Program / lit.SPEZIAL List of all events

Dr. Moormann is annoying. Whenever Elke practices Schumann on the piano, her neighbor always asks spitefully: “Why do you always play the same piece – aren’t there any others?” And she’s never really happy with anything. “And she’s not even a doctor. That was her husband, but she makes everyone call her Dr. anyway. Well, who cares?” When Elke’s pug pees on Dr. Moormann’s flowerbed, the relationship hits rock bottom. But then Elke sees a side of Dr. Moormann she hadn’t expected. ELKE HEIDENREICH’s new book, DR MOORMANN & I, tells of a neighborly love-hate relationship, full of passion and wit.… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event DR. MOORMANN & I – BOOK PREMIERE WITH ELKE HEIDENREICH

Event data

• Date: Tue. 12 September 2023
• Time: 18:00
• Location: Kulturkirche Köln

• Accessibility

  • Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available

DAVID SEDARIS is a genius. He always finds the absurd in the everyday and the hilarious in the absurd. HAPPY-GO-LUCKY is the master humorist’s latest volume. As ever, he combines a goodly portion of misanthropy with a yearning for connection. With incredible curiosity, he investigates midlife against the backdrop of the Trump presidency and the pandemic, almost incidentally becoming a chronicler of these crisis-wracked times. “Unquestionably the king of comic writing” (The Guardian). At his side, the no less gifted FRANK GOOSEN, a big Sedaris fan, will present the new texts. This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event HAPPY-GO-LUCKY – WITH DAVID SEDARIS AND FRANK GOOSEN

Event data

• Date: Tue. 12 September 2023
• Time: 21:00
• Location: Kulturkirche Köln

• Accessibility

  • Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
• • Englisch Deutsch

Every night, Anouk is caught up in exciting adventures. In her dreams, she cracks criminal cases, solves puzzles about Egyptian pyramids and helps other children in difficult situations. But in real life, Anouk has troubles of her own. She’s got serious jitters about her upcoming swimming test. And she’d really like to go away for a while ... HENDRIKJE BALSMEYER and PETER MAFFAY wrote these stories about friendship, courage and imagination as a gift for their daughter, ANOUK. They’ll be reading together on stage and bringing along a brand-new Anouk adventure ... JOËLLE TOURLONIAS will illust… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event HENDRIKJE BALSMEYER AND PETER MAFFAY: NEW ADVENTURES WITH ANOUK, THE LITTLE DREAM ADVENTURER

Event data

• Date: Tue. 03 October 2023
• Time: 11:00
• Location: COMEDIA Theater, Roter Saal

• Accessibility

  • Induction loop Available
  • Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available

An author at the peak of her success and the low point of her life: Her marriage has failed, her mother is dead, and suddenly even her vision of a life as a public intellectual is being called into question. The plan had been for her husband to handle childcare and the household while she sorted out the world’s suffering. In his new novel, THE ALPHABET UP TO S, NAVID KERMANI expertly links the most mundane things with the great questions of our existence. Just like his heroine, his book is one-of-a-kind: novel and journal, essay and meditation, a literary celebration. And today, in Cologne, h… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event NAVID KERMANI AND THE ALPHABET UP TO S.

Event data

• Date: Sun. 15 October 2023
• Time: 20:00
• Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal

• Accessibility

  • Sign language Available
  • Induction loop Available
  • wheelchair friendly (no toilets) Available

In many parts of the world, the food supply is more secure than ever before. It might even be possible to overcome world hunger – if we ignore the downsides, in the form of artificial fertilizers, pesticides and the industrialization of agriculture. But one thing is certain: Humanity is facing a Catch-22 situation, which endangers the planet and therefore our entire existence. In EAT IT! HOW TO FEED HUMANITY AND SAVE THE WORLD, DIRK STEFFENS (Terra X) teams up with Marlene Göring to investigate how we can safeguard the food of the future in a more ecological and fair way. They show that we ca… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event EAT IT! HOW TO FEED AND SAVE THE WORLD – WITH DIRK STEFFENS

Event data

• Date: Tue. 17 October 2023
• Time: 18:00
• Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal

• Accessibility

  • Induction loop Available
  • wheelchair friendly (no toilets) Available

They are public intellectuals, shrewd observers of today’s politics and society, and skilled seismographers studying the fault lines threatening our society. MICHEL FRIEDMAN’s eye-opening SCHLARAFFENLAND ABGEBRANNT: VON DER ANGST VOR EINER NEUEN ZEIT [“Paradise Burns: The Fear of a New Era”] is an appeal to face crises with appropriate respect and without panic. In his evocative END OF TIMES: POLITICS WITHOUT A MISSION STATEMENT, SOCIETY IN DANGER, social psychologist HARALD WELZER describes how the gap between the German public and Germany’s national policy is becoming dangerously wide. The pair disc… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event MICHEL FRIEDMAN AND HARALD WELZER: IS OUR SOCIETY FALLING APART?

