"Love letters from war" – Eine Lesung mit Paula Emmrich und Michael Grosse aus Feldpostbriefen

In the organizer's words:

"Love letters from the war" - Reading with Paula Emmrich and Michael Grosse
Participation is free of charge, pre-registration at ns-doku@krefeld.de
The Förderverein Villa Merländer e.V. is happy to receive donations for educational work.
Almost a thousand pages of field letters written between 1943 and 1945 by Karl to his beloved Grete in Krefeld form the basis for the book "love letters from the war". When his grandson reads the letters, he finds much more than war: he finds love, hope and a deep desire to preserve humanity.
The project follows Karl over a period of two years, from 1943 until the end of the war. We see how he, a thirty-year-old teacher, is drafted into the army. He is married and his daughter is two years old at the time. We follow him to the eastern front, where he works as a cartographer. We read about his worries and curiosity, his inner conflict with the rules of the military, the loss of freedom and the sadness of having to leave his family behind. His words reflect his doubts about the system as well as a clear aversion to war. In small anecdotes, we meet a simple man who continues to search for beauty in the everyday, who clings to home and love. And we see the reality of war, he is the only survivor of his unit.
Although these letters were written over eighty years ago, they seem astonishingly topical today - at a time that is once again characterized by uncertainty, conflict and growing powerlessness. They gently but forcefully remind us that even in the darkest moments, we remain free to decide how to act. The book is more than a personal Krefeld love story, it is a tribute to the power of small gestures, a declaration of love to humanity.
The author of the book is Karl's grandson; Hanno Ketterer (1967) lives as a visual artist in Amsterdam. He worked in management consultancy before studying photography. The book "love letters from the war" was published by Kehrer Verlag at the end of 2025 and presented for the first time at Paris Photo.
Paula Emmrich and Michael Grosse will read passages from the book, Hanno Kettterer will be available to answer questions.
Paula Emmrich was born in Koblenz. After graduating from high school, she was a member of the children's and youth ensemble at the "forum-theater unterhaus" in Mainz for three years. She then completed her acting training at the "spielstatt" vocational school in Ulm. After an "excursion" into the independent theater scene and Spanish street theater, she took up an engagement at Theater Ravensburg and then moved to the Dortmund Children's and Youth Theater as a permanent member of the ensemble. At Theater Krefeld Mönchengladbach, she can mainly be seen in plays for young audiences.
At the beginning of the 2010/11 season, Michael Grosse took over as General Director of the Krefeld and Mönchengladbach theaters. Prior to this, he was artistic director of the Deutsch-Sorbisches Volkstheater Bautzen from 1991-1996, general director of the Theater Altenburg-Gera from 1996-2000 and general director of the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater from 2000-2010.

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