Features on these issues provide subjects for discussion and enhance the conversation on Talking Germany. Peter Craven asks Sven Marquardt about his youth as a punk in East Germany and about his photography. His guest also has a penchant for tattoos and cemeteries.
Short Biography
He was born in 1962 and grew up in East Berlin. He became a photographer and worked in what was then East Germany for fashion magazines such as Sibylle. He also documented the East Berlin underground scene. He was something of a star, but after German reunification there was little interest in his work in the west. He gave up photography and got a job as a bouncer -- first at a club called Ostgut and then at Berghain. As it became world-renowned, its burly bouncer covered in tattoos and piercings also gained a reputation as an icon of the Berlin scene. Since he took up photography again in 2003, Sven Marquardt has published two books of photos.