A story about the former "Haus Einheit" in Kappel
City Library: Reading by Petra Pansch on 8 June, 6 pm at TIETZ
On Thursday, 8 June, 6 to 7.30 pm, interested parties are invited to a reading in the event room of the central library in the TIETZ. Petra Pansch will be reading from her biographical-historical novel "Charlottes Volkshaus".
Admission costs 6 euros, concessions 4 euros. Bookings can be made here.
The Volkshaus on Zwickauer Straße in Chemnitz has a special significance for the author Petra Pansch. Her great-grandparents lived here, her grandfather and mother were born here and she herself was born in this traditional house. It was built in 1886 and was a meeting house, inn and ballroom. It included many flats, a large garden, a music pavilion and a restaurant.
Petra Pansch's story about the Chemnitz Zwicke, as the street was affectionately known in her family, is centred around the Volkshaus and Zwickauer Straße. The main character of this biographical-historical novel is Charlotte. When she was born on 29 February 1904, everyone saw it as a good omen to hear her first cry on such a special day, which only comes around every four years. But life writes its own story, at a time when Chemnitz is flourishing economically and is known as the Golden Twenties.
The author:
Petra Pansch, a qualified journalist born in Chemnitz in 1952, worked first at the German television station in Berlin, then in the press office of the city of Karl-Marx-Stadt and later at the Sächsische Zeitung newspaper in Sebnitz until she left the country in 1984.
After leaving the GDR, she worked for the German Press Agency, in the press department of the Koblenz Chamber of Crafts and was instrumental in setting up the adult education radio station RPR1. She also wrote as a freelance journalist for various local newspapers in Rhineland-Palatinate.
She now lives on the edge of the northern Eifel, where she wrote her autobiography and is now writing biographical novels about her family. She also gives readings and lectures as part of the Federal Foundation's contemporary witness programme.