Event as part of the 31st Schwerin Literature Days
WE, THE DAUGHTERS – Reading with Oliwia Hälterlein
One family, two centuries, three women—their stories are interwoven like the silk threads spun by spiders at the end of a long summer. The grandmother, Marianna, grows up at the end of World War II and leads the life of a simple farmer’s wife.
Her daughter Róza would have stayed in her mother’s village, shaped by socialism, had it not been for Szymek with his delicate hands. Had it not been for the city of Gdańsk and shoes clacking on the asphalt. Had it not been for the Solidarity revolution. And had it not been for a child, for whom Róza eventually wishes for a room of her own.
Róza leaves Poland in the late 1980s, and her daughter Waleria grows up in the western part of reunified Germany. She forgets her mother tongue, and the world of her Babcia Marianna—once her home—drifts ever farther away. But when Waleria, now an adult, learns that she cannot have children, unexpected questions arise: What does it mean to be the last one? What does Waleria owe the women in her family? And which stories come to an end with her?
Oliwia Hälterlein, born in 1986 in Bydgoszcz, is an author, dramaturge, host, and lecturer. She studied Slavic Studies, Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, and Theater Studies, and is a graduate of the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. In 2020, her essay “Das Jungfernhäutchen gibt es nicht” was published by Maro Verlag. “Wir Töchter” is her debut novel.
Moderator: Ronja Kindler, theater artist
Wednesday, October 28, 2026,
7:30 p.m.
Kulturforum Schleswig-Holstein-Haus, Puschkinstraße 12
Admission
Box office: €14.00 / Advance sales: €12.00 (plus ticket fee)
Click here for TICKETS
Organizer
, Cultural Office of the State Capital Schwerin
