Literature festival
Lit.Cologne starts with Robert Habeck and Michel Friedman
The topic of anti-Semitism is the focus of the Lit.Cologne literature festival. photo
© Thomas Banneyer/dpa
The Lit.Cologne is considered the largest literary festival in Europe. This year it starts with a very serious topic.
“Against Jew Hatred” is the title of this year’s opening event Lit. Cologne. Participants include Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), who took a strong stance against anti-Semitism in a speech after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7th, and the journalist Michel Friedman, whose parents were saved from being murdered by the Nazis by Oskar Schindler.
Of course, this year there is no way around focusing on the topic of anti-Semitism, festival director Rainer Osnowski told the German Press Agency. “I find the ignorance, especially in parts of the supposedly left-wing cultural bubble with one-sided pro-Palestine statements, intolerable.”
According to its own information, the largest literary festival in Europe with 185 events and more than 100,000 paying visitors runs from March 5th to 17th this year, one day longer than before. Among the numerous authors who come for readings or discussions are the Australian Suzie Miller, the South Korean writer Han Kang and the Irishman Paul Murray. Also coming are Andreas Pflueger, Bernhard Schlink and David Safier (“Miss Merkel”), as well as actors such as the Dortmund “Tatort” actor Jörg Hartmann and his colleague from “Polizeiruf 110”, Charly Hübner.