Sep 3, 2009, 12:04 GMT
Borsdorf, Germany - Two minutes were enough to ensure Sarah Klier a place in the history books. She saw the light of day for the first time in the east German city of Leipzig on October 2nd 1990 - two minutes before midnight.
This date and time of birth make Sarah Klier the very last person to have been born in the former communist-ruled German Democratic Republic (GDR). 'It doesn't make a lot of difference to everyday life - except that photographers and TV cameras turn up on my birthday every year,' said the 18-year-old.
Klier lives at home with her mother in Borsdorf near Leipzig. If anything she is bemused by her special status: 'It is not usually much of an issue,' said the blonde-haired teenager. 'You do get a few comments from friends although it's a pretty well-worn topic by now.'
Referred to at the time as the 'the final cry uttered by the GDR,' Klier became famous overnight. 'There was a photographer in the hospital at the time but he was poised to take a shot of the first post-GDR baby in reunified Germany,' said Klier.
It seems Sarah was not content to hang around until German reunification. 'Suddenly a midwife said to the photographer: 'Why don't you take a snap of the last GDR child? That's really something isn't it?''
The photos were flashed halfway around the world, said Klier. Her family got letters from all over the place - 'from France and Africa,' she said. Klier keeps the mementos in an album. 'When visitors come around we sometimes flick through them.'
When strangers ask Klier to tell them something about the GDR she is often at something of a loss. 'I grew up in Germany,' she said. 'Of course we learned all about it in history at school and I know what my mum and friends have told me. Personally speaking, I have no link with the GDR whatsoever.'
Sarah does not see her Saxony home as the be-all-and-end-all either. 'You have to be flexible these days,' she said. 'I'm a cosmopolitan person.'
She also has no time for the so-called 'Wessi-Ossi' division between the two former parts of the country that still exists in some quarters almost two decades after reunification: 'For me there is only Germany.'
Sarah is currently waiting to see if she has been awarded a place to study tourism management. Her exam results fell short of what she was expecting but she is off soon for some work experience in the Dominican Republic in the hope of boosting her chances.
Before that Sarah will be marking her 19th birthday on October 2nd, a date which makes her birthday even more worth celebrating than it would be anyway. The day after, October 3rd, is a public holiday in Germany - 'so I always get the day off,' she said.
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