The student
It's almost 9:00 a.m. when Julia Glade locks her bicycle in front of the Institute for Media and Communication Theory at the University of Leipzig. She's been studying here since 2006. The 22-year-old from Bitterfeld-Wolfen is part of the institute's first group of Bachelor degree candidates.
She says the older students at the institute are very supportive - a positive experience that she'd like to pass on. Together with her fellow students and friends in the student representatives' body, she handles problems and questions raised by students. She's been an elected member of the student body for two years now.
Working for fellow students
She's a bit pensive as she enters the student body offices. It looks a bit messy and cluttered. Clearly, people work here. On a notice board hangs a card that reads: “It doesn't hurt to think.” Next to it is a photo of a couple.
Julia also thinks about one day living with a partner and having a family - but not right now. She's been in a relationship with her boyfriend for three years. He works as a systems administrator in a car dealer's. Among the other things she wishes for is "more time to spend with him and to travel."
Julia Glade doesn't live with her boyfriend, though. Instead, she shares a small apartment in a student residence with a childhood friend from Bitterfeld.
Bitterfeld was one of the most significant locations for the chemical industry in East Germany - although with insufficient environmental protection. Back then, Bitterfeld was one of the dirtiest cities in Europe. Julia can't remember those years; when the Wall fell in 1989, she was only two years old. She only knows about that time from the stories told by her parents.
Literary research in the National Library
Not far from the student residence is the National Library. There, Julia Glade can often be found wandering the shelves, doing literary research for her courses. She has long been interested in the media. As a teenager, she wrote for her school newspaper as well as small local journals. On her course at Leipzig, she's chosen a focus on media education.
Julia eats lunch at the cafeteria, known as the "Mensa." Today, her favorite meal - stuffed cabbage - isn't on offer. But no matter; it wouldn't taste as good at the cabbage her Mum makes. That's why she often brings some of her mother's cabbage dish back with her to Leipzig after a weekend visit to her parents' house.
Julia isn't able to devote all of her time to her studies. In order to boost her small bank balance, she also takes on casual work, for example, at the post office.
When she has free time, she likes to listen to music, especially German pop by artists such as Herbert Groenemeyer, Clueso, Sportfreunde Stiller or Silbermond.
But she's also up for new things, and likes to take advantage of Leipzig's cultural offerings. This evening, for example, she's going to the opera for the first time in her life, to see Luigi Nono's "In the Great Sun Charged With Love." It's heavy stuff, with Nono drawing on the hopes and disappointments of failed revolutions for this opera, telling a story of defeat from the female perspective.
Farhad Salmanian (dc)
Editor: Rina Goldenberg