“Ulrike & Co.” The Girls and Women in Ehm Welk’s Life and Work—A Literary Reflection by Günther H. W. Preuße
Everyone was talking about Martin, Johannes, Krischan… Traugott Fibelkorn…—the pagan chieftains of Kummerow… Occasionally, someone would also mention the pastor’s daughter, Ulrike…
But—what about Mrs. Harms (who, after all, wanted to die ten days before Easter)? Who were Elisabeth Fiebelkorn, Mrs. Grambauer, Sister Anna, Lisa, Mrs. Bölcke, old Hanisch, Lina Mertens, or the Schmidts? And what about Johannes Bärensprung’s abandoned mother!?
One would have to read the books all over again from scratch! This time with a focus on the world of the women and girls, to the extent that Ehm Welk placed them and described them within the small, self-contained world of Biesenbrow, which he called Kummerow.
“Work and toil were our lot,” recalled Christiane Welk, Ehm Welk’s grandmother. She and Auguste Welk (née Wall)—a shepherd’s daughter and Ehm Welk’s mother—along with many others from his time in Biesenbrow, became living models for his literary characters.
“A Reading of a Different Kind!” by Günther H. W. Preuße for this year’s Ehm Welk Days.
