"5 Days in June" - Heym's novel about the workers' uprising in 1953
Annotated reading on 13 June, 7 pm at the Stefan Heym Forum in the TIETZ
On Tuesday, 13 June at 7 pm, interested parties are invited to an annotated reading of Stefan Heym's novel "5 Days in June", about the uprising of 17 June 1953, which was banned in the GDR, at the Stefan Heym Forum in the TIETZ. Admission is free of charge.
A literary evening with Bernadette Malinowski, Professor of Modern German and Comparative Literature at Chemnitz University of Technology, Dr Christoph Grube, German scholar at Chemnitz University of Technology and Michael Müller, board member of the International Stefan Heym Society.
70 years ago, on 17 June 1953, tens of thousands of workers in the GDR rose up against the self-proclaimed workers' state. Having just returned from anti-fascist exile in the USA, Stefan Heym witnessed the events in Berlin at close quarters. And he wrote a novel about it, which was not allowed to be published in his own country and therefore provided material for all kinds of legends: "Der Tag X".
Finally published in West Germany in the mid-1970s under the title "5 Days in June" in a heavily revised version, the novel was to become one of Heym's best-known books. With the addition of authentic documents, it recounts the events surrounding 17 June 1953 from the perspective of those who were involved in and responsible for the events. The renaming of his hometown Chemnitz to Karl-Marx-Stadt a few weeks before the uprising was also included in the plot.
An event organised by the International Stefan Heym Society in cooperation with the City of Chemnitz.