That Quote Has Been Living In My Drafts For Years - Tumblr Posts

"Meine Sachen waren halt die Anziehsachen, die es im Osten zu kaufen gab. Mein großer Bruder hatte sie außerdem schon ein paar Jahre vor mir getragen. Oder ich trug, wie gesagt, stolz die Mädchensachen aus die Westpaketen. Vielleicht bin ich im falschen Körper geboren worden. So etwas hört man ja jetzt immer öfter. Als Kind habe ich das wahrscheinlich einfach nicht gemerkt."

(It's towards the end of Der Tastenficker when he's talking about his romantic history. He then goes on to decide that the problem was just that he didn't wash his pants or his hair, so women weren't interested.)

Perhaps this is a weird ask but it came up in a few conversations recently.

There’s one anecdote floating around that Flake may have questioned his gender identity when he was younger, what’s the deal with it? So many people I know have heard of it, and no one actually has a source! Because of that I doubt its validity. And if untrue, I wonder where it started. Have you heard of it?

At the end of the day it’s not our business anyways, I’m just curious.

Interesting..i must say i never heard it before, but ofcourse i haven't heard or read everything Flake has said, and with his book tours and various podcasts (his own, or guesting on others'), he may well have said something in that direction and i don't know it.

It is not an often recurring theme though, not like talking about hiking with his family or his chilean friend, or being scarec of everything; about that he talks a lot.

Just to be sure, i turned to Flake's first book 'Der Tastenficker' which is more biographical about himself than 'Heute hat die Welt Geburtstag', and reread the first parts. As far as i can tell there is nothing in it about questioning gender identity or something alluding to it.

I found one part that, although not about gender as such, it does involve wearing girl's clothes, and i wonder if this somehow evolved into something different after retelling (either by Flake himself, or by fans). In it Flake talks about getting packages from 'The West' from family if his dad. (page 55 in my edition of Der Tastenficker)

"Denn wir bekamen nur ganz selten Westpakete von der Familie meines Vaters. Da waren dann auch einige abgelegte Anziehsachen dabei, die ich gerne anzog, schon allein, weil sie so gut rochen. Mir fiel gar nicht auf, dass das alles Mädchensachen waren, da wir im Westen nur zwei Cousinen hatten, die etwas älter als wir waren und uns ihre abgelegten Sachen schicken konnten. Ich fand besonders die Kleider sehr praktisch, weil ich sie mir in die Unterhosen stecken konnte, ohne dass sie herausrutschten. Auch als Nachthemd waren sie sehr kuschelig. Meine Band war allerdings recht irritiert, als ich eines Morgens ganz stolz im Kleid zum Frühstück erschien."

"Because we only very rarely got packages from the West from my father's family. There were also some discarded clothes that I liked to put on, if only because they smelled so good. It didn't even occur to me that it was all girl stuff, since we only had two girl-cousins ​​in the west who were a little older than us and could send us their discarded things. I found the dresses especially useful because I could tuck them into my underwear without them falling out. They were also very cozy as nightgowns. However, my band was quite irritated when I showed up proudly in my dress for breakfast one morning."

But that's the nearest i could find...maybe someone else has an idea 🌺