Reading: “New land for Peter Quast”. A staged audio reading of the Emsland youth novel with Stephan W. Müller, Nora Kühnlein and Simone Nowicki

Peter is nine years old in the winter of 1944/45 when he has to leave his home farm in Dirschau (now Tczew) with his mother and sister Maria. The new Emsland “lures” the refugees from the East with work and land. The school and youth book written by non-fiction author Günter Brinkmann in 1959 deals with the fate of an East German refugee family, which was widespread at the time. The loss of their homeland, the arrival in a new environment, the family’s initial existential hardships and the new start in the moorland settlement describe a path in life that many “new Emslanders” took at the time. The non-fiction book is based on two real-life stories of a family of farmhands and a refugee family from Hesepertwist. Under the working title “Peter and the Emsland”, Brinkmann submitted it to Emsland GmbH for review. It has been used as an educational aid in school lessons and school radio since 1959. Nora Kühnlein and Meppen-born Stephan W. Müller read and perform excerpts from the novel, lending the text a special liveliness. The two actors live in Frankfurt am Main and have often performed together on stage – including as permanent ensemble members at the Zimmertheater Rottweil, at the Heppenheim Festival and currently at the Kammerspiele Wiesbaden.

The scenic reading will be acoustically accompanied by the “noise maker” Simone Nowicki, who has already provided an auditory experience in various museums, at documenta 15 and at the live gaming event at the Elbphilharmonie. She is a Foley artist and creates all her sounds herself in her sound studio, sets them to music in the recording studio or live in front of an audience.

Place: City Museum Meppen

Time: 7 pm

Admission: 13 €

Registration: call 05931 153 278 or send an e-mail to

info@stadtmuseum-meppen.de