Berlin,
Germany
Margaret, Graeme and their daughter Jess moved to West Berlin in 1984, with support from DAAD Artist in Berlin Program. This cultural program, established after the Berlin wall went up, invited visual artists, writers and filmmakers to spend a year working in the isolated city.
““I began The Handmaid’s Tale in Berlin on a rented German typewriter.””
Arnulf Conradi, German publisher
“It was horrible. East Germany was very depressing. A leaden, grey and uninspired country. There was very little to do for young people. Even when you walked through the streets of East Berlin, you could feel that the people were not free.”
“[Margaret] told me that while she was in Berlin on that fellowship, she was aware of the wall, and how indeed one could cut a country or a civilization off. Even in modern ages.”
Volker Schloendorff, Director of The Handmaid’s Tale film (1990)