Oft wollte ich weglaufen, nie habe ich es getan.

“How does one go on living when one was supposed to die?” This question runs like a thread through the work of Grete Weil (1906–1999). Writer, photographer, survivor – her literature wrestles with memory and with finding a language that can withstand loss. Her husband, Edgar Weil, was a dramaturge at the Kammerspiele and was arrested in 1933; the couple then fled to Amsterdam. In 1941, Edgar Weil was deported and murdered; Grete Weil survived in hiding. Her writing remains in a constant dialogue with Edgar, attempting to transform his absence into a presence. This dramatic reading in the Werkraum gives voice to Grete Weil’s texts and biographical testimonies: the voice of a woman who bore witness but, while doing so, never ceased to doubt, to question, to intervene. She writes of love and guilt, shame and dignity, weariness and the possibility of continuing to live in a shattered world.

“A human being without politics is like a sleepwalker.” – Grete Weil

You can find out more about Grete Weil at the exhibition “Literatur & Haltung. Rachel Salamanders Archiv” at the Monacensia in the Hildebrandhaus.