Elisa (04.05.1966-25.04.2002)
In 1982, shortly before her Abitur secondary school exams when she was just 16, Elisa tried to officially start a political party. To achieve this, she regularly met with three of her followers in Gaststätte Kranich. Located in Neubrandenburg in the former GDR, this pub was known to be a seedy, disreputable location; however, this did not stop Elisa from publicly revising and altering political statements in the writings of Marx and Engels. These actions led to her treatment at a psychiatric hospital in nearby Ueckermünde. Her life as she knew it was over; she had no future and could not return to the life she had envisioned for herself. Whether Elisa’s admission to Ueckermünde in 1982 – she often talked about the forced treatment she received and being restrained in a cage bed – was due to a schizophrenic disorder or, rather, was a case of political persecution can no longer be conclusively established. To do so, the life work of the Sackers, married psychiatrists who continued to reign over the psychiatric system in Neubrandenburg long after reunification, would have to come under close scrutiny. I’ll never forget Elisa. After numerous hospitalizations in psychiatric wards (Ueckermünde and Neubrandenburg), her life ended tragically. According to Renate’s testimony, the lifeless body of Elisa, with a bag pulled over her head, was found by her mother in 2002. A suicide note was handed over to the police. (Discher, Christian (2016): The Voices of Those Remaining)
Dr. Christian Discher