From Hitler boy to doctor in the third world
Reading with Professor Stephan Tanneberger in the city library
What have I learnt from my life's experiences? Professor Stephan Tanneberger will be a guest at the TIETZ City Library on 16 August 2016 at 6 pm. He will read from his book "Barfuß übers Stoppelfeld". In it, he writes about his life in post-war Germany, his work as an internationally renowned cancer researcher in the GDR and his work as a doctor in many Third World countries. Admission is free.
The book:
In 1943, Heiner has to keep a "war diary" at school. He does this eagerly, but soon realises that "everything is completely different". What is the truth? Peace at last in 1945. Then the post-war period - hunger, cold, "barefoot across stubble fields". But also a time of realisation, of people working together. Heiner becomes a "doctor" - a life in the service of others.
Sixty years later, a class reunion: Memories, East-West, experiences in the rich and the poor world. The author shares moving, thought-provoking and also cheerfully hopeful conversations with us. "The world needs truth, not weapons" is his answer to the question of how to "walk into a new world in trainers".
The author:
Stephan Tanneberger was born in Chemnitz in 1935. His childhood was characterised by the Second World War. From 1954 to 1964, he studied chemistry and medicine in Leipzig.
In 1974, now an internist and recognised cancer researcher, he became Director of the Central Institute for Cancer Research at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, which under his leadership became a globally respected WHO Collaborating Centre. In 1990, without a job opportunity in Germany, he accepted an offer to take on a leading role in the fight against cancer in the Third World.
At the same time, he became director of the Associazione Nazionale Tumori in Italy and has been teaching oncology at the University of Bologna since 1992. In 2004, Tanneberger founded the "Otto Lilienthal" Centre for Peace Work in Anklam and created the local forest for peace and against climate change. Tanneberger lives on Usedom and in Bologna.
Further information:
Uwe Hastreiter, Public Relations
City Library
Telephone: 0371 488-4202,
e-mail: hastreiter(at)stadtbibliothek-chemnitz.de