A core value my parents passed down to me as a child was empathy, and my father demonstrated it in a very personal way. He was a fan of German Schlager, beat, and country-western music—genres I couldn't stand as a teenager. I was obsessed with 80s synth-pop, Depeche Mode, and modern Western sounds.
We occasionally received vinyl records from relatives in Munich, but they rarely matched what I wanted to hear. Even though tuning in to West German radio stations was strictly forbidden by party officials and the Stasi, my dad secretly listened to Bayern 3 for my sake. He tape-recorded the weekly pop charts so I could listen to the music I loved. Setting his own musical tastes aside and taking a quiet risk just to bring me joy was a subtle yet profound lesson in care and human empathy.
