A Literary Matinee - On the Literature and Book Culture of East Germany

Christoph Hein, one of the most significant German writers and chronicler of East German postwar history, presents his latest novel "Das Narrenschiff" in conversation with literary scholar Carsten Gansel. In this social novel, Hein brings together women and men who were assigned diverse roles at the founding of the German Democratic Republic - he follows them through the development of a society that claimed to represent a better Germany, yet stumbled from one failure to the next.

Following this, Carsten Gansel discusses his book "Ausradiert? - How the Literature of East Germany Disappeared" with Peter Graf. When the GDR collapsed, the dismantling of all East German literature happened almost overnight: millions of books were destroyed, publishers sold for a few marks, libraries closed - literary works were judged not by aesthetic but by ideological standards. Gansel explains why the West is still perceived in the East as dominant and intrusive, and advocates for a different perspective on East German literature and the people of eastern Germany.

The musical culture of Rheinsberg provides the musical accompaniment for the matinee. The event takes place in cooperation with Musikkultur Rheinsberg and is supported by the Ministry for Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg.