A healthy baby is declared dead by government agencies and conveyed to adoption – and the biological parents remain orphaned with the trauma of these lie. Forced adoptions in the GDR. Of all things, the Berlin fashion designer Kilian Kerner chose this topic for his new collection, which he presented today as part of the Berlin Fashion Week.
Kerner knows that this raises questions. “Fashion has nothing to do with compulsory adoption or alleged infant death, of course,” says the 46-year-old of the German Press Agency. “And I can also understand that people do: Why does he do that?” The topic packed him personally since he saw a documentary about alleged infant stodes and adoptions in the GDR eight years ago. “I was shocked and deeply touched that there was something like that,” says Kerner.
Thousands of unexplained cases
He informed himself for years and contacted the association “Stolen Children of the GDR”. According to his information, the history of the “stolen children” began in the late 1950s. A total of 15,000 cases would be suspected of supposed infant stodes and about 10,000 forced adoptions. So far, only five cases of allegedly died babies have been informed. There are about 20 to 40 cases for compulsory adoptions.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior launched a study in 2021 to clarify the injustice. Results should be available in early 2026. Officially, there is talk of “politically motivated child abolition”, often in connection with political detention or exit of exit from the parents.
Denim as a symbol of the 80s
So how do you put such a topic into fashion? “The high phase of the compulsory adoption and the alleged infant death was in the 1980s,” says Kerner. “So it quickly became clear to me that it would be an 80s collection.” 80s in the GDR, that was Denim as a symbol of the West and the USA, but in a very specific gray tone, as Kerner says.
“I did a lot about fashion in the GDR. And at first I thought: how do you do it because I do it with glamorous things and the GDR didn’t seem glamorous at all. But that was a fallacy. They had really glamorous clothes, a lot of glitter. I was totally fascinated.”
Points that are uncomfortable
He wants to present all of this in his show in the Uber-Arena in a way that gives the audience access to his dark topic. “No anxiety should be created,” says Kerner. “But I think if you get involved, it just happens. We try to realistically present it. There are points that are not pleasant.”
He cannot be accused of all of this. “It’s not about promoting fashion. I make this topic from the bottom of my heart.” Sure, he wanted his fashion to be seen. But this time he has other goals: “That a DNA bank is set up, that the parents who have doubts are allowed to look into the adoption files or in their files. Only the children can. And that contemporary witnesses are reported.” It is not about financial equalization or punishment. If everything goes, as Kerner imagines, at least ten more cases are informed in one year.