Program / lit.COLOGNE spezial List of all events
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List of all events
Following the worldwide success of “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”, OCEAN VUONG presents his new, moving novel, THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS. Hai, the queer son of a Vietnamese mother, lives in a desol… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event OCEAN VUONG: THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS
Event data
- Date: Thu. 18 September 2025
- Time: 18:00
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
-
- Englisch
- Deutsch
Charlotte’s big dream is to have a career in music. But now, after finishing her final university exams, she first needs to find a job. She is taken on by a publishing house, which is not a bad o… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event CAROLINE WAHL: THE ASSISTANT
Event data
- Date: Thu. 18 September 2025
- Time: 21:00
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Sign language Available
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
At the end of the Second World War, a young boy is found in the middle of Germany. He knows nothing about himself or where he has come from. He is given the name Hartmut and his age is estimated. He… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event SUSANNE ABEL: YOU MUST HOLD MY HAND TIGHTER, NO. 104
Event data
- Date: Fri. 19 September 2025
- Time: 19:30
- Location: Kulturkirche Köln
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Accessibility
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
Ten years after his sensational documentary “Im Nazidorf” [“In the Nazi Village”], which won the German Television Award, and five years after his Der Spiegel bestseller “Germany Defeats Me”, MICHEL ABDOLLAHI’S… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event MICHEL ABDOLLAHI: IT’S OUR COUNTRY. WITH FATIH ÇEVIKKOLLU
Event data
- Date: Mon. 13 October 2025
- Time: 19:30
- Location: Volksbühne am Rudolfplatz
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Accessibility
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
She has written 27 stage plays and 15 books and her work has been translated into 34 languages and has won various awards. Since 2024, she has also been a Member of the European Parliament. We could… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event SIBYLLE BERG – PNR: LA BELLA VITA
Event data
- Date: Wed. 15 October 2025
- Time: 17:30
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
GIULIA ENDERS is a gastroenterologist and one of Germany’s most successful popular science authors. After her groundbreaking bestseller “Gut”, she presents her newest book: ORGANISCH [“Organic”]. In a world f… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
Event data
- Date: Wed. 15 October 2025
- Time: 20:30
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
TOTE SEELEN SINGEN NICHT [“The Dead Don’t Sing”] is the 11th book in the series featuring Carl Mørck and Department Q. JUSSI ADLER-OLSEN, who celebrated his 75th birthday this summer, is passing the baton … This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
Event data
- Date: Thu. 16 October 2025
- Time: 18:00
- Location: COMEDIA Theater
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Accessibility
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
-
- Englisch
- Deutsch
Ever since her international bestseller “Dear Child” – now an award-winning Netflix series – ROMY HAUSMANN has been one of Germany’s most successful thriller authors. In DARLING MINE, she presents another g… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event ROMY HAUSMANN: DARLING MINE. WITH MARTIN BECHLER
Event data
- Date: Thu. 16 October 2025
- Time: 20:00
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
Bulgarian writer GEORGI GOSPODINOV, born in Sofia in 1968, is one Europe’s best-known and most translated authors. His last novel “Time Shelter” won him the International Booker Prize, one of the world… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event GEORGI GOSPODINOV: DEATH AND THE GARDENER
Event data
- Date: Thu. 16 October 2025
- Time: 20:00
- Location: Stadtgarten
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Accessibility
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
- Rollstuhlgerechter Zugang + WC (JAKI Club nicht barrierefrei) Available
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- Bulgarisch
- Deutsch
“What the heck – life is a holiday from being dead, and even though we were clueless about most things, this felt like life.” He wrote Austrian musical history with his band “Wanda” (their most successfu… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event MARCO WANDA: THAT WE EVEN EXISTED
Event data
- Date: Thu. 16 October 2025
- Time: 21:00
- Location: COMEDIA Theater
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Accessibility
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
OTTO WAALKES turns 77 this year – the right age to go on ever-longer journeys of discovery. And because art has been around for much longer and is such a broad field, it is no surprise that there are s… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event OTTO: AN EXTRAORDINARY ARTIST
Event data
- Date: Fri. 17 October 2025
- Time: 18:00
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
“Desperate, because I see how many people fail to learn from history. Desperate, because the democracy that enabled my life is crumbling.” – MICHEL FRIEDMAN finds clear, unmistakable words. In his new b… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event MICHEL FRIEDMAN: A LOVE LETTER FROM A DESPERATE DEMOCRAT
Event data
- Date: Fri. 17 October 2025
- Time: 19:30
- Location: COMEDIA Theater
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Accessibility
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
ZDF proclaimed THOMAS MELLE a “genius”; newspaper Die Welt said his work was “approaching the stature of world literature”. His internationally acclaimed novel “The World at My Back” was a literary treatment o… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event THOMAS MELLE: HOUSE OF THE SUN
Event data
- Date: Fri. 17 October 2025
- Time: 21:00
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
In his fabulous new novel SUSPENDED, HANNS-JOSEF ORTHEIL whisks us away to Wuppertal in the late 1950s – a time of inner and outer reconstruction in West Germany. The book tells the story of s… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event HANNS-JOSEF ORTHEIL: SUSPENDED
Event data
- Date: Sat. 18 October 2025
- Time: 18:00
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
In the fall of 1989, Luzy Morgenroth is living the unremarkable life of a provincial police officer on the remote island of Amrum. Then, one stormy night, one of the locals vanishes from the ferry… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
Event data
- Date: Sat. 18 October 2025
- Time: 19:00
- Location: COMEDIA Theater
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Accessibility
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
“The whole world understands my language,” said Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), one of the greatest composers of his time. He shaped Viennese classicism like no other, and his 77 years were filled with a desir… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event ALAIN CLAUDE SULZER AND ELKE HEIDENREICH: HAYDN!
Event data
- Date: Sat. 18 October 2025
- Time: 20:00
- Location: Oper Köln, Saal 2
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Accessibility
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
KATJA RIEMANN is one of the best-known actresses in the German-speaking countries. With finesse and flair, she acts in both commercial cinema and art-house films and is likewise at home in the world… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event KATJA RIEMANN: FOG AND FIRE
Event data
- Date: Sat. 18 October 2025
- Time: 21:00
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
How should we deal with violence and misanthropy? What can be done to counter authoritarian regimes and attacks on freedom and equality? And what does humanism mean today? In her new book, RESPEKT… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event LUISA NEUBAUER MEETS CAROLIN EMCKE: RESPECT IS NOT TOO MUCH TO ASK
Event data
- Date: Sun. 19 October 2025
- Time: 17:00
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
Why would someone ride up mountains under their own steam – while enduring extreme suffering and with limited chance of success? And why would they get back on the bike the next day and do it all o… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event ERIK AND RICK ZABEL DISCUSS FREEDOM ON WHEELS
Event data
- Date: Sun. 19 October 2025
- Time: 20:00
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
Wimbledon champion at 17, six-time Grand Slam winner, ranked number one in the world: Over the course of his tennis career, BORIS BECKER achieved almost everything. But in April 2022, it all came… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event BORIS BECKER – INSIDE: WINNING. LOSING. STARTING AGAIN
Event data
- Date: Tue. 21 October 2025
- Time: 19:30
- Location: Theater am Tanzbrunnen
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Accessibility
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
In the sweltering summer of 1933, the political situation in Europe is coming to a head. After adventurous escapes in June, Thomas and Katia Mann and their six children take refuge in the sleepy port… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event FLORIAN ILLIES: AS THE SUN GOES DOWN
Event data
- Date: Fri. 24 October 2025
- Time: 17:30
- Location: Flora Köln
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
She took the global literary world by storm with her debut novel “The God of Small Things”. Since then, ARUNDHATI ROY is known not only as one of the greatest authors of our time but also as an unc… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event JAGODA MARINIĆ MEETS ARUNDHATI ROY: MOTHER MARY COMES TO ME
Event data
- Date: Fri. 24 October 2025
- Time: 20:30
- Location: Flora Köln
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
-
- Englisch
- Deutsch
Every Sunday evening, Germany gathers in front of the television to watch the cult police series “Tatort”. And if you are lucky, the episode is set in Münster. Because then you can experience one of the … This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
Event data
- Date: Wed. 05 November 2025
- Time: 18:00
- Location: Flora Köln
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
Dr. David Hunter knows the secrets of the dead. He is one of the UK’s leading forensic anthropologists. He finds himself stranded in the middle of a snowstorm at the dilapidated Hillside House in the C… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event SIMON BECKETT: THE BONE GARDEN. WITH GERD KÖSTER
Event data
- Date: Wed. 05 November 2025
- Time: 21:00
- Location: Flora Köln
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
-
- Deutsch
- Englisch
They never met, but superstar David Bowie had an immeasurable impact on a boy from Cologne. It’s 1969 and FRANK SCHÄTZING is 12 years old, an introverted and sheltered only child, when Bowie’s music stri… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
Event data
- Date: Wed. 26 November 2025
- Time: 19:30
- Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
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Accessibility
- Induction loop Available
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
The charmingly eccentric Thalbach clan returns this year to get us into the Christmas spirit. KATHARINA THALBACH, her daughter ANNA and granddaughter NELLIE read texts old and new about winter and… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.
More information about the event CHRISTMAS WITH THE THALBACH FAMILY!
Event data
- Date: Thu. 11 December 2025
- Time: 20:00
- Location: Gürzenich Köln
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Accessibility
- Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
- Assistance dogs welcome Available
