German Traces – Lithuanian Encounters
Film Screening and Discussion with Sonya Winterberg, Matthias Sonn, Marijus Petrušonis and Susanne Šemelė

Information in German

Sonya Winterberg, an award-winning author from Germany, was the writer-in-residence in the Lithuanian port city of Klaipėda/Memel during the summer of 2022. Her temporary home: the district library in a place rich with German heritage and even a German name: Memel. Together with camera operator Susanne Dzeik, she set out on a tour of the region, discovering traces of the past in the most unlikely places. Here, bordering Russia’s Kaliningrad region, contemporary politics play into the exploration of history: the threat of Putin’s war of aggression is palpable in every encounter.

Sonya Winterberg | Foto: © Amac Garbe, 2022

Much of Sonya Winterberg's journalistic work focuses on children growing up in armed conflicts. War and trauma have lasting consequences on their biographies, which she has written about extensively. Her bestselling book Wir sind die Wolfskinder about the East Prussian war orphans who were left behind the Iron Curtain was translated into Lithuanian (Mes – vilko vaikai. Palikti Rytų Prūsijoje) in 2019, and most recently into English (The Wolf Children of the Eastern Front). She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

More information about the movie in German Documentaries 2023.

The violinist Olga Kondratieva. Still from the movie »German Traces – Lithuanian Encounters«

Program of the event

Welcome and introductions

• Marijus Petrušonis, First Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the United States of America and to the United Mexican States
• Tobias Bergner, Director of the German Information Center - Public Diplomacy, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany   in Washington DC
• Susanne Šemelė, German Cultural Forum for Central and Eastern Europe

Film screening

German Traces – Lithuanian Encounters
(German title: Die Stadtschreiberin – Spurensuche im Memelland)
D 2022, 30 min., OV with English subtitles
Director: Sonya Winterberg, Susanne Dzeik
Camera: Susanne Dzeik

Discussion

Featuring special guests:

• Sonya Winterberg
• Matthias Sonn, former Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Lithuania.
  ^{Retired Ambassador Matthias Sonn, a decorated career diplomat with Germany’s Foreign Office, was his country’s Ambassador to Lithuania from 2019 until July 2023.}
• Moderated by Marijus Petrušonis and Susanne Šemelė.

Light refreshments will be served during the event.

Admission is free, booking via Eventbrite is required.

This event is a cooperation of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the United States of America and to the United Mexican States and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Washington, DC  with the German Cultural Forum for Central and Eastern Europe.

^{The Culture Forum is financed by the Federal Government's Commission for Cultural and Media Affairs.} 

Sonya Winterberg was the writer-in-residence in Klaipėda/Memel 2022. From May to September 2022, she reported from the Lithuanian port city for five months.

www.stadtschreiberin-memel.de  | www.miesto-rastininke-klaipeda.com
To the weblog of the writer-in-residence Klaipėda/Memel 2022