Natalja Althauser (*1991 in Heidelberg, Germany) lived as a child in Moscow, The Hague, Brussels and Berlin. In 2011 she began to study Slavic studies and philosophy in Freiburg im
Breisgau. In 2016, she went to London for her Master’s in Contemporary Performing Arts at the Royal Holloway University to London. Since 2017, she has been working as a freelance speaker, actress, and director in theater (“The Great Gatsby”, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”) and short film (“Liebe; Alles auf Anfang”). In the summer of 2017, she was co-curator of the AsterFilmFestival in Strumica, Northern Macedonia and worked as a production assistant for ARTE. Since October 2019, she has been working on her novel project at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig. In October 2022, her first play (“Gottlos”) premiered at eWerk in Freiburg im Breisgau.

Schöppingen, where? I was delighted when I received the confirmation from the Künstledorf in Schöppingen, followed by a quick Google search to find out exactly where Schöppingen was. In NRW. Aha. Near the Dutch border. Mhm. With a Santa Claus club. Oookay..?
In short, I was very excited about this „village“ that would await me.
My summer stay was peppered with experiences from the „in-house“ artist’s garden, where I once again came to appreciate and respect the diversity of the plant and vegetable world. I realized how much space and light there was during my numerous bike rides. I met people who had spent their whole lives in one place, whose families came from the next village or the one after that, and who welcomed me very warmly and introduced me to their history, their traditions and customs.I was to get to know Platt, the Vechte, the fishing club with its countless trout, the water castles from the area, got to know foresters and the forest and began to appreciate the immense work that was grouped around and to agriculture.
Schöppingen was an intense time, a busy time and a time of reflection. A period when I could bury myself undisturbed under my pages and string thoughts like a string of pearls until they formed a sentence, a meaning, and a story.
Autumn gave me time to write these ideas down, give them an outline, and hatch them in my ivory chamber. The essential things you need in life are time, quiet and space. Everything else is luxury.