Heimweh nach Heimat

In the organizer's words:

"Homesick for Home" - A musical-theatrical evening about the life of Bettina Wegner by and with Wanda Perdelwitz, Marcus Schneider & Simon Rawalsk

February 6, 2025 | 7 pm | Tschaikowsky-Haus | Tschaikowskyplatz 2 | 20355 Hamburg

"Contribution to understanding"

As part of the "Days of Exile", Berlin actress Wanda Perdelwitz will present a musical stage program about the life of singer-songwriter Bettina Wegner, who against all odds clings to the GDR in the 1980s in order to make it a better society, at Tschaikowsky Haus on 6 February at 7 pm. Themusical theater evening is a social and artistic examination of homelessness, flight and the direct consequences of the division of Germany.

"Even 35 years after reunification, there are still structural inequalities between East and West. With my program about a courageous but also deeply torn woman who ultimately had to leave her homeland as an unwanted person of the state, I would like to contribute to understanding, ask questions and encourage discourse. We have to talk in order to understand each other," says Wanda Perdelwitz, who developed the program based on the screenplay she wrote together with Martin Behnke about Bettina Wegner's life for a feature film. Co-organizer of the evening is the Hamburg State Center for Political Education, sponsored by the Claussen Simon Foundation.

The song recital tells Bettina Wegner's story in a combination of projected images and music. The actress and author Wanda Perdelwitz plays Bettina, looks at her personal relationship to her East German homeland and lets other exiles have their say. Off-screen voices enter into a dialog with her based on original recordings, including of the court case from 1968. The selection of songs from Bettina's repertoire carries the story, refers to the events and drives them forward. Wanda Perdelwitz plays guitar, and she sings Bettina Wegner's songs covered in a new sound, arranged, composed and accompanied by Marcus Schneider (musical direction, guitar, percussion, bass) and Simon Rawalski (piano).

"Homesick for home" - A musical-theatrical evening about life
by Bettina Wegner by and with Wanda Perdelwitz, Marcus Schneider & Simon Rawalsk

As part of the "Days of Exile "
organized by the Körber Foundation

February 6, 2025, 7 pm | Tchaikovsky House
Tschaikowskyplatz 2 | 20355 Hamburg
Free admission

Price information:

Free registration here