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Rebecca Martin's fact sheet

Rebecca Martin September 20, 2015

Rebecca wrote her first novel while she was still in school, and it quickly became a bestseller on the German market. But there's more to life than writing books, she says.

https://p.dw.com/p/1GY0J
Generation 25 Protagonist Rebecca Martin

What is your name?
Rebecca Martin

Where and when were you born?
In 1990 in Berlin

What is your current place of residence?
Berlin

What is your profession?
I'm a writer and a student.

What is your biggest wish in life?
That my friends and family remain healthy, and that everything continues to go well like it has so far.

What are you proud of?
What does "pride" even mean? I would rather like to reflect on the things that I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for having found what I want from life. I feel like I have arrived where I need to be and know what I want.

Tell us about an image that will never be erased from your memory.
There are lots of such images. I think that I'm a rather visual person - that's why I'm a film student. I seem to have lots of psycho-nightmares. I believe that those images from those dreams actually inform me on how I lead my life.

If you could choose one person to meet, dead or still alive, who would this be and why?
That's a tough one. I'm sure there are several such people I could think of. But there's no one who I would want to meet under formal circumstances. I absolutely hate such stiff meet-and-greet scenarios. I'd rather meet someone I admire by chance.

What makes you happy?
Get ready for some standards. My family makes me very happy. My friends make me happy. Nature also makes me very happy - I find that big cities are rather draining. I'm happy when there's no Internet access. It's really remarkable just how much my mood improves without the Internet. And what really, really makes me happy is good food. And also sharing good stories - that also makes me happy.

What makes you angry?
Lots of societal things and lots of interactions with others. I'm angry at the way that doctors treat patients, and I'm angry at the way that women are treated as a minority. But I'm not an angry person as such, and I don't want any kind of anger to control my actions. I want to have a constructive way of dealing with anger. Take a good look around; you'll realize that there's always a reason to be angry at something. But such behavior serves no one. It only makes you sick.

What's your favorite activity?
Anything that involves food. I really love to eat. Ideally, I prefer to do it in the company of friends gathered around a large table. I can eat for hours, enjoying homemade specialties, drinking good wine and just enjoying my own enjoyment.

What does the German reunification symbolize in your life?
It doesn't play a role in my life, actually. Neither of my parents are German. I was born in Berlin, but it was the West of the city. When I was little, there was a lot of talk about this East/West divide. In school, there was still a notion of separateness among those who were born in 1989 or before. Sometimes they'd ask, "Are you East German or West German?" But when the 1990s began, that became a non-issue. Personally, none of this defines me.