Event data

• Date: Tue. 17 October 2023
• Time: 21:00
• Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal

• Accessibility

  • Sign language Available
  • Induction loop Available
  • wheelchair friendly (no toilets) Available

Hamburg, 1955: Uwe begins his apprenticeship as a furrier in his father’s fur business. He learns the quirks and secrets of this art form, furtively reads Salinger and Camus, begins – still shy – to find out about love, questions politics and dreams of writing his own works. When his father dies suddenly, the young man finds himself left with a business on the brink of bankruptcy. But despite the hard work and worry, he holds fast to his dream of a different life. In ALL MY GHOSTS, the great, multiple award-winning author UWE TIMM creates a vivid portrait of an era and a moving coming-of-age novel… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event ALL MY GHOSTS – WITH UWE TIMM

Event data

• Date: Wed. 18 October 2023
• Time: 18:00
• Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal

• Accessibility

  • Induction loop Available
  • wheelchair friendly (no toilets) Available

MUNA, OR HALF A LIFE is the new novel by TERÉZIA MORA, winner of the Georg Büchner Prize and German Book Prize. In this gripping and articulate work, the Hungarian author explores love and the far-reaching consequences of dependency. Muna loves Magnus. Who Magnus loves – if anyone – is hard to say. She, however, is certain that being with him feels like home. But their first trip together reveals cracks in their relationship. Over the years, things just get colder, more unpredictable and more violent. Yet Muna still doesn’t want to give up on him or the relationship. Host: MARTIN BECKER This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event MUNA, OR HALF A LIFE – WITH TERÉZIA MORA

Event data

• Date: Wed. 18 October 2023
• Time: 21:00
• Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal

• Accessibility

  • Induction loop Available
  • wheelchair friendly (no toilets) Available

No moment in European history was more exciting – or more frightening – than the spring of 1848. From Palermo to Paris and Venice, huge crowds of people gathered in countless cities, not always with peace in mind. The political order was collapsing while new ideas, beliefs and expectations were spreading. The new, epic work, REVOLUTIONARY SPRING: FIGHTING FOR A NEW WORLD 1848-1849, by best-selling author CHRISTOPHER CLARK (“The Sleepwalkers”) brings this extraordinary era to life. “Magnificent, authoritative and deeply-researched. A supreme work of scholarship” (The Telegraph). Host: JOACHIM FRANK… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event REVOLUTIONARY SPRING – WITH CHRISTOPHER CLARK

Event data

• Date: Thu. 19 October 2023
• Time: 18:00
• Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal

• Accessibility

  • Sign language Available
  • Induction loop Available
  • wheelchair friendly (no toilets) Available

Vienna, 1966. Twenty years after the end of the war, the city has risen out of the ruins. Robert Simon opens his own café and the people of the neighborhood bring their stories. ROBERT SEETHALER creates a carousel of unforgettable characters – from René Wurm, the “Heumarkt Wrestler” to Mischa, the Russian artist, and unemployed Mila. In A CAFÉ WITHOUT A NAME, Seethaler once again proves his “talent for creating characters and landscapes without waffling or becoming cumbersome, in his typically pure and unembellished language” (FAZ). Host: SHELLY KUPFERBERG This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event A CAFÉ WITHOUT A NAME – WITH ROBERT SEETHALER

Event data

• Date: Thu. 19 October 2023
• Time: 21:00
• Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal

• Accessibility

  • Induction loop Available
  • wheelchair friendly (no toilets) Available

For more than 10 years, Commissaire Georges Dupin has been investigating in Brittany. Now he and his wife, Claire, spend their honeymoon in the Loire valley, in the beautiful Pays de Retz. In the land of vineyards, it’s all about wine-tasting and culinary pleasures. But then a well-known winemaker is murdered, the ex-husband of one of Claire’s friends. Is she somehow involved? In BRETON GLORY, the 12th case for likeable Commissaire Dupin, JEAN-LUC BANNALEC once again combines culinary delights, vacation vibes and atmospheric suspense. Host: MARGARETE VON SCHWARZKOPF; Text: ANDREAS GRÖTZINGER This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event BRETON GLORY – JEAN-LUC BANNALEC AND ANDREAS GRÖTZINGER

Event data

• Date: Fri. 20 October 2023
• Time: 18:00
• Location: Flora Köln

• Accessibility

  • Sign language Available
  • Induction loop Available
  • Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available

Commissioner Sörensen is back! While the investigator continues to suffer from anxiety, events take a dramatic turn during the jubilee celebrations at the Katenbüll mall. A car ploughs into the crowd. It belongs to an old acquaintance of Sörensen’s, but the case isn’t as clear-cut as it first seems. After the film version of “Sörensen’s Fear”, with BJARNE MÄDEL directing and playing the lead, comes the fourth novel in SVEN STRICKER’s detective series: LAND AHEAD FOR SÖRENSEN. Together, Mädel and Stricker present the curious Inspector Sörensen’s new case – full of humor, excitement and psychological acumen.… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event LAND AHEAD FOR SÖRENSEN – WITH BJARNE MÄDEL AND SVEN STRICKER

Event data

• Date: Fri. 20 October 2023
• Time: 21:00
• Location: Flora Köln

• Accessibility

  • Induction loop Available
  • Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available

