Juliane Liebert: murder ballads - reading and conversation with Inak Jürgens in the series "Kompass: 8 Visions"

Verses about crime, guilt and fear - murder ballads have been around since mankind has been telling stories. Juliane Liebert appropriates the genre, which has been dominated by men from Bertold Brecht to Nick Cave, and brings it into the present in her songs and poems (Suhrkamp, 2025). We read about a bank robber in men's clothes who is shot in a stand-off with the police, about an amateurish executioner who no longer wants to get down to business, about gluttony and weariness.
With dry wit and disarming originality, Liebert weaves grotesque scenes into gruesome lines. She dresses the gloom in light humor and laughs unabashedly at the madness of the world. The author and journalist talks about her "murder ballads" with Inak Jürgens from the Verse & Diversity association.
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Photo: © Tatiana Kranz/ Suhrkamp Verlag
Co-organizer: Vers & Vielfalt e.V.
Supported as part of the Literatursommer 2026 - A series of events by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, www.literatursommer.de

Date: 20.05.2026, 19:30
Location: Literaturhaus Freiburg, Bertoldstraße 17
Admission: 11/ 7 Euro

Reading and discussion
Literaturhaus