When books burn, worlds end. The funeral pyres were particularly high on May 10, 1933, a few weeks after the National Socialists came to power. In numerous German cities, works by politically unpopular or Jewish writers such as Anna Seghers, Erich Kästner and Lion Feuchtwanger fell victim to the flames, especially on Munich’s Königsplatz. Organized by students from the LMU and TU as part of an “action against the un-German spirit”, the macabre spectacle also attracted thousands of Munich citizens.
When many citizens make their way to Königsplatz or Odeonsplatz again this Friday, the goal is different: to counteract forgetting and to give a warning in the turbulent present. On the Königsplatz, the artist Wolfram P. Kastner and colleagues are once again organizing the “Munich reads – from burnt books” campaign, in which students as well as mayor Dieter Reiter read texts by once-outlawed authors, before Kastner singes a burn mark into the lawn (information: Telephone 0170/7731717).
The mayor is also expected at the annual “Reading Against Forgetting” on Odeonsplatz, now organized by Helena Nitsche after the death of the initiator Gerhard Schmitt-Thiel, as are, among others, cabaret artist Claus von Wagner and LMU students ( www.mohr-villa.de).
Readings from burned books, Friday, May 10th, Königsplatz 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., Odeonsplatz 12 p.m. – 2:30 p.m