Wednesday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Literaturhaus

Author Reading & Discussion

Moderator: Ariane Binder (3sat)

A stroll through her own body of work, in stories, poems, and reflections. In “Luft zum Leben,” HELGA SCHUBERT has compiled texts spanning seven decades, from 1960 to 2025, thereby preserving, among other things, everyday life in the GDR as contemporary history on paper. In 1980, she was invited to receive the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize but was not allowed to leave the country. In 2020, at the age of 80, she was invited again—and she won. Her texts not only address Germany’s past but also examine contemporary conditions, women’s lives, and transitions in her own biography as well as in society. Every single line reads like a promise: Helga Schubert still has much to say!

Thursday, May 7 at 7 p.m. at the Museum Wiesbaden

Author Reading & Discussion

Moderator: Uwe Wittstock

Denis Scheck describes “Trio mit Tiger,” the first novel about the artist couple Max and Mathilde Beckmann, as an exciting blend of “Babylon Berlin” and art history. Max Beckmann is quickly defamed by the Nazis as a “degenerate artist” and flees with Mathilde into exile in Amsterdam. It is also Mathilde who, in her literary debut, creates a dazzling tribute to MARIANNE LUDES.

Various works by Max Beckmann are on display at the Museum Wiesbaden. Roman Zieglgänsberger from the Museum Wiesbaden offers a brief overview.

ORGANIZER: Literaturhaus Villa Clementine/Wiesbaden Cultural Office in cooperation with the Museum Wiesbaden and Freunde des Museums Wiesbaden e.V.

Saturday, May 9 and May 30 at 7 p.m. at the Literaturhaus

Two people meet and open a book: They begin to leaf through it—the book poses questions and encourages exchange and conversation—about life and the world in both the big picture and the small details, what divides us and what connects us, being alone and being together. 

A completely analog yet interactive piece between two strangers. A double exposure.

Anywhere. A piece that requires no stage and no audience. One that can take place in every corner of the world: a remote farmstead, a small town, a metropolis. Page by page, the two people become entangled and thus become the main characters of the book.

Concept and text: Helgard Haug (Rimini Protokoll)
Illustration: Luise Wüstling
Dramaturgy: Moritz von Rappard
Artistic collaboration: Paula Holzhauer
Production manager: Louise Stölting
Printing and distribution: TZ – Verlag & Print GmbH

“Hooked on a Book” is a project by Rimini Protokoll initiated by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain as part of World Design Capital 2026. With the kind support of the Academy of Arts, Section: Film and Media Art.

Tuesday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Literaturhaus

Series: Talking about my Generation

Author Reading & Discussion

Moderator: Marita Hübinger

Heat, homesickness, and the search for a better life—in her third novel, NADINE SCHNEIDER once again tells a sweeping family saga that spans several generations and traces its roots all the way to Romania. Unexpectedly, Christina inherits her grandmother Anni’s house—and with it, a wealth of memories. Loneliness after fleeing her homeland, poverty, and a strong sense of duty define her grandmother, but can that really have been the sum total of her life?

Nadine Schneider, who herself comes from a Romanian-German family, navigates the difficult terrain of homelessness with surefooted confidence, standing alongside Herta Müller and Iris Wolff with literary self-assurance.

Wednesday, May 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Literaturhaus

A conversation with Frank Witzel

The Kurhaus, Wilhelmstraße, and the State Theater—grand, prominent, and well-known! Who pays attention to kiosks, gas stations, parking garages, and schools? Yet the volume “Stadtbildprägende Bauten” by PROF. DR. GEORG EBBING demonstrates that everyday and functional architecture is no less interesting. Over the course of ten semesters, more than 300 students from RheinMain University of Applied Sciences set out to explore Wiesbaden’s buildings—sometimes as casual strollers, sometimes with the meticulous attention to detail of detectives—focusing on structures that typically remain discreetly in the background. The result is a photographic collection in which all of Wiesbaden’s familiar corners become eye-catchers. FRANK WITZEL shares the stage this evening with the editor Georg Ebbing, architectural photographer MAXIMILIAM MEISSE, and OLIVER ELSER, curator of the German Architecture Museum and contributing author. Witzel will discuss the poetic potential of these everyday structures with them and read his piece “Wiesbaden Orthometry.” In it, the local author strolls from Rheinstraße to the main post office and winds his way through the crisscrossing streets from the Artists’ Quarter to the Poets’ Quarter.

ORGANIZER: RheinMain University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with the Literaturhaus Villa Clementine/Wiesbaden Cultural Office

Thursday, May 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Literaturhaus

Author Reading & Discussion

Moderator: Eric Marr

Politically controlled media, conspiracy theories, and historical revisionism: In “Dissident,” MICHAL HVORECKÝ pinpoints the threats to democracy. Following several novels and short stories, the Slovak author is now publishing his first non-fiction book—and his first book written in German—in which he traces Europe’s path after the fall of the Iron Curtain through the lens of his own biography. In it, he weaves his own experiences with a razor-sharp view of the political present, the fragility of democracy, and the new dissidents of the 21st century. He underscores the dissident legacy of the 1989 Velvet Revolution and issues an all-the-more-forceful appeal to actively counter the new shift to the right and to fight passionately for a democratic Europe.

In his home country, he is committed to protecting press freedom and opposing anti-democratic developments. He is part of the group “Arbeit an Europa,” which works in various ways to strengthen European cohesion.

Reading as part of the traveling exhibition “Tell Me About Europe!” by the European eyewitness project “European Archive of Voices.”

ORGANIZER: Literaturhaus Villa Clementine/Wiesbaden Cultural Office in cooperation with sam – Stadtmuseum am Markt and the Office for Social Work

Tuesday, May 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Literaturhaus

Author Reading & Discussion

Moderator: Jan Wiele (FAZ)

In his third novel, LUKAS RIETZSCHEL returns to East Germany, to the eponymous town of “Sanditz.” This fictional small town on the edge of the country is shaped by open-pit lignite mining, forests, and quarries, providing the backdrop for a multi-perspective panorama of stories, families, and friendships spanning from the end of the GDR to the present day.

Rietzschel already enjoyed great success with both audiences and critics alike with his debut, “Mit der Faust in die Welt schlagen” (Punching the World with My Fist), which was adapted into a film in 2025. Now follows another multi-layered novel set in the post-reunification era, exploring the desire for belonging and freedom.

Thursday, May 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Literaturhaus

Series: Talking about my Generation

Author reading & discussion

Moderator: Alexander Wasner (SWR)

Reading in German: Oliver Wronka

Hugo and Willem are dissimilar twins: While one has devoted himself to art, the other carries on their grandfather’s empire in the oil business. As their grandfather celebrates his 100th birthday, Hugo sets out on a quest for clues and reads in diaries about his grandfather’s crimes during the Nazi era.

In “Nirvana,” TOMMY WIERINGA, one of the most successful Dutch writers, not only explores the conflict between generations but also impressively examines the interplay of economics and fascism, the rise of the new right, and raises questions about power and powerlessness in art.