What is the main setting in the novel, The Women in the Castle?

The Burg Lingenfels castle is the primary setting of the novel. The prologue, most of Part 1, and most of Part 4 take place in or around the castle. Marianne has inherited the castle from her husband who inherited it from his Aunt, a Countess. The novel both begins and ends with a party at the castle. It is the place where the pact is made between Marianne and Connie to protect the women and children of the resistors in the prologue, and the place where 40 years later Marianne is recognized for her work in the resistance in a celebration in Part 4. It is also the setting for both life and death. Marianne takes Benita and Ania there to live with their children after the war, where they struggle but survive. At the same time though, both the Russian soldier and Ania’s first husband Rainer are both murdered and buried outside the castle. This setting therefore represents the struggle of survival - that sometimes to survive you have to put yourself first and make sacrifices including others lives. Marianne donates the castle to the Falkenberg Institute of Moral and Ethical Inquiry, making the moral dilemma inherent within the castle walls.