Casting Characters

The Last Daughter of Prussia was inspired by writings and stories I gathered from my family, but there were also many images that breathed life, heart and substance into the novel. Along the way, in this blog, I have shared quite a number of photos with you. If it's true that a picture says a thousand words then I need not write as many today except perhaps to explain how certain images gave form to the storyline and the characters in it.

Let me start with some of the CHARACTERS who evolved in my imagination as I researched old photos, diaries and books...

It all began with this image of  the famous Trakehner Fetysz Ox.

Fetysz Ox was tragically shot by the invading Russian Army at the close of WW2.

However, because of him I started thinking about a story involving an adventurous woman who

wanted to save her beloved Trakehners from the same terrible fate.

I turned to my grandfather Walter von Sanden's books
to find out more about what happened during the invasion.
The story started to unfold in my mind as I realized my own family
had lived through the nightmare of the Great Trek.
In my book, the character Baron von Falken
has a great deal in common with my grandfather.
I incorporated the story of his arrest by the Nazis into one of the chapters.
The Nazis thought he was an accomplice
 to the July 20th assassination attempt on Hitler.
(In my novel the baron wears the same green hunting jacket!)
(Photo (C) Gottlieb Family)

 Blacksmith Helling is a main character in the book
 and he is also a great hunter.
This pic is actually of a man named Hellwig— the forester who lived
 on my grandparent's estate in Guja, East Prussia
(Photo (C) Gottlieb Family)

 Baroness von Falken plays a big role too.
In The Last Daughter she is a sculptress
with a difficult personality—moody and depressed.
This pic is of my grandmother Edith von Sanden in her art studio
 in Guja, East Prussia before the war.
She really was an artist
 and though not nearly as complicated as my novel's baroness,
for as long as I knew her, she walked with a definite air of melancholy.
(Photo (C) Gottlieb Family)

Manya von Falken
In the story, she is the bright, spirited horsewoman and heroine whose courage
leads her family and her Trakehners on the dangerous  trek.
 Much of her character is based on the strength and outspoken boldness
that I saw in my own mother, Owanta von Sanden who is depicted in this photo.
(Photo (C) Gottlieb Family)

Joshi Karas
In my story, he is the son of Roma Gypsies.
He is a musically gifted and educated hero.
While researching information on Gypsies in the Third Reich,
I came across this photo of Karl Stojka a gypsy
 who was deported to the Nazi camp in Birkenau along with thousands of
other Gypsies, most of whom were gassed to death. Thankfully, he survived.
I hope he didn't mind me using his likeness as an inspiration.

Shambhala
The mare in the novel truly is a Last Daughter of Prussia.
She is brave, enduring and loyal until the end.
Her mission is to take her human family across the ice.
 Never  once does she stop to consider whether those she struggles so hard
 to carry are German, Jewish, Gypsy or Russian.
There is no prejudice in her.
 She is pure of heart and cares only about survival.
The horse in his picture is actually a stallion (Pregel)
but he has such a sensitive, intelligent face and
when I see him I think of Shambhala.
(The photo was taken from Erhard Schulte's fabulous book—Trakehnens Pferde.)

Aztec

is my Trakehner stallion hero. 

Unlike Fetysz ox above who inspired the story, Aztec is jet black.

He is spirited and courageous beyond words
 and his role is pivotal in The Last Daughter of Prussia.
 (Again this pic was kindly shared by Erhard Schulte. It is the stallion Flaneur.)

Before I go, I want to say that there are other characters. Every story of this kind must have an antagonist or more simply said a villain. My villain's name is Golitsin. Although, I don't have a picture of him I clearly see him in my mind's eye. You'll just have to read the novel when it is published to get your own idea of what he is like.

Until next time,

Marina Gottlieb Sarles

(c) All content and photos are the private property of the Gottlieb family, unless otherwise stated or linked,  and may not be used without permission.

(c) Privatbesitz Gottlieb Familie

New Excerpt –The Last Daughter of Prussia

  Thank you all for the comments and encouragement regarding The Last Daughter of Prussia. I am SO looking forward to holding the finished product in my hands! (Next spring, Yay!) Though still in the throes of editing, I'm finding it is an interesting process. To look at every comma and quotation mark and wonder -  are they placed properly? To mull over each word and ask myself - is it necessary? It feels like an never-ending work in progress, yet one day I know I'll get there. 


  Many of you have said you enjoyed the last little excerpt and so as promised I'm posting another one. In this chapter my heroine Manya rides to the Roma gypsy camp to see her best friend Joshi and his mother Vavara. This scene happens just before tragedy strikes the Roma clan.


  I know you understand that these excerpts are always a little out of context as I take them from different chapters. All the same I hope they give you a sense of what the book is about without divulging too much because I really want you to read the entire novel when it comes out next year.

My grandmother Edith von Sanden with the old gypsy woman Frau Florian
who lived on the Eulen Hof - Owl Farm mentioned below in my excerpt
 from  The Last Daughter of Prussia.
The Eulen Hof was near Guja, East Prussia and the Roma gypsies lived there.
The SS drafted Frau Florian's sons into the army even though at that time
most Roma gypsies were persecuted and sent to concentration camps..
All of her sons - I believe there were five - died fighting on the Eastern Front.
Frau Florian could not understand war. She said gypsies never want to fight.
She asked my grandmother,
"Why? Why if we gypsies are so hated by the Nazis, do they take my sons and make them fight for Germany?"
(c) Photo Gottlieb Property-Familienbesitz Gottlieb

Excerpt:

  Snow rose in powdery gusts under Aztec's hooves, filling the air around them with glittering flakes. They cantered past the Guja forest that was draped in strings of icy pearls, leaving behind the tiny hamlets of five or six cottages where fishermen’s nets still hung in the frozen gardens. A few lonely dogs barked in the doorways.

My grandfather Walter von Sanden in Guja, East Prussia before WW2
with the long poles that  he used to set his fishing nets in the lakes and the Angerapp River.
(c) Photo Gottlieb Property-Familienbesitz Gottlieb

  After a thirty-five minute ride, Manya saw thin scarves of smoke rising from the Karas camp. She slowed Aztec to a trot and turned onto a trail running along the Angerapp River. Up ahead in the river bend two women in wide flowered skirts were scrubbing sheets in a big metal tub. They both wore yellow headscarves, but the older woman managed to keep a pipe between her teeth even while she worked. They waved at her, their bare hands chaffed and red from the cold. She wondered briefly if she would ever see them like that again. 

A gypsy woman who like Frau Florian used to visit my grandmother.
I don't know her name but her face is unforgettable..
(c) Photo Gottlieb Property-Familienbesitz Gottlieb

In the weeds to her right, an empty beer keg lay on its side. The words Eulen Hof – Owl Farm had been painted on its circular belly. It marked the entrance to the settlement. The familiar smells of wood smoke, wild garlic and herbs drew her forward. She’d never been to the camp when there wasn’t a pot of stew on the stove.

  Near the edge of the encampment, she caught sight of a sturdy mare, with gorgeous tufts on her lower legs. The mare snorted.

  “You’re a good guard dog, Tsura,” laughed Manya.

I don't have a photo of Tsura, the loyal, devoted gypsy mare.
However , this mare has a lovely face, so sweet and gentle
and she lived during that time in East Prussia.
She's a good stand-in, I think.
(c) Photo Gottlieb Property-Familienbesitz Gottlieb

  Within seconds, a young man waved from behind an upturned cart, the large metal cufflinks in his jacket sparkling in the sunlight.

  “Hello Harman,” she smiled.

  “Mistress von Falken,” he called to her teasingly. “Is it Big Man Karas’s son, Joshi, who brings you here? Or is it his wife?”

  Hearing Joshi's name, Manya blushed.

  “His wife, sir,” she replied quickly, relieved to see Vavara’s curvy figure coming down the muddy path.

 

See you next time. As always, thanks for visiting this blog.

– Marina Gottlieb Sarles

(c) All content and photos are the private property of the Gottlieb family, unless otherwise stated or linked,  and may not be used without permission.

(c) Privatbesitz Gottlieb Familie

More from the Two Worlds - East Prussia and The Bahamas

  A short while ago I promised to post a few more photographs from the two worlds – East Prussia and The Bahamas – that have molded both my inner and outer existence, but I also want to say that it is from the unseen depths of these worlds that my book The Last Daughter of Prussia was wrought.

  I was born into family of storytellers who gifted me with their history. For that I am grateful. But my family were spiritual people too. They walked close to the earth. They taught me that nature is holy and that communion with God can be found in the emanation of a plant's stillness just as easily as in the loud roar of the sea.

  Nature has sustained me throughout life. For me, there is a wisdom in nature that brings with it the ability to be still. It is that same stillness that has empowered me to write.

                                                         Waters of Both Worlds

On the River Angerapp
My grandfather Walter von Sanden is seated in the back of the boat.
My great grandmother Magdalena is near the front.
Grossvati had a deep love for the river – for every fish that swam beneath the ripples
 and every bird that was mirrored in the water's surface.
My heroine Manya in The Last Daughter of Prussia also possesses a deep reverence for the river and for nature.

On the Bahamian Sea
The vast stretches of turquoise water are like a warm inviting embrace,
holding and permeating the spirit with beauty and pure silken awareness.
In the Bahamas, the sea is my place of refuge, my sacred moving meditative altar.

                                                              Fishing in Both Worlds

Blacksmith Buttgereit of the Guja estate in East Prussia fishing by the Angerapp River long before the war.
He showed my mother Owanta how to use rods and nets.
 When the river was frozen he taught her how to read the ice like the pages of a holy book.
In my novel the character Helling is largely based upon this man. 

My father Ejnar Gottlieb in 1949 with his bounty after spearfishing in the Bahamian ocean.

My son Nikolai with his catch of crawfish which are actually spiny lobsters.
They taste great with just butter and lemon.
Through the generations of my family the principle of fishing for  food
while still respecting nature has been passed down.

                                                                            Birds

Swallows nested in the barn in Guja.
They knew that the horses would not harm them, neither would the stable lads.
My grandfather took this photograph of a parent swallow feeding its hungry babies.
Like these nestlings we depend on nature for our physical survival but I think nature gives us much more than that.
It shows us the way home. Every animal it totally itself. It doesn't wear a mask or try to  project a mental image of itself.
It simply is.

My grandmother Edith von Sanden in East Prussia with her tame raven - the model for her bronze sculpture below.
In my novel I call him Meister Eckhart.

Meister Eckhart
This bronze is exhibited in the East Prussian Museum in Lüneburg, Germany.
It won the gold medal for the international Art in Hunting Exhibition in 1954.

Photo by Christine Matthai
One of the many hummingbirds that grace my Bahamian garden.
Darting here and there they always make me feel as if I'm glimpsing spirit.
And like them, something in my soul wants to hover  at the beautiful moments of life.

(c) All content and photos are the private property of the Gottlieb family, unless otherwise stated or linked,  and may not be used without permission.

(c) Privatbesitz Gottlieb Familie

Roma Gypsies: The Forgotten Holocaust

Roma Wagon

    
    The idea to introduce gypsies into my novel came to me one morning several years ago as I was reading my grandfather, Walter von Sanden's, book Schicksal OstPreussen  'East Prussia's Destiny ' (LandBuch Verlag, 1968).  I was fascinated to learn about the Roma gypsies who lived just west of the Guja forest and with whom my grandparents were friendly. 


    My grandmother, Edith, was especially close with a gypsy woman named Frau Florian. Frau Florian would often visit her and they would sit in the drawing room in Guja drinking coffee, which I understand Frau Florian loved to drink very sweet.

The drawing room in Guja

    Sometimes the two women would wander outside to the garden benches near the big black poplar tree where they’d sit for hours talking about their different lifestyles and customs. Grossmutti, as I used to call my grandma, truly cared about Frau Florian. Frau Florian taught her about the Roma culture, about music and dance, and spices for cooking. When winters were cold and money was scarce, my grandmother gave her food and money for her family. Horses from the Roma camp wandered about my grandfather's meadows, grazing freely.  

The garden in Guja

    Forester Hellwig, whom you see below, guarded the Guja forest like a hawk, yet for the camp of Roma who made their home on the edge of that woods, the land was theirs to gather berries and hunt for fowl. And, while Hellwig insisted they must never light fires too close to the trees, they always had bundles of wood for their stoves. The Roma and my grandparents were neighbors, living off the same land in very different ways.

Forester Hellwig

   
 But liking gypsies in those times was heavily frowned upon, and as the Nazis gained more power their hostility toward that minority group grew more violent. Soon gypsies were seen as ‘asocial’ and as ‘subhuman beings.’ The collaboration to exterminate another so-called inferior race began. It is estimated that 1.5 million Roma were murdered from 1935 to the end of WWII. 

    Unprejudiced as she was, my grandmother did not care about anti-gypsy laws. When Frau Florian was sick she went to see her with freshly baked Semmelbrötchen (rolls). If she found the gypsy woman in bed under a thick eiderdown, Grossmutti would make a hollow in the feathery blanket and empty out the bag of rolls. Of course, Frau Florian's children would all be standing by the door waiting with wide eyes  for the delicious buns to manifest.

     But then one night, the inevitable happened. All the gypsies disappeared. They were either shot or carted off to a concentration camp. My grandfather went to the police to inquire about them, but he was told that associating with gypsies was a terrible crime and that he’d be shot if he asked any more questions. 

    Grossmutti never saw Frau Florian again. My grandfather writes that she cried for days. All that remained of Frau Florian was a sculpture my grandmother had made of the gypsy woman's daughter, and that too was lost in the war.

Gypsy History 

    Reading my grandfather's words, I felt a deep and painful stirring inside. It dawned on me that the Roma gypsies were part of a 'forgotten' holocaust and I wanted somehow to bring their silenced voices to life. That is how I chose the gypsy (Joshi Karas) as the hero in my novel. Although in the story he breaks with Roma tradition to become a medical doctor (and you have to read the book to discover how this happens because gypsies were definitely NOT allowed to study in Germany), he is a man whose voice and strength of character, serve to illuminate the collective soul of an unusual and gifted people whose lives were brutally cut short.

Karl Stojka

    
While I was researching the internet I came across this picture of a gypsy victim.  His sensitive face and intelligent, direct gaze coupled with the readiness to smile touched my heart and stayed with me throughout the entire time that I was writing the novel. In some ways, he inspired and helped breath life into Joshi's character.


    Frau Florian too plays an important role in The Last Daughter of Prussia - only there her name is Vavara and her voice is like a lark's echoing tales of spirits and Baltic amber back to us through time. If you have a moment, listen to what I believe was her favorite song. Although there are no words in this you tube version of Dark Eyes, the music and the child's hauntingly beautiful face tell us all we need to know....

(c) All content and photos are the private property of the Gottlieb family, unless otherwise stated or linked,  and may not be used without permission.

(c) Privatbesitz Gottlieb Familie

A Poem From Out of WWII: Ich Möchte Nach Hause Wandern/I Want to Wander Home Again

    Edith von Sanden, my aristocratic East Prussian grandmother, lived to escape the invading Russian Army during that final, bitter winter of World War II. At her home in Guja, East Prussia, she was a sculptress and a poet. When paging through one of her old, published books, Bunte Blumen Überall (Bright Flowers Everywhere), I found a creased and yellowed paper folded in the pages. The poem below was written on that paper.

    I think she must have written the poem while she was making her dangerous passage across the frozen part of the Baltic Sea - that part which is called the Frisches Haff. I can only imagine the fear she must have felt- many people died on that ice when it cracked, giving way to the angry, frigid waters below.

    She never returned to Guja. She never again looked out of her window to the courtyard below where her beautiful Trakehner horses stood, but I know she always dreamed of home. Her words so moved me that I translated the verse into English, but I'm also posting it in German for those of you who can read the language. Somehow, it seems more powerful in its original form.

Ich Möchte Nach Hause Wandern

Ich möchte nach Hause wandern

In einem Bettlergewand

Auf stillen und einsamen Strassen

Von niemand erkannt.

Und ob auch die Füsse bluten

Die Kräfte langsam vergehen

Ich wollte wandern und wandern

Bis ich die Heimat gesehen!

Und wenn meinen Händen entglitte

Zuletzt auch der Bettlerstab

Nur Glück wärs für meine Seele

Ich fand in der Heimat mein Grab.

Edith von Sanden-Guja

I Want to Wander Home

I want to wander home

In torn beggar’s clothes

On peaceful, lonesome pathways

That no one else would know.

And should my feet be bloody

And all my strength be gone

Yet, shall I keep on walking

Until I see my home.

My beggar’s staff may slip

Slowly from my hand

But my soul shall be in heaven

In the grave upon my land.

(Translation by Marina Gottlieb Sarles)

(c) All content and photos are the private property of the Gottlieb family, unless otherwise stated or linked,  and may not be used without permission.

(c) Privatbesitz Gottlieb Familie

Away From War

    As I gaze out over the peaceful turquoise waters that lie directly in front of my balcony I realize how fortunate I am to be here in the Bahamas far away from the calamities of war. Here, the essence of nature permeates my every breath. As I stare at a stingray passing, as I dream of swimming with dolphins, I see the sacredness in each living creature. 

    I recognize that the same sacredness is in me, in all human beings. 


    I really think this knowledge was imparted to me by my grandparents, Edith and Walter von Sanden and my mother, Owanta. They had such an intimate connection to  the land in East Prussia, to the forests, the roaming elk, even the smallest dandelion in the meadow. They taught me about these things.They knew that nature could bring me to stillness, to another dimension of awareness. 


-Marina Gottlieb Sarles

(c) All content and photos are the private property of the Gottlieb family, unless otherwise stated or linked,  and may not be used without permission.

(c) Privatbesitz Gottlieb Familie

I AM a Daughter of Prussia

Guja, East Prussia. The land where my soul wanders

  

    All my life I have been aware of a hidden facet of my being, a sadness in my bones. It walked with me wherever I went. Even as a young child I was serious and introverted, more concerned with the world of spirit. Quite frankly, I hated being like that. I wanted to be more like other kids - laughing, uninhibited, funny. Now, after writing The Last Daughter of Prussia, I have discovered that the roots of my sadness were buried in the soil of my lost heritage. 

My mother, Owanta Von Sanden,
in East Prussia as a little girl

    See, I AM a Daughter of Prussia. 

    I carry the stories of my ancestors in my bones, but the beautiful thing is that writing has freed me from that heaviness of spirit. Perhaps, (at the risk of sounding new-agey) I came into this world with the task of giving a voice to the East Prussian people who fought their way westward through the snows of that last bitter winter in World War II. Maybe the Trakehner horses who carried those families across the ice wanted their whinnies turned into words. And maybe too, the Roma Gypsies of that province needed the world to know that, before they were slaughtered like the Jews, they danced there too. 

My grandmother, Edith Von Sanden,

an author from East Prussia

    I may be crazy, but I believe that people do have life tasks. Writers are not exempt. Spirits from other realms do talk to us if we are open to listening. Personally, I don't feel I had much choice - especially when they came around my bed at night, pulling on my pillows and my limbs. I fought them. I would shout at them to go away. Cry that I couldn't write a novel that encompassed their story. Still, I ended up following orders and what a gift it was, because when I wrote those final words  - The End - I felt at peace and I was able to laugh. 

My mother, and my two brothers, Cay and Frederik

   

 Even now, I laugh to myself because I think I grew up backwards. How can it be that by finishing a book I can laugh more than I did as a child?  

-Marina Gottlieb Sarles

 (c) All content and photos are the private property of the Gottlieb family, unless otherwise stated or linked,  and may not be used without permission.

(c) Privatbesitz Gottlieb Familie

Out of Prussia: My family

My grandfather, Walter von Sanden,
well known author and environmentalist

My grandmother, Edith von Sanden, well-known sculptress.
Those are some of her pieces behind her.

    When writing my historical novel, a work of fiction based on my family's real experiences in East Prussia during World War II, my grandparents served as studies for the story's characters. 

    Their story begins in the dead of one wintry night when they must make a terrifying and raw flight from their home in East Prussia. Theirs is a history many families share. I write to tell of how a proud man and his wife, an artistic woman suffering from severe depression, must make their way, with thousands of others, through the ice forest of East Prussia to safety.

- Marina Gottlieb Sarles

(c) All content and photos are the private property of the Gottlieb family, unless otherwise stated or linked,  and may not be used without permission.

(c) Privatbesitz Gottlieb Familie

The Horses That Inspired

My mother, Owanta, and her Trakehner horse, Dandy 

One night, some 4-5 years ago I woke up at 4am. (4 am is often a portal for me for other worldly things, meditations and visions). For some time before, I had been hearing an insistent voice in both my head and my heart telling me to write a book. I had no idea what I was supposed to write about. I kept asking, "What do you want me to write? Tell me and I try to do it." 

But the voice always went quiet. 

Anyway, that night the same voice told me to get out of bed, go to my computer and research  East Prussia. I followed the guidance and somehow Fetysz Os ended up on my screen. I fell in love with him right away - who wouldn't?  But then, sadly I learned that he had been shot, in cold blood, by the Russians when they invaded East Prussia and arrived in the famous "City of Horses" in Trakehnen.  

I cried to know that his death had taken place simply because he belonged to Germans. As I sat there I realized something else. My grandparents, Walter and Edith von Sanden lived just a few miles away from Trakehnen on their own estate in a place called Guja. My mother Owanta had her own Trakehner horses. A bold and self-possessed woman, she rode everywhere on her favorite horse, Dandy. 

Fetysz Ox - The fantastic Trakehner Stallion 

who caught my eye on the internet.

Well....right then and there, the story line for The Last Daughter of Prussia began to unfold. I thought - okay - I'll write a story about an East Prussian woman who flees her land and saves her beloved Trakehner horses. I had no idea what I was getting into. I once read quote that said "In a weak moment, I decided to write a book." 

Well that was me. 

-Marina Gottlieb Sarles

(c) All content and photos are the private property of the Gottlieb family, unless otherwise stated or linked,  and may not be used without permission.

(c) Privatbesitz Gottlieb Familie