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Christiane Vera Felscherinow (born 20 May 1962) is a German actress and musician who is best known for her contribution to the 1978 autobiographical book Zoo Station: The Story of Christiane F. (original title: Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo), and the film and television miniseries based on the book, in which her teenage drug use is documented.

Early life

Christiane Vera Felscherinow was born in Hamburg, then in West Germany, but her family moved to West Berlin when she was a child. They settled in Gropiusstadt, a neighbourhood in Neukölln that consisted mainly of high-rise apartment blocks where social problems were prevalent. Felscherinow's father frequently drank large volumes of alcohol and was abusive towards his two daughters, while her mother was absorbed by an extra-marital relationship.

When she was 12 years old, Felscherinow began smoking hashish with a group of friends who were slightly older at a local youth club. They gradually began using stronger drugs such as LSD and various forms of pills and she ended up using heroin. By the time she was 14, she was heroin-dependent and a prostitute, mainly at West Berlin's then-largest railway station Berlin - Zoo. During this period, she became part of a group of teenage drug-users and sex workers of both sexes.

Christiane F.

The book

Two journalists from the news magazine Stern, Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck, met Felscherinow in 1978 in Berlin when she was a witness in a trial of a man who paid underaged girls with heroin in return for sex. The journalists wanted to disclose the drug problem among teenagers in Berlin, which was severe but also surrounded by strong taboos, and arranged a two-hour interview with Felscherinow. The two hours extended to two months, as Felscherinow provided an in-depth description of her life, as well as those of other teenagers, in West Berlin during the 1970s. The journalists subsequently ran a series of articles about her heroin use in Stern, based on the tape-recorded interviews with Felscherinow.

In 1979, the Stern publishing house published a book based on the interviews, Zoo Station: The Story of Christiane F. (German: Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo). The book chronicles Felscherinow's life from 1975 to 1978, between the ages of 12 and 15 years, and depicts several of Felscherinow's friends, along with other drug users, as well as scenes from typical locations of the Berlin drug scene at the time. The narrative of the book is in the first person, from Felscherinow's viewpoint, but was written by the journalists functioning as ghostwriters. Others, such as Felscherinow's mother and various people who witnessed the escalating drug situation in Berlin at the time, also contributed to the book.

The UK issue of the book was released by Corgi on 21 August 1981 under the title H. Autobiography of a Child Prostitute and Heroin Addict and was translated by Susanne Flatauer (ISBN 0552117722 ISBN 9780552117722).

The first American edition of the book was released by Bantam in 1982 under the title Christiane F.: Autobiography of a Girl of the Streets and Heroin Addict, also translated by Susanne Flatauer (ISBN 0553208977). As of October 2013, Felscherinow continues to receive monthly royalty payments close to €2,000 (US$2,720) for the book Christiane F. and the film. In 2013, a new translation by Christina Cartwright was published by Zest Books of San Francisco under the title Zoo Station.

The film

In 1981, the book was adapted into the film Christiane F. which was directed by Uli Edel and produced by Bernd Eichinger and Hans Weth. The screenplay was written by Herman Weigel and Natja Brunckhorst played the role of the titular character. Its title in Germany was Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, and in English-speaking countries Christiane F.

Much of the movie is shot in the actual surroundings of Gropiusstadt and Bahnhof Zoo. David Bowie, Christiane's favorite singer at the time of the interviews that informed the book, appears as himself in a concert. Bowie also provided the movie's soundtrack that was released in Germany in 1981.

In a December 2013 interview, Felscherinow stated that she attended the German premiere of the film with Bowie, who picked her up in a chauffeured limousine: "I thought David Bowie was going to be the star of my movie, but it was all about me." Felscherinow agreed that the film was an accurate portrayal of her life at the time, but revealed that she does not like the film "that much":

it doesn't describe how I grew up, how I was neglected by my parents. My father was a drinker and he abused my sister and me. He was choleric and my mom just did nothing, She was more into her affair with another man and her beauty. I was so lonely when I was a kid. I just wanted to belong; I was struggling with the world.

Post-Christiane F.

After the initial success of the book and the film, Felscherinow found herself becoming something of a celebrity, both in Germany and other countries in Europe. A subculture of teenage girls in Germany began to emulate her style of dress and spent time around the Bahnhof Zoo, which became an unlikely tourist attraction. This development concerned drug experts in the youth field, who feared that, despite the film's bleakness and numerous drug-related scenes (particularly those portraying the reality of heroin withdrawal), vulnerable teens might regard Felscherinow as a cult hero and role model.

Between 1982 and 1985, Felscherinow lived in Zürich with the Keel family, owners of the Diogenes publishing house. During this time she met Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Patricia Highsmith and Patrick Süskind. In 2013 she explained that she "lived between literature stars and the heroin scene" and described Platzspitz park in Zürich as "like Disney World for junkies"; however, Felscherinow further explained that the area became "a heap of garbage" as people died after contracting the hepatitis C and HIV viruses, and rival gangs engaged in violent conflict.