Miriam Bavarel reveals the shadows of the past in Walle!

Miriam Bavarel reveals the shadows of the past in Walle!

On May 9, 2025, a reading will take place in the Bremen city library, which is to activate the collective memory. Miriam Bavarel, who grew up in the Walle district of Bremen, will read from her novel "The time of the Waller wolves". The novel deals with flight, loss and survival in the war and post-war period around 1945 in Bremen.

The inspiration for the story comes from her mother Gisela Potulski's memoirs, which the author discovered 16 years after her death. These memories, both in writing and on the tape, flowed into Bavarel's work, which includes topics such as love, hatred and the loss of home. The novel was created in the first months of 2024, while Bavarel was sitting at the desk early in the morning and putting the ominous experiences of her protagonists on paper.

The influence of family history

The main characters of the novel are Hella and Hannes, who live in the last days of the war and in the time afterwards. Hella is raised by her mother and grandmother in Walle, while Hannes flees from occupied East Prussia as a "wolfskind". The wolf, which plays a central role in the title of the novel, symbolizes both loss and will to survive. Thousands of East Prussian children who were left behind in Lithuania in Lithuania are further inspiration for history.

Miriam Bavarel has used extensive research and eyewitness reports from the post -war period for her novel to research her topic for her novel. The experiences in the bunker, flight and the challenges of the post -war period are particularly urgently described. This representation is not only a look at your own family history, but also raises social questions about the memory and dealing with the past.

an important literary contribution

The novel will be published in March 2024 in the Kellner-Verlag. Bavarel sees the writing as the continuation of her mother's memory work. Gisela Potulski taught for 30 years at the Nordstraße primary school in Bremen and died in 2007. The author, who lives with her husband and four children in Geneva, only spent the first years of her childhood in Walle, but continues to maintain close connections to the city.

BAVAREL plans further readings in Bremen in April and May 2024, which underline the relevance of their topic in the current discourse on flight and displacement. These topics remain important in German post -war history, be it through official memorial days or the framework of political speeches, such as those of Richard von Weizsäcker who remember the displaced persons and recognize their suffering.

In a time when the memory of the horrors of war and the displacement is often overlaid by new challenges, Bavarel's work is an important opportunity to preserve and reflect on the experiences of the affected people. Historical narratives, supplemented by personal stories, offer valuable insights into the complex mixture of flight and identity in society.