About water – from the Friedwald to Waldfrieden outdoor pool

I shower for a long time and hot, get a coffee and put Claudia’s stone on my table.

Claudia died between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Stroke, coma, death. I learned it in January, I can only believe it today, on the first day of May when I was through the Friedwald running at Bernau. Somewhere here the urn was buried with Claudia’s ash.

Claudia contacted me two years ago. Whether we want to meet, we would know each other from before. I suspected who she was. The beautiful blonde from Potsdam, with which I had made friends with in autumn 1989, in the women’s prison Hohenleuben. We were many. She was sitting there because a year earlier she had not returned from a surprisingly approved trip to West Berlin and wanted to go to Sweden with a friend in the spring. Transit. On the port area in Sassnitz, she was ordered to get out of the car. Claudia got out. She didn’t like to tell that, she could have known that because of an illegal crossing of border, as the GDR called it, one was subsequently prosecuted. You only had to get hold of the person, for example on the land of the GDR.

Over water

private

Anne Hahn is the author of novels and non -fiction and swims through the waters of the world for »ND«.

I walk through the mixed forest, which pours over light hills, paths lead between the trees, moss and leaves cover soft ground. Black plastic shields reveal who is buried under the trees. Names and data, sometimes accompanied by aphorism. Grave jewelry is not allowed, hearts from pine cones and stones. When I want to place my semi -precious stone with me under a pine that looks very special on her hill under sun spots, it hisses. A blind -sneaking ringing of it.

I have the stone in my hand. The traffic whizzes past on the country road, cyclists curve me. Claudia lost half a year to have got out. She never spoke of it, she told me at our first meeting. At the end of October we drove to Jena for the premiere of one Films About detained young people in the GDR. Claudia just started working on what had happened to her. She loved her job, her son and her dog, other things remained fragile. She had moved to Wannsee, I should visit her in spring. “Nice that we found each other again,” wrote Claudia in her last message.

I achieve that Bernau outdoor poolit looks freshly renovated: fat lawn, changing room cabins, showers, teaching and jumping pools, five 50-meter tracks, chess play, sun sail, beach volleyball field, snack bar, ice cream and fries. Only the cold is a slap in the face. My forehead burns, I stop the air and I am trying to get out of the water immediately. After ten meters I head for the next ladder. Young people storm to the jumping towers, the look of a girl stripes me, a touch of appreciative. Now I can’t give up. I swim at the end of the rail, suppress the japs ​​and turn on my back while the girl jumps screeching. After two lanes I can breathe normally.