Monday, 11/4/2024
at 7:00 PM


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The life of a woman in the 20th century: Greta Wehner (1924-2017)

Greta Wehner was the companion of Herbert Wehner (1906-1990) starting in 1953. For thirty years, she supported Herbert Wehner and her mother, eventually becoming a caregiver for the elderly social democrat. Christoph Meyer depicts in his book "Greta Wehner. A woman steps out of the shadow" a comprehensive portrait of a woman's life in the 20th century: between her roles as secretary, advisor, later wife, and caregiver, Greta Wehner developed her own personality alongside the strong Herbert Wehner over the years. The author Christoph Meyer writes: "She always does, independently, what she considers necessary. She provides individual case assistance, in politics and at home and everywhere, and for two people who are closer to her than anyone else, for the two she loves." She met the greats of German and international politics. There is no pattern to Greta Wehner's life; it is a human life, and that is what Christoph Meyer's book tells.

Greta Wehner was born in 1924 in Hamburg and was the daughter of a Hamburg resistance fighter who was murdered by the Nazis. Her mother, Lotte, worked as a gardener in the famous garden of the Warburg family. She grew up in Barmbek, fleeing with her mother and brother to Sweden in 1937, where her mother met Herbert Wehner, whom she married in 1944. Back in Hamburg, Wehner quickly took on greater political responsibility – and was elected to the German Bundestag for Hamburg-Harburg as early as 1949, serving until 1983. His wife Lotte fell seriously ill in 1953, and he asked their daughter Greta to support him.

Christoph Meyer studied history, politics, and German studies. Since its founding by Greta Wehner in 2003, Christoph Meyer has been the chair of the Herbert and Greta Wehner Foundation in Dresden.

Organizer: Literaturhaus Schleswig-Holstein in cooperation with the State Commissioner for Political Education Schleswig-Holstein

Photo Christoph Meyer © H. Hammer / Mittweida

Entry: 6:30 PM

Event data provided by: Reservix

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