Irene Langemann: Das Gedächtnis der Töchter

Reading and discussion at the Haus der Heimat des Landes Baden-Württemberg. Moderation: Katharina Borchardt, SWR.

A small town in Siberia, 1969, freezing cold. Eleven-year-old Vera is attacked by her classmates and called a fascist. Deeply humiliated, the girl sets out in search of her roots. When her mother introduces her to her family history, Vera embarks on a journey into the past. Her ancestors, devout Mennonites, emigrated from West Prussia to Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. Vera learns the story of her family over six generations: From the modest prosperity of the pious colonists in Tsarist times, to existential hardship and discrimination during the Soviet dictatorship, to the idyllic summers on the coast of Georgia in the 1970s.

"The Daughters' Memory" is the chronicle of a German family trying to put down roots in Russia. A novel about the search for identity in a foreign country, about the many facets of loneliness and the ever-new strength needed to overcome it.

Reading and discussion with Irene Langemann and Katharina Borchardt (moderator).

Irene Langemann was born in Issilkul (Siberia) in 1959 and grew up bilingually in a German family. She studied acting and German language and literature in Moscow. She emigrated to Germany in 1990 and has lived in Cologne ever since, working as an author and director. Her documentary films have won international awards.

Katharina Borchardt is a literary editor and presenter for SWR Kultur.