Wolfszeit – a Reading Thanks to Alumni der Universität Bremen e.V.

Made possible by the alumni association: a reading by Harald Jähner – recipient of this year’s Leipzig Book Fair Prize in the category non-fiction/essay writing – on the smaller stage at Theater Bremen. His book Wolfszeit is about the years between 1945 and 1955; about the no man’s years or – as he calls them – the wolf age (Wolfszeit); when people had to ensure the survival of their ‘pack’, rebuild the country. Jähner studied literature, history, and art history in Freiburg and did his doctorate in Berlin. After university, he worked as a freelance journalist for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Berliner Zeitung among others. Meanwhile, he holds an honorary professorship for cultural journalism at the Berlin University of the Arts.

His book is a thrilling read and vividly illustrated. It takes a conscious look at the misery of uprooting, at the strength of the Trümmerfrauen [women who after WWII cleared the rubble from the streets and helped reconstruct the cities], the displaced, war veterans, and at the new beginning of society. The event was presented by Elisabeth Arend, professor of Roman and transnational literature at the University of Bremen. Subsequently, the alumni had the opportunity to engage in conversation with the author himself and have their copies of his book signed.

It was a well-rounded and entertaining event in the framework of the globale° festival for transnational literature.

Author: Manuela Brocksieper