Judith Hermann: I want to go back in time - reading and conversation with Luzia Stettler in the "Compass: 8 Visions" series

"He is a blank space, at the same time he is the opposite, he is a terrible blind spot, I don't want to succeed in placing him." In her new book (S. Fischer, 2026), Judith Hermann follows in the footsteps of her grandfather, who was stationed in Radom, Poland, for the SS during the Second World War. Following her Frankfurt poetry lecture "Wir hätten uns alles gesagt" (2023), the multi-award-winning author looks back again and explores a piece of family history that has long been denied.
In tentative searches and with the "precision of the vague" (F.A.S.) that Judith Hermann is a master of, she travels from Poland to Naples in an attempt to complete the fragmentary picture of her grandfather. The author talks to literary mediator Luzia Stettler about gaps in our biographies, what is repressed in society and how generations remember and forget.
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Photo: © Andreas Reiberg

Co-organizer: Buchhandlung Rombach, Dokumentationszentrum Nationalsozialismus Freiburg

Supported as part of the Literatursommer 2026 - A series of events by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, www.literatursommer.de

Date: 26.06.2026, 19:30
Location: Literaturhaus Freiburg, Bertoldstraße 17
Admission: 11/ 7 Euro

Reading and discussion
Literaturhaus