Jürgen Wiebicke: - Reading with author talk
Seven herrings My mother, the silence of war children and speaking before dying
Admission free
Event in cooperation with the Fontanekreis www.fontanekreis-bocholt.de (registration requested)
"I know how little it can be taken for granted that the dialogue between the generations at the end of life is successful.". What do we really know about the lives of our parents, the children of war? When is the right time to become an archaeologist of our own lives and ask our parents? Jürgen Wiebicke follows the accounts of his parents, who, when confronted with death, are driven by a radical openness and no longer want to keep their experiences to themselves. "The death of a person has been compared to the burning of a library. Certain stories can no longer be told afterwards. In this respect, death is a single scandal, a great destroyer." When the end of Jürgen Wiebicke's mother's life loomed on the horizon, he wanted to do better than when his father died. He spoke to both of them - for the first time with such intensity - about their lives and experiences, so that the experiences of the generation that lived through the war and National Socialism as young people would not disappear with their deaths. But he only wrote about his mother. Writing everything down seems particularly important because the history deniers and haters are crawling out of their holes again, while the last generation of contemporary witnesses is passing away. Is this also due to the fact that cycles of war and peace are linked to fading memories? Jürgen Wiebicke gives an exemplary account of a generation that experienced the full force of war and draws parallels with the present day. And he writes about dying and death in today's society, for which dealing with the topic of finiteness is becoming increasingly problematic.
Jürgen Wiebicke works as a freelance journalist and presents the "Philosophical Radio" programme on WDR5
