Paul Werner Wagner speaks about the war diaries and letters of the famous East German director and DEFA film producer
Konrad Wolf.
Sprechen Sie Deutsch? All who wish to hear and speak German are invited to bring their lunch to our monthly presentation and discussion. A topic of interest from German culture, history, or contemporary affairs will be presented, in German, by a selected speaker. Discussion on the topic will complete the
Mittagstisch.
In this
Deutsch am Mittag, Paul Werner Wagner reads from and discusses Konrad Wolf’s book
Konrad Wolf - But I Saw It Myself, This is the War: War Diary and Letters 1942-1945 (Konrad Wolf - Aber ich sah ja selbst, das war der Krieg: Kriegstagebuch und Briefe 1942 – 1945).
In his diaries, which were edited and published by Wagner in 2015, Wolf describes his experiences during the Second World War. Following the Nazis’ rise to power, Wolf’s family immigrated to Russia, where he attended school until he was drafted into military service at the age of seventeen. As a soldier in the Red Army, he fought against the Germans, and in his entries and letters, he writes in a precise and incredibly moving way about the horrors of war. He describes how he drives to the front lines with a megaphone to request the German soldiers surrender. His narration tells about comradery but also about the mistrust he faced for being German.
Paul Werner Wagner grew up in East Germany. His imprisonment for nineteen months for attempting to escape the DDR spurred him to become active in the civil rights movement which led to German reunification in 1990. Wagner works as a literary scholar, cultural manager and chess official, and is chair of the Emanuel Lasker Society, the Friedrich-Wolf-Society and the artist club
Die Möwe.
Sponsored by Friends of the Goethe-Institut.
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