{"id":3419,"date":"2026-11-13T08:46:30","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T07:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/the-coach-house-lives-on\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T13:45:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T12:45:25","slug":"the-coach-house-lives-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/the-coach-house-lives-on\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coach House Lives On"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Vetschau Coach House and the Suitcase Full of Memories<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the entrance to the coach house stands an old suitcase\u2014for Katja Schade, it\u2019s a suitcase full of memories. \u201cAt first, it had plenty of room for the life stories yet to come; by the end, it was bursting at the seams,\u201d she says on the occasion of the opening of the Remise\u2014which had been unused for three years and is part of the Vetschau Castle complex. She likes to use this as a metaphor to describe her line of work: Katja Schade offers her services in the spaces rented by the city\u2014and not only there\u2014  everything life has to offer in terms of moments worth celebrating and commemorating. What\u2019s more, she\u2019s not just concerned with creating a beautiful atmosphere\u2014which is undoubtedly present\u2014but with finding the right words for life\u2019s milestones. The certified speaker organizes baby welcome parties as well as youth initiation ceremonies; she officiates weddings on a barge, guides couples through their wedding vows, and stands by the bereaved during times of loss. She named her office GENAU SO. Katja Schade: \u201cI call it that because I encourage people to make their celebrations as personal as possible\u2014not any other way, but exactly like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

At first, her life story gave no indication that this path lay ahead. A trained retail saleswoman, she lived in Munich for 20 years before returning to her hometown of Luckau. The deaths of her grandfather and, later, her father would prove to be pivotal moments: \u201cBoth eulogies intensified the pain I was already feeling; surely there must be a different way\u2014one that speaks more to the emotions rather than just describing the loss,\u201d recalls Katja Schade, reflecting on the decision that followed to become a eulogist and ceremonial speaker herself.<\/p>\n

She has been living in Vetschau with her family since the summer of 2026, and she is determined to pursue her career here. Chris Mielchen, Vetschau\u2019s mayor, was visibly pleased at the opening: \u201cWe\u2019ve finally found a new use for the carriage house, which has been vacant for three years\u2014though it\u2019s more of a revival of what was already planned there in terms of celebrations, especially weddings.\u201d As befits a good landlord, the city had previously renovated the property and even installed an internet connection.<\/p>\n

The suitcase symbolism carried over into the reception hall as well, where two beautiful wedding dresses added to the dignified atmosphere\u2014one was her grandmother\u2019s from 1958, and the other was her own from 2013. \u201cI want to create a sense of privacy and connect with people on an equal footing. I, too, am familiar with life\u2019s ups and downs, and I see myself more as a trusted friend than as a helper,\u201d says Katja Schade to the guests at her small opening celebration.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

Peter Becker, November 13, 26<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Vetschau Coach House and the Suitcase Full of Memories At the entrance to the coach house stands an old suitcase\u2014for Katja Schade, it\u2019s a suitcase full of memories. \u201cAt first, it had plenty of room for the life stories yet to come; by the end, it was bursting at the seams,\u201d she says on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kb_optimizer_status":0,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","slim_seo":{"title":"The Coach House Lives On - Spreewald\u00addorf Lehde","description":"The Vetschau Coach House and the Suitcase Full of Memories At the entrance to the coach house stands an old suitcase\u2014for Katja Schade, it\u2019s a suitcase full of m"},"_slim_seo_primary_term_category":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_post_tag":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nicht-kategorisiert"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"Nicht kategorisiert"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/021126C2A9PeterBecker-7886-1024x724-6U5QpW.jpg",1024,724,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"sven-hofmann","author_link":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/author\/fad647f9b8fe3e7cfe8c0d3f5ff01100\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":1,"name":"Nicht kategorisiert","slug":"nicht-kategorisiert","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":301,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":301,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Nicht kategorisiert","category_nicename":"nicht-kategorisiert","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3419"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3423,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419\/revisions\/3423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreewald-dorf-lehde.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}