A new book by one of Germany’s greatest contemporary authors, DANIEL KEHLMANN, is always a big deal. LICHTSPIEL [LIGHT SHOW] tells the story of perhaps the greatest director of his time. When the Nazis seize power, G.W. Pabst is filming in France. He flees to Hollywood to escape the horrors of the new Germany. But under the dazzling California sun, the world-famous director suddenly seems less significant. Not even Greta Garbo, whom he made immortal, can help him. Back in his homeland of Austria, he believes he can avoid being recruited by the Nazis … Host: KNUT ELSTERMANN This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event LIGHT SHOW – WITH DANIEL KEHLMANN

Event data

• Date: Sat. 21 October 2023
• Time: 20:00
• Location: WDR Funkhaus, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal

• Accessibility

  • Induction loop Available
  • wheelchair friendly (no toilets) Available

No German painter triggers emotions like Caspar David Friedrich. Even today, his evening skies are icons of yearning; he inspired Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” and Walt Disney’s “Bambi”. But Goethe was so angered by the puzzling melancholy of his pictures that he wanted to smash them on edge of a table. In THE MAGIC OF SILENCE, his epic journey through time, the art connoisseur and brilliant storyteller FLORIAN ILLIES (“1913: The Year Before the Storm”) tells the adventurous story of Friedrich’s paintings, using them to illustrate 250 years of German history. Host: MONA AMEZIANE This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event FLORIAN ILIES AND THE MAGIC OF SILENCE

Event data

• Date: Sun. 22 October 2023
• Time: 11:00
• Location: Flora Köln

• Accessibility

  • Induction loop Available
  • Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available

RICHARD FORD’s best-known character, Frank Bascombe, is back. And now, at 74, his usually undisputed ability to be at peace with his own life is called into question. His son Paul, 47, is ill and doesn’t have much time left. Never close, they now find themselves connected by a willingness to accept what’s to come with an awkward love. They rent a motorhome for one last adventure: a trip from Minnesota to Mount Rushmore. In BE MINE, Ford, the great chronicler of modern America, sends his protagonists on an odyssey through all aspects of American life. Host: ANGELA SPIZIG; German text: ULRICH NOETH… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event BE MINE – WITH RICHARD FORD AND ULRICH NOETHEN

Event data

• Date: Sun. 22 October 2023
• Time: 17:00
• Location: Flora Köln

• Accessibility

  • Induction loop Available
  • Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available
• • Englisch Deutsch

How modernity aggravates philosophy! Space as a fixture of physics loses its significance; the question of what is matter suddenly becomes astonishingly unclear. The definition of life is just as uncertain, and consciousness, too, becomes increasingly puzzling. This presents a challenge to the time-honored philosophy of common sense. RICHARD DAVID PRECHT presents the latest volume in his insightful and topical history of philosophy. In MAKE THE WORLD, he traces the paths of thought from Ludwig Wittgenstein to Martin Heidegger, against a backdrop of radicalized times and with consequences that… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event RICHARD DAVID PRECHT: MAKE THE WORLD – THE GREAT IDEAS OF MODERNITY

Event data

• Date: Sun. 22 October 2023
• Time: 20:00
• Location: Flora Köln

• Accessibility

  • Induction loop Available
  • Wheelchair friendly + toilets Available

London, 1873: In one of England’s most famous court cases, a man claims to be the long-lost son of the wealthy Lady Tichborne. The case incites the poor against the rich and fascinates the Scottish housekeeper, Eliza Touchet. She finds herself in conversation with one of the main witnesses in the case, a former slave from Jamaica. As the two of them draw closer to finding the truth, the question is: Whose truth counts? Celebrated best-selling author ZADIE SMITH surprises with her fascinating new novel, THE FRAUD, which is based on real historical events. Host: ALF MENTZER; German text: ANJA L… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event THE FRAUD – WITH ZADIE SMITH AND ANJA LAÏS

Event data

• Date: Fri. 03 November 2023
• Time: 18:00
• Location: Stadthalle Köln

• Accessibility

  • Sign language Available
  • wheelchair friendly (no toilets) Available
• • Englisch Deutsch

Iceland is known not only for breathtaking nature, huge glaciers, erupting volcanoes and a lively capital – but also for great literature, especially thrillers. When Iceland’s prime minister, KATRIN JAKOBSDOTTÍR, in office since 2017, teams up with one of the island nation’s best-known crime fiction writers, RAGNAR JÓNASSON (the “Hulda” trilogy), to write a detective novel, the result is REYKJAVIK. “Nordic noir at its most authoritative” (Financial Times). In their only joint appearance in Germany, the two present this atmospheric and highly suspenseful case. Host: ANGELA SPIZIG; German text: GERD KÖSTER… This text was shortened for this overview. Follow the more-link to read the full text.

More information about the event REYKJAVIK – WITH RAGNAR JÓNASSON, KATRIN JAKOBSDOTTÍR AND G. KÖSTER

Event data

• Date: Fri. 03 November 2023
• Time: 21:00
• Location: Stadthalle Köln

• Accessibility

  • Sign language Available
  • wheelchair friendly (no toilets) Available
• • Englisch Deutsch