Preston, Marcia - West Of The Wall

Schlagwörter:
Marcia Preston, Berlin wall, Rolf Hulst, Trudy Reitz, Referat, Hausaufgabe, Preston, Marcia - West Of The Wall
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Referat

Marcia Preston – West Of The Wall

Story
„West Of The Wall“, published as Marcia Preston's latest book in 2008, is about a mother loosing her child because of the Berlin wall.

Rolf Hulst, a political activist and living on the eastern side of the now-divided berlin, helped many people across the border. He is married with Trudy Reitz, the leading character in this book. As the wall was still opened, they couldn't flee because of Trudy's baby Stefan. Wolfgang, an old friend of Wolfgang and now working for the Stasi („Staatssicherheit“), gets a hint from his maitress about Rolf's illegal activities.

Wolfgang decides to increase his rank as officer and to betray Rolf. But he also tells his friend Rolf what to do – he must flee, otherwise he would be arrested in prison. Rolf tries to swim over the spree into freedom, even reaches the western side – but is shot there by Grepo's (Grenzpolizisten). Now branded a wife of a defector, Trudy faces a life in prison, too. Wolfgang tells her that Rolf's escape was successfully – but it wasn't. Trudy is now under suspicion and has to flee. Her escape through a tunnel is successfull, but she couldn't take Stefan with her. Stefan and her Mother, Gisela, are still in the east. When she arrived in western Berlin she gets also telled that Rolf is dead.

The chances in Germany to get her baby out of the east are virtually zero: But then, the acting president Mr. Kennedy, holds a speech in Berlin. In her desperation, she throws herself in front of a limo which is driving away from the place the speech was hold. One man in the limo, Mr. Thompson, asks her to tell her story – and makes an arrangement to get her to america. He does this only for the press and the president's reputation, as Trudy has to experience later. She gets even knocked down by a drunken Thompson, and after that, Thompson's secretary Sandra takes her and allows her to stay in her appartment, far away from Thompson.

Trudy wrote many letters to all officials in the white house, and at one day she gets a response:
From the president's wife. They would meet and see what they can do, it says in the letter. But the meeting never comes about – Kennedy is shot before. Trudy returns to Germany after she has lost her last hope. But she gains new hope there: Wolfgang, whose career as an Stasi officer is already threatened because of his communications across the border, sends her a letter. It says that she should stay at a checkpoint to pick up Stefan and get him to the west. That plan works, and also Wolfgang reaches the western. He is wounded, but alive. So Stefan and Wolfgang were finally free due Trudy's oddyseey.


Sources:

  • http://www.marciapreston.com/
    Preston, Marcia: „West Of The Wall“, 2008.

 

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