As a twelve-year-old, she copied the guitar chords from her mother and sister, and later the guitar became her most important tool, alongside her wonderful voice Photo: Impress Own/United Archives via Getty Images
By Sebastian Bauer
Her career was marked by resistance and upright behavior. Bettina Wegner is a great artist and a great person.
Born on November 4, 1947 in Lichterfelde, Bettina Wegner moved to Pankow with her family just months later. Already as a child she fell in love with the cinema and music and learned to play the guitar.
After training as a library worker, she began studying acting in 1966. She was in a relationship with the writer Thomas Brasch, and in 1968 she had her first son, Benjamin.
At the age of three, Bettina Wegner and her mother marveled at the advertising poster for a department store. At that time the family lived in Pankow Photo: private
Bettina Wegner in 1979. She had just released her first long-playing record “Sind so kleine Hände” in Germany Photo: picture alliance/dpa
After protests against the suppression of the Prague Spring, she was given a suspended sentence in 1968 and had to give up her studies. She trained to be a singer and became famous in East and West with songs like “Children (Sind so kleine Hände)”. Stars like Joan Baez sang her songs.
Married to writer Klaus Schlesinger in 1970. The couple was married until 1982 and organized series of events such as “Eintopp” Photo: private
From 1970 to 1982 she was married to the writer Klaus Schlesinger. In 1983 the GDR government forced the mother of three to leave the country. Wegner has lived in Frohnau ever since.
She still performs with various musicians, especially often with chanson singer Karsten Troyke.
1968 in Hohenschoenhausen prison. Wegner is arrested after distributing leaflets against the Warsaw Pact invasion of Prague Photo: private