An Afternoon at MaDame

An Afternoon at MaDame


I'm sitting with Wolfgang Müller, Ahmad Hamad and Anna Kristjánsdóttir at the bistro MaDame at Hallesches Tor. Anna is visiting from Iceland and she's making a stop in Berlin while on a tour through the former East. She shows me her pictures of birds. There is one bird with only one leg. "It wasn't hiding its other leg," Anna tells me, "I waited long enough to know." 

Anna shows me also a picture of a rescue helicopter. Once, she says, she threw the president of Iceland into the sea. It happened on an 11th of February, and 112 happens to be the emergency number of Iceland. So the emergency team was waiting with rescue helicopters when Anna threw the president in the water. Anna knows the sea very well. She used to be a fisherman. "Was it difficult to be a woman at sea?" I ask her. "No," she says.

Anna is not only famous in Iceland for throwing the president in the water. She was also the first transgender person in Iceland. Things have changed since then. Anna tells me that there are about 40 transgender people in Iceland.

"Omas gegen Rechts" (Grandmothers against the Right) are sitting next to us. The grandmothers are making buttons. Grandma Gertrude comes to our table. First she tries to convince Wolfgang to become a Grandfather against Right but Wolfgang doesn't really show much grandfather capacities. Then Gertrude gets her Ipad and shows us a slideshow. Anna herself has eleven grandchildren, she says proudly. 


Wasps are attacking our lemonades and beers on the table. Anna gets stung in the hand. The waiter of MaDame brings us an onion to rub on the swollen hand and half an hour later, when it's time to go, Anna's hand is de-swollen. All's well that ends well. 

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