Marcus at War: Love, Success and Oblivion

Marcus at War - three generations of family history: Tuesday 24 November 2026, 19:30, Gram Højskole, Gram. Admission is free.

An evening of storytelling

Jens Marcus Laugesen tells the story of the evening in his own words:

"Tonight I tell the wild history of my South Jutland family, starting from Løjt Kirkeby and my great-grandfather Niels (b. 1838). He lived in extreme poverty and was shot through the stomach at Dannevirke during the war in 1864 - yet he lived to be 89 and fathered no fewer than 15 children, most of whom emigrated to America. When he was 69 years old, he became a father for the last time and formed a special bond with his youngest son, Marcus, my grandfather.

Marcus had a special gift for telling stories. In 1931, at just 23 years old, he achieved a massive breakthrough with the novel 'And Now We Wait for the Ship', inspired by my grandmother's family. The novel quickly made him rich and famous far beyond Denmark's borders, and it changed his life - for better and especially for worse. The last roughly 10 years of his life my grandfather lived as a homeless alcoholic on Vesterbro, and he died in 1975."

The story is about poverty and wealth, war and love, shame and guilt, fame and oblivion. About South Jutland, Denmark and Germany, and about greatness and decline across generations.