Some novel characters stick in our memory because they seem ahead of their time – yet often, those who struggle with possibilities within their own era are more interesting. In Was gestern noch galt (What Held True Yesterday), Gabriele Bagge places Sophia at the center, a woman who is a wife and mother, yet simultaneously develops her own ideas about how she wants to live and work.
A life of one's own within narrow boundaries
At the beginning of the 19th century, Sophia's life path is shaped by societal expectations. Her marriage to Anton Auling provides security and a sense of belonging, but at the same time brings obligations. Anton builds a life for himself as a goldsmith after passing his master craftsman's examination, while Sophia by no means wants to simply stand by his side. She is interested in the craft and dreams of creating and selling hair jewelry of her own design.
What might seem natural today touches upon a fundamental question for Sophia: Is a married woman allowed to develop her own economic ideas? Her desire for work does not mean that she rejects family and marriage. It is precisely this simultaneity that makes the character credible. Sophia wants to be connected without being completely confined to the role others have envisioned for her.
Between workshop, family, and motherhood
The novel does not portray the life of a woman around 1800 as a simple battle between oppression and freedom. Sophia's everyday life is more complicated. Pregnancies and motherhood, household chores, and family responsibilities exist alongside her desire for her own work. Added to this are economic worries, as the goldsmith's workshop must support a family, while war and hardship cause the demand for precious goods to plummet.
The goldsmithing craft itself opens up an interesting perspective here. Sophia moves in a world where guilds, master rights, and traditional rules determine who is allowed to practice a trade and build an economic existence. Anyone wishing to learn more about these conditions will find the historical background against which Sophia's story unfolds in our article on Vechta 1803 and the Napoleonic era.
Not a heroine from our time
The fascinating thing about Sophia is precisely that she does not feel like a modern woman simply placed in a historical costume. She is part of her society and its beliefs – yet she repeatedly pushes against their boundaries. She is interested in political events, seeks exchange with others, and tries to take action wherever opportunities for influence arise.
In an interview with her publisher, Gabriele Bagge hits on a core idea of her storytelling: "Political events and decisions always affect every single individual." This is exactly what can be observed in Sophia. Changes in rule, French troops, economic distress, or hunger are not just mere scenery. They directly alter her options as a wife, mother, and the wife of a craftsman.
A woman full of contradictions
Sophia does not gain her strength by always doing the right thing. She has desires, doubts, loves, disagrees, and gets into conflicts. Her feelings, too, cannot be completely fitted into the order of a pre-determined life. It is precisely for this reason that she becomes more than just a projection surface for the catchphrase "strong women in historical novels".
Rather, the reader encounters a woman trying to find her own way between personal longings and responsibility. Her story thus raises questions that make the historical distance of more than two hundred years seem surprisingly small: How much independence does a person need within a partnership? What happens when personal desires collide with family obligations? And how does one preserve a sense of personal agency when external circumstances become increasingly restrictive?
The book is available in German language as a printed paperback (ISBN 978-3-910347-87-8) and as an EPUB (ISBN 978-3-910347-88-5) in bookstores or here in the publisher's shop.
