Moderated by Gisela Steinhauer, WDR radio presenter

The quiet farewell to rural life in Germany

The proud rural agriculture with livestock markets, self-sufficiency and hard backbreaking work disappeared at a rapid pace and yet very quietly over the course of the 1960s. Ewald Frie uses his family as an example to talk about the great turning point. With just a few strokes, using meaningful scenes and examples, he shows how his parents' world came to an end, how the siblings followed other life plans and how general social change affected the country.

Breeding bulls for the monthly auction, cows and pigs on the pasture, horses in front of the plow, a garden for storing supplies - the farm is profitably managed by parents, children and helpers. Farm life in the 1950s seems closer to the Middle Ages than to our time. But then everything changes: once wealthy and respected farmers are suddenly seen as poor and backward despite all the modernization, their children smell like a stable and are ashamed. The Catholic Church is showing ways out of the farming world with new youth work. The welfare state helps with training and farm handover. Even in the 1970s, the world in the countryside was completely different. Ewald Frie asked his ten siblings, born between 1944 and 1969, how they experienced this time. His brilliantly written book brings the great upheaval to life with accurate laconicism.

Admission: 6.30 p.m

The reduced price applies to children, young people, schoolchildren and students.