Readings IN DIALOGUE
Tickets
A literary series to accompany the exhibition
February 20, 2025, 7 PM
March 6, 2025, 7 PM
April 10, 2025, 7 PM
May 15, 2025, 7 PM
Monthly readings will take place to accompany the current exhibition IN DIALOGUE — Hasso Plattner Collection: Art from the GDR, inviting visitors to engage in a literary examination of the GDR and its critical resonance in the present day.
Building upon the exhibition’s idea of bringing works by GDR artists into dialogue in order to illuminate different perspectives, authors will offer insights from literature, explore new narratives, and place the stories about the GDR in a contemporary context.
Renowned authors such as Charlotte Gneuß, Carolin Würfel, Annett Gröschner, Peggy Mädler, Wenke Seemann, Paula Fürstenberg, and Peggy Kurka present their books in a variety of ways.
The readings, moderated by Maria-Christina Piwowarski, take place once a month in Café Hedwig or in the foyer of DAS MINSK. The event ticket includes a visit to the exhibition from 5 PM. The events are in German.
Dates for June and July 2025 will follow. Further information will be announced shortly.
Paula Fürstenberg © Jonas Ludwig Walter
Thursday, May 15, 2025, 7 PM
Paula Fürstenberg: Weltalltage: Tränen, Trauma und Tomatensuppe, 2024
“Because this is also the story of a family tradition, it actually begins with the earlier deaths. The father died in 1988. According to the death certificate, he died from an asthma attack; according to family memory, from non-existent socialism.” (Excerpt from Weltalltage, p.18)
In her novel, Paula Fürstenberg explores the complex dynamics of a friendship in an East German context. The GDR, which the author herself did not consciously experience, nevertheless remains a formative “blank space”—an absence that comes to life through fragments of memory and anecdotes.
The characters—the aspiring architect Max and the narrator, a writer who has been chronically ill since childhood—wrestle with the after-effects of the GDR past. While Max deals with the achievements of GDR architecture academically, the narrator reflects on stereotyped perceptions and her own questions of identity. She tells her own story—and in doing so, also Max's—from her post-reunification childhood in the East to the fluctuating present.
In Weltalltage, Paula Fürstenberg tells the story of a unique friendship and its ordeals with warmth, intensity, and humor. It explores what it means not to function in a world where everything has to work, how we relate to our bodies, the power of words, where empathy begins—and where it has to end. (Kiepenheuer and Witsch, publisher)
The author will read from her book at Café Hedwig and will discuss related topics with Maria-Christina Piwowarski, including the changing language around bodies and the perspectives of a post-reunification generation.
About the author
Paula Fürstenberg, born in 1987, grew up in Potsdam and studied at the Swiss Literature Institute and Humboldt University. She has lived in Berlin since 2011. Her debut novel Familie der geflügelten Tiger was published in 2016. She is co-editor of the Habitus volumes and co-curated the discussion series Let's talk about class in 2022. She is also part of the authors' collective Literatur für das, was passiert and a board member of Kunsthaus Strodehne e.V. Paula Fürstenberg has been awarded numerous scholarships for her work. Weltalltage is her second novel
Short biography Maria-Christina Piwowarski
Maria-Christina Piwowarski was born in Haldensleben in 1982 and grew up in a small village in the Magdeburger Börde. She is a trained bookseller and most recently managed the Berlin bookshop ocelot. Together with Ludwig Lohmann, she has been running the blauschwarzberlin literature podcast since 2019, which has been broadcast as a livestream from the Staatsbibliothek Berlin since the fall. She moderates readings and events in the cultural sector and writes. In fall 2024, she published the anthology Und ich - 20 Geschichten von Wendepunkten des Lebens.
Maria-Christina Piwowarski © Andreas Schmidt