© Nicolas Döring
Weekend Tips: What to Do This Weekend in Berlin
April 17 to 19, 2026: Events, festivals, exhibitions and more things to do for your perfect weekend in Berlin. more
This improbable cannot be represented
Drawings by the painting group of Gegenwind
A., Ohne Titel, 2024
© Beratungsstelle Gegenwind
The Gegenwind counseling center has been operating in Berlin since 1998. It offers advice and help for people who are still suffering from the consequences of trauma from the time of the SED dictatorship. The services include psychosocial counseling, therapeutic discussion groups and yoga.
Gegenwind developed from the work of the counseling center "Treffpunkt Waldstraße" in Berlin-Moabit. Many people who had left the GDR came here in the 1980s. Lilo Fuchs and her husband, the writer and GDR dissident Jürgen Fuchs, worked in the psychological team and were among the founders. After 1990, more and more people came looking for spaces to talk about their experiences and the injustices they had suffered in the GDR - this is how Gegenwind came into being.
An important building block is the therapeutic painting group, which has been running since 2007. Until 2022, the artist Dieter Zander, himself a victim, supervised the group. Since 2022, the participants have been accompanied by artist and art therapist Wiebke Jacobs. The aim is to deal with the experience in an artistic and creative way. Even what cannot be said can be expressed in this way. Different techniques and approaches, figurative and abstract, are used.
The exhibition shows works by the painting group. Five people are currently active in the group. They have developed their own style and impressively convey their examination of their own past, how they deal with it in the present - and their view of the future.
Some want to be represented in the exhibition with their full name, others have chosen a pseudonym or wish to remain completely anonymous. The description of their pictures is also individual, as is their artistic approach.
In cooperation with the Gegenwind advice center
Gegenwind developed from the work of the counseling center "Treffpunkt Waldstraße" in Berlin-Moabit. Many people who had left the GDR came here in the 1980s. Lilo Fuchs and her husband, the writer and GDR dissident Jürgen Fuchs, worked in the psychological team and were among the founders. After 1990, more and more people came looking for spaces to talk about their experiences and the injustices they had suffered in the GDR - this is how Gegenwind came into being.
An important building block is the therapeutic painting group, which has been running since 2007. Until 2022, the artist Dieter Zander, himself a victim, supervised the group. Since 2022, the participants have been accompanied by artist and art therapist Wiebke Jacobs. The aim is to deal with the experience in an artistic and creative way. Even what cannot be said can be expressed in this way. Different techniques and approaches, figurative and abstract, are used.
The exhibition shows works by the painting group. Five people are currently active in the group. They have developed their own style and impressively convey their examination of their own past, how they deal with it in the present - and their view of the future.
Some want to be represented in the exhibition with their full name, others have chosen a pseudonym or wish to remain completely anonymous. The description of their pictures is also individual, as is their artistic approach.
In cooperation with the Gegenwind advice center
Runtime: Wed, 10/12/2025 to Sun, 26/04/2026
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