“Don't ask too many questions, you're annoying.” Anke Greb heard this often as a small child.
She quickly learned to adapt - to the family, to the GDR system, to school.
The move to the west to Erding also required adjustments.
The potential of the trained dental assistant was only determined with an IQ test eight years ago.
Much has changed in her life since then.
BY GERDA AND PETER GEBEL
Kirchasch - She was born and raised in Naumburg an der Saale (Saxony-Anhalt, then GDR).
She did not go to kindergarten until she was three, as the seven-year-old brother was often sick.
As an exception, the mother was allowed to work at home for three years as a bookbinder, the father worked in the Leuna-Werke chemical combine.
"You couldn't live on a salary," says Greb, who still remembers the settling-in period in kindergarten with horror: "I wasn't used to other children." But she quickly learned to adapt.
But she reports enthusiastically about her ten years of schooling at the Polytechnic High School.
“I enjoyed the lessons, I didn't need to study a lot and I had a lot of friends.” The annual “Certificate for good learning in a socialist school” for an average grade was better than 1.5.
School successes were not an issue at home, and parents did not praise them.
After she went through the West German school system with her two daughters today, she draws a critical comparison: “In the east, the focus was rather positive on what was learned, we wanted to teach the children something.
With my children, the focus was often on looking for mistakes, ”says the 50-year-old.
A visit to the dentist's emergency service was decisive for her career choice, where the girl, in panic, encountered an extremely understanding doctor.
"Then I knew: this is my job, I want to do that too and take away the patients' fear," she recognized.
Greb has fond memories of her apprenticeship.
In addition to the good pay, her diploma would have enabled her to then take up the planned study of dentistry.
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School child Anke Greb at the age of seven.
© private / Repro: Gebel
But here the inquisitive woman from Naumburg got in the way of politics.
She graduated from college in 1990, shortly after the fall of the Wall in 1989. The certificate recognition office explained to her that her qualification could not be recognized as a technical diploma, and that studying was no longer possible.
Greb was disappointed, worked in a dental clinic.
About the time after the fall of the Wall, she says: “It was all uncertain and dramatic for us.
Many colleagues immediately disappeared to the West, you didn't know in the morning who would come to work today. ”She herself was not drawn to the West because she did not suffer and had friends and family in the East.
But let's see what it's like over there, that's what she wanted.
The first visits to Frankfurt or Hof were almost too tiring for their eyes: "Everything was so colorful there, the houses, the shop windows." In contrast, in the GDR, due to the lack of a market economy, no advertising was necessary, so the goods were muted colors were offered.
Greb has positive memories of the fact that one could finally officially listen to western music.
During a visit to a former colleague who had settled in Freising, the then 23-year-old got to know a young foreign trade clerk who, thanks to his IT skills, had got a job with the Amadeus Group.
After half a year of long-distance relationship, it was clear to her that she would move to her boyfriend in Bavaria.
"Back then we didn't have a phone, you could only make phone calls in the post office, and train rides were expensive too," she says with a smile.
In Erding, she immediately found a job in Werner Nominacher's dental practice - "my best boss," as Greb assures.
Nevertheless, the move was not easy for the East Germans who lacked their friends and family in the West.
"Somehow the feeling of belonging was gone, the family celebrations and meetings now mostly took place without me," she regrets.
The idea of advancing professionally was still present.
But the lack of high school diploma for a degree slowed her down.
"I didn't think I could make up for my Abitur over several years in evening school in Munich," she says.
In addition to working as a dental assistant, she worked in the Erdinger health park, where she looked after the sauna and supported the physio department in switching to computers.
Here she soon took over the prescription accounting, which was compatible with parental leave even after the wedding and the birth of daughter Michelle.
With Wolfgang Weißbach, the rehabilitation center moved to the Therme Erding and later to Franz-Brombach-Straße, where Greb also took over the entire rehab coordination with appointments and applications in addition to billing.
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With her daughters on the beach: Anke Greb with Michelle (r.) And Eileen in 2014.
© private / Repro: Gebel
Only after 19 years, which she had enjoyed very much, did Greb leave the rehabilitation center after internal changes.
Now she attended a career coaching in Freising, but that was difficult because she found all of the coach's suggestions: “I can't do that.” There was a strong discrepancy between the perception of others and self-perception.
Caused by the parents' lack of appreciation for good work, the opinion had established itself: “I can't really do anything.” When praised, she even felt more like a con man.
The coach suggested dealing with the topic of giftedness, and after reading two relevant books it was clear to Greb: "Either I'm crazy or mentally disturbed, but I have the same symptoms as a gifted person." The IQ test at the The gifted association “Mensa in Deutschland” in Munich 2012 brought clarity: Its result was in the gifted area of over 130 points, which only two percent of the population achieve.
“A nuclear physicist is gifted, but not a dental assistant”, she thought and had to practice with the therapist for a long time in order to be able to tell anyone about the surprising test result.
The parents' reaction was clear to her - practically none came.
What was astonishing, however, was the reaction of close friends, who were not very surprised and had already thought of something like that.
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National border: Anke Greb (r.), Who grew up in the GDR, with a friend at the German-German Museum in Mödlareuth, where the inner-German border once ran.
© private
To see how the other gifted people are like that, she registered with the Mensa association and met a group of women whose participants had only learned of their talent in adulthood.
“I immediately felt I belonged here, they were like me,” says the mother of two.
The two daughters, who had to struggle with various school problems, were also tested, and they also found a high level of talent.
An acquaintance put Greb in contact with an employment agency for academics.
But the man, who turned out to be the owner of an IT consulting company in Munich, recognized the potential of the young woman, who did not trust herself so much, and spontaneously offered her a job in his company.
She should take over the preparation for ISO certification for the company.
"A job that I had absolutely no idea about," as Greb asserts.
She jumped in the deep end and gave herself a week at the new job.
“On the first day I sat at the empty desk with an empty PC and a blank sheet of paper,” she recalls with a shudder.
And the project should be in place in five months.
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She bit through, got experts on board and, after the successful certification audit, was able to get high praise for her work not only from her boss, but also from the auditor.
For Greb, the jump into the company was a great gain, because there she felt taken seriously and understood.
She is now an audit consultant.
There have also been radical changes for Greb in the private sector.
Five years ago she separated from her husband, the house they shared was sold, and she moved into her own apartment in Kirchasch with her younger daughter Eileen.
In the meantime she has found a new love: a long-distance relationship with her French friend Patrice from Bordeaux.
Linguistically, it is a challenge for both of them, writing is done in German and French, spoken with a mixture of German, English and French.
"We both improve in the partner's language, and if in doubt there are translation programs," says Greb.
In addition, she finds enough time for her hobbies such as jogging, philosophy, trampoline jumping, playing the piano or reading.
The two of them are also active in sport when hiking or cycling in the mountains.
Greb is grateful for her development: “I have made a good step forward on my way.” She now dares to ask questions whenever she wants and has recognized what she is good at: advising people.
In her own family, in addition to her talented daughters, she also supports her niece on the sometimes difficult path of recognizing and using her own abilities.
information
to the highly gifted association “Mensa in Deutschland” at www.mensa.de;
Literature tips on life as a gifted adult: Andrea Brackmann: "Quite normally gifted" and "Beyond the norm - gifted and highly sensitive?"
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