Sonja Gerstner

Sonja Gerstner (13 June 1952 – 8 March 1971) was an East German artist and writer. She died young, after which publication by her mother of a book containing some of her poems, diary entries and other writings covering treatment she had received for her psychotic illness brought her to the attention of a wide audience.

Life Sonja Gerstner was born in Berlin into one of East Germany's elite families. Her father, Karl-Heinz Gerstner (1912-2005), was an economics journalist. Sibylle Boden-Gerstner (1920-2016), her mother, was one of East Germany's leading fashion journalists. Sonja was the younger of her parents' two daughters. The writer-controversialist Daniela Dahn is her elder sister.

When she was 17 Sonja displayed the first signs of psychotic illness. Several stays in closed psychiatric wards, where she was subjected to Insulin shock therapy and Electroconvulsive therapy intensified her sense of helplessness and spiritual isolation. Her attempts to make herself understood were mostly ignored. Her parents' desperate attempts on her behalf to find psychotherapeutic care were unsuccessful.

After Sonja Gerstner died her mother, using the pseudonym Sibylle Muthesius, published "Flucht in die Wolken" ("Escape into the clouds"), a volume about her daughter that included full-colour reproductions of many of Sonja Gerstner's images. The book was published in 1981 and widely distributed. The next year it was published across the Inner German border in the west. Exhibitions of Sonja's writings and images followed. Wulf Skaun, Leipziger Volkszeitung, 2004

The largest collection of Sonja Gerstner's paintings and drawings is on permanent loan to the Prinzhorn collection at Heidelberg University. Her mother handed them over in 2007. Her diaries, letters and other writings are archived by the family.

Psycho-historical importance Sonja Gerstner's sad trajectory through psychosis treatment provided a basis for what may have been the first, and was certainly the most popular critical book on psychiatric provision in the German Democratic Republic. The situation in psychiatric institutions was set out in an authentic way, including descriptions of treatments involving Insulin shock therapy and Electroconvulsive therapy, and setting out with dramatic clarity the use of "isolation bunkers" and their impact on patients.

"Flucht in die Wolken", her mother's compilation of Sonja's work, quickly became popular in East Germany, and in the end was translated into eight languages. There was also a drama version produced in 1991 and a filmscript.