HEIMWEH WONACH - Eine unerzählte Geschichte
„I believed I could reshape the world, create a better and fairer world.“
Her life spans almost the entire century - a life marked by escape, by a great loss that still hurts today, that has never stopped hurting. But it is also a life marked by a great hope that has made the unimaginable possible. Much later, the daughter begins to ask questions, and the mother seeks answers, her own answers. And then she tells of the time before motherhood, of her own daughterhood, of being Jewish, of being cast out, of arriving in another country, of loss and pain, insurmountable until the end - and then of the return. Of a new beginning, that jubilant word, back in the completely bombed birth city, of the founding of a new state, the GDR, of a shared vision, as strong as never before, a wish to change the country, to make the world better, to prove that it is possible.
But what remains when this vision dangerously falters?
HEIMWEH WONACH not only examines the major turning points in life but also the everyday, the cohabitation in the family between parents and children - sometimes tender and sensitive, and then again full of accusation. The play shows how, despite experienced pain and the speechlessness about it, an approach between the generations can begin.
“With ruthless, reckless intensity, my mother worked on her fingers with the most varied instruments. She was never careful or gentle. Often blood flowed out, which she licked or sucked more. I watched her as she chose the right instrument like a craftsman. When she had cut too deep and the blood welled up, she scolded me as if I were to blame for it.”
HEIMWEH WONACH is based on an interview with Ursula Herzberg, conducted by Wolfgang Herzberg, her son (author, publicist, and lyricist for the punk band PANKOW), her own life report from the year 2000, as well as texts from her daughter Wera Herzberg (direction).