"Say What You Think. And Think First!" - A Harry Rowohlt Evening

Harry Rowohlt became everything he always wanted to be: a hilariously gifted wordsmith, a virtuoso of digression, a translator of the untranslatable, a reader with a thousand voices - and finally "Vagrant Harry" in the TV series Lindenstraße. His life took a completely different path than planned, because he refused to become what he was supposed to: his publisher father's successor.

Journalist Alexander Solloch has written a biography of him that is not only meticulously researched but also, according to Deutschlandfunk Kultur, possesses "a distinctly Harry Rowohlt sound of its own." On this evening, Solloch speaks about the life and work of this versatile artist; actor Olli Dittrich reads from the master's texts.

Alexander Solloch, born in 1978, studied history and French in Leipzig and Aix-en-Provence. He works as a freelance author and radio presenter and was nominated for the German Radio Prize in 2011 and 2019. Since 2014, he has been a literature editor at NDR.

Olli Dittrich, trained as a theatre painter and four-time Grimme Prize winner, is regarded as one of the finest contemporary creators of artistic characters. As a composer, lyricist, and multi-instrumentalist, he has sold nearly 2 million recordings. With his most famous character, the bar-room philosopher "Dittsche," he regularly performs on major German stages - including at Schauspielhaus Bochum, Berliner Ensemble, and the Elbphilharmonie. His nearly three-hour solo performance was awarded the LEA Prize in 2021.