Supporting programme for the International Stefan Heym Prize
Reading with this year's prizewinner on 2 April, 11 a.m. - Programme booklet available
On Saturday, 1 April, the East Berlin-born writer Jenny Erