurt and sentenced to one year and seven months for his attempt at illegal emigration and fomenting anti-state-propaganda, which he served in Cottbus. With the help of the two lawyers Vogel & Stange (one east, one west, and in that time famous in Germany) he came straight from prison to the Federal Republic of Germany (better known at the time as "West Germany", when German reunification happened in 1990, the government of West Germany took control of East Germany became the government of reunified Germany and still uses "Federal Republic of Germany" as its official name). By a tragic event, unlike many others in the GDR convicted for political offenses, came into possession of copies of the indictment[9] and judgment.[10] The experiences of the flight are published in German as an audio book on YouTube,[11] spoken by Erich Räuker.[12] Shortly before his flight Staudinger had fathered a child, which he learned about in prison after the child was born. He managed to bring the mother and child using of family reunification to West Berlin. The West and the events of the recent past destroyed everything he had believed, so that he tried to kill himself in 1974 with 250 sleeping pills. The doctors succeeded in saving him from being clinically dead. His brother, Ulrich,[13] later was sentenced to 4 years for reportedly subversive propaganda. Released earlier he jumped to jumped to his death in a West Berlin subway in 1981.[14]

Having found accommodation in the Evangelisches Johannesstift Berlin (in what was then West Berlin, the part of the divided city controlled by West Germany, upon German reunification in 1990, West Berlin merged with its counterpart East Berlin (the capital city of East Germany) to become reunified Berlin which then became the capital city of reunified Germany immediately after the event), Pastor Helmut Gwiasda[15] took him under his wing. He let Staudinger complete the diaconal basic course,[16] but it drove him on. He went to high school and then studied social pedagogy and philosophy. His own prison experience influenced him professionally and between 1981 and 1986 he worked in the women's prison in Berlin as a group leader with drug-addicted adult women. Severe migraine attacks forced him to give up. He then moved to the creative arts. His efforts to become member of the Professional Association of Visual Artists in Berlin (BBK)[17] failed—he was rejected because he did not want to be confined to the visual arts. He responded with a public debate in the former Open Channel Berlin, known today as AlexTV.[18] The connection between art and sport is important to Staudinger.[19] In 1977 he went to Texel (Netherlands) and completed his training as a parachutist and 1992 in DeLand, Florida as a jumpmaster.

Poetry

• Über mir bin Es. Gedichte, Zeichnungen, Fotos, Collagen. Zwielicht-Verlag Berlin 1989 ISBN 3-924031-01-0
• Zustände eines Grenzverletzers. Gedichte und Zeichnungen. Zwielicht-Verlag Berlin 1983 ISBN 3-924031-00-2

Staudinger-rocks in Sinai/Egypt

Catherine David 1998

All short videos up to 2011 were published in full-length (40–120 min.) in the Open Channel Berlin (OKB, today AlexTV).
Cutouts:[63]

Cutouts:

• 1964: Polytechnische Oberschule Waltershausen/GDR,[65] group-exhibition
• 1983–1995: Freie Berliner Kunstausstellung – annual participation[66]
• 1986: Offener Kanal Berlin/AlexTV – ongoing publishing of art-videos
• 1987: Galerie Goltzstr. 32, Berlin[67]
• 1987: Die Anweisung[68]
• 1989: Kunsthaus Lütjenwestedt, Schleswig-Holstein[69]
• 1991: Gesinnungstat Kunst, Mediathek Köpenick[70]
• 1995: Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas, Berlin[71]
• 1996: KunstKaos in Köpenick[72]
• 1998: Erdensteine, Sinai – ongoing public exhibition[73]
• 1999: Abstraktionen, Museum für Leben & Kunst, Berlin[74]
• 2001: Camera obscura, Wuhlheide Berlin[75]
• 2002: Köpfe & Abstraktionen, Edenhaus am Europacenter, Berlin[76]
• 2007: Adolf Hitler 007 – Unerträgliches ertragen , Berlin[77]
• 2014: so nah...weit fern – group-exhibition in Erfurt[78]

Performance IFA 91

Cutouts:[79]

• 1988: Die Mauer muss weg
• 1988: Hommage an Joseph Beuys
• 1991: Kunstaktion IFA91
• 1994: Das Bild sind Sie selbst
• 1997: Hommage an die Christo's
• 1997: Soma
• 2013: MACHT BANK KUNST ???