Petra Reski (born in 1958) is a German writer from the post-war generation. Its representatives confront with dramatic consequences of the Second World War like the loss of homeland, the experience of escape and forced displacement. The article focuses on the Reski’s novel Ein Land so weit in the context of space. The narrator describes a sentimental journey to the home village in Warmia and family past. She documents impressions that combine different time dimensions, generations and memories.

One of the consequences of the incorporation of Warmia into the Kingdom of Prussia was the growing secularisation of the entire region. The lands belonging to the bishop of Warmia and his canons became the property of the state. The Prussian Partition enabled Protestants to settle in the areas which had previously been domi-nated almost entirely by Catholics. State authorities tried to meet the expectations of Protestants already in the 18th century by employing school headmasters and religion teachers in the towns of Warmia. Frederick the Great issued a decree that allowed holding religious services in local town halls. Some rooms in the castles were also adapted for the purpose. However, along with the increase in population, there was a growing demand for new church buildings, parish houses and schools. Necessar financial support came from the Prussian king Frederick William III, who suggested that the so-called secularisation fund, available after the dissolution of the Neuzelle monastery in Brandenburg, be assigned to this end. Building of new churches was entrusted to the State Construction Commission, led by a distinguished architect, Karl Friedrich Schinkel.