Die Vertreibung der Gerta Schnirch

In the organizer's words:

The expulsion of Gerta Schnirch

As part of the festival "So macht man Frühling" of the German-Czech Culture Days 29.3.-6.4.

Gerta Schnirch is guilty! Guilty of being a woman, guilty of her mother being Czech, guilty of her father being German, guilty of belonging here and there and thus nowhere; guilty of being born in Brno in the first half of the twentieth century, guilty of her honesty, guilty of her belief in the honesty of others, guilty of wanting to live, guilty of wanting to survive. Gerta Schnirch, universal culprit, universal victim of private and public evil. The story of a small woman in a country too small to find a place for her in the great history of the last century. "I feel safe here. If I let go of all my fantasies, if I humble myself, if I stop worrying about how I should live, then I could even be happy here."

Vyhnani Gerty Schnirch

The girl Gerta grew up in the bilingual Schnirch family in Brno, Moravia. Her mother is Czech, her father is German and, like her brother, a supporter of Hitler. With the establishment of the German protectorate in 1938, the family and society split into a Czech and a German part. Her mother dies and Gerta becomes pregnant by her own father. Like thousands of Germans, the young woman was declared an enemy of the state after the war, expatriated and expelled on the night of May 30-31, 1945 in the so-called "Brno Death March". Gerta and her daughter survive with other German women doing forced labor in the countryside. Years later, they return to their foreign hometown and, stigmatized as Germans, live on the fringes of communist society in Czechoslovakia. In her novel, Tučková recounts the fate of these women and addresses painful questions of guilt, revenge and forgiveness between Czechs and Germans.
Kateřina Tučková tells the story of the Germans and Czechs from the independent Czech Republic through two dictatorships to the post-communist era based on an individual fate.

About the author

Katerina Tucková was born in Brno in 1980 and studied art history, literature and linguistics. She works as a curator, non-fiction author and writer. Katerina Tucková's books have been translated into eleven languages. Her book has been published in German under the title "Gerta, das deutsche Mädchen" (Klak Verlag, 2019). It was translated from Czech by Iris Milde.

Based on the book "Gerta, das deutsche Mädchen" by Katerina Tuckova. Guest performance by Theater Didiart from Prague. 7.00 pm discussion with the author. 20.00 start of the performance.

Dramaturgy: Martin Vokoun
Stage design: Agnieszka Pátá Oldak
Music: David Hlaváč
Light design: Daniel Rejchrt
Visual concept: Jarmila Štuková
Choreography: Irena Kristeková
Production: Andrea Machová
Ensemble:
Aneta Kalertová, Jaroslava Košková, Diana Šoltýsová, Lenka Zbranková, Barbora Kostkanová, Tereza Engelová, Kateřina Zapletalová, Katka Pichler, Zuzana Částková, Taťána Havlová, Karolína Půčková, Michal Kern.

The project was supported by:
German Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Home Affairs
Umbrella organization of German associations in the Czech Republic e.V.
Association of Germans in Prague and Central Bohemia e.V.

Price information:

normal: 25 € reduced: 14 €