Literature days LESELUST
LESELUST Goes Europe - Literature from Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine
17 to 26 March 2025
The Leselust Literature Days took place in Chemnitz from 7 to 26 March. In the year of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025, they offered literary works from Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine and invited people to international encounters with authors such as Heike Geißler, Jurij Andruchowytsch and Jaroslav Rudiš as well as concert readings, films and school workshops. The programme is open to the public, the programme booklets were available at the TIETZ and the Hartmannfabrik and are also available online.
Chemnitz is the centre of a European border region. The lives of its people have been and continue to be characterised by issues that also play a role in other Central and Eastern European countries. These include the experiences of (post-)socialism, the experience of war and flight, but also the mining culture. An invention that has been connecting people and spaces for 200 years is rooted in it: the railway, whose rail network often connected the cities in today's Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine better in the past than it does today and which is also a theme of the Leselust Literature Days.
The aim of the event was cultural, but also interpersonal networking. Literary figures from Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland met in double readings. In addition, experiences and literary adaptations of war events in Ukraine were presented, also with a view to the new fellow citizens in the Capital of Culture region who come from there. Chemnitz's urban society was also involved: through the presentation of the results of the writing workshop "Greif zur Feder, Chemnitz!" and creative programmes for schools in the "Junge (W)Orte" series. The events took place at various locations throughout Chemnitz and the surrounding area.
Leselust builds a cross-border bridge to the former European Capital of Culture Wroclaw 2016 in Poland and the future European Capital of Culture Budweis/České Budejovice 2028 in the Czech Republic. For the programme team, this is one of the main objectives of the European Capital of Culture year: building bridges of mutual understanding through literature and its translations. The Literature Days Leselust goes Europe was part of the Chemnitz 2025 programme and a joint project of the Chemnitz City Library, the German Cultural Forum for Eastern Europe e. V., Potsdam, the Czech Republic and the Czech Republic. V., Potsdam, the Czech Centre Berlin and the Adalbert Stifter Verein e. V. - Kulturinstitut für die böhmischen Länder, Munich.