Szczecin has its own writer. Our city as part of the common European heritage

Brygida Helbig has become the city writer of Szczecin. On her blog, the author, who comes from the capital of Western Pomerania but has lived in Germany for years, will write about the history of our city, its people, its places. Her notes can be found on the website www.pisarka-miejska-szczecin.com.

Brygida Helbig will be able to work with us thanks to a scholarship from the German Cultural Forum for Central and Eastern Europe in Potsdam. Since 2009, the scholarship has been awarded annually to writers from selected cities in Central and Eastern Europe whose heritage is linked to the history of Germany before World War II and today constitutes "part of the common European cultural heritage".

- I am connected with your city and the whole of Western Pomerania by many interesting projects carried out in recent years, either on behalf of the Pomeranian Museum in Greifswald or with the Culture Forum in Potsdam - said Magdalena Gebala from NFK during the official welcome of Brygida Helbig in the Scandinavian House. - Szczecin is an extremely interesting place. I have great sympathy for this city, I am happy to come back here.

The Mayor of Szczecin, Piotr Krzystek, assessed that Brygida Helbig's texts can help spread knowledge about the city, about the local community's lifestyle and how it views the world.

- I will be looking at these pages with interest. I will probably learn a lot - declared Piotr Krzystek. - Our TBS provided support in the form of an apartment for Ms. Brygida, which she will have until the end of the scholarship, until October.

Brygida Helbig used to say that when it comes to Szczecin matters, she is both an outsider and an insider. She was born in Szczecin and spent twenty years of her life here. In 1983, she left for West Germany, to the Ruhr area. Since then, she has lived with our western neighbors. But she has maintained relations with the city - among other things, she lectured at the University of Szczecin.

- My parents came to Szczecin in the early fifties from the Eastern Borderlands - said the writer. - My mother from the area of ​​today's Belarus, my father from the borderland of Poland and Ukraine near Ustrzyki Dolne, and my father has German roots. They are emotionally very strongly connected to Szczecin. I told their stories, among others, in the novel "Niebko", which was a finalist for the most prestigious literary award, Nike. The novel was also published in German under the title "Kleine Himmel". Szczecin plays an important role in it. So it will not be the first time I write about Szczecin. It has always been an important topic for me.

The writer declared that she really wants to talk to the people who are now creating Szczecin - as she put it, "a very modern city". There is a chance that Brygida Helbig's blog notes will eventually take the form of a book.

The stipend, which is paid by the German Cultural Forum, amounts to 1,300 euros per month. ©℗

Alan Sasinowski

More on this topic in Friday’s “Kurier Szczeciński” and eKurier from June 13, 2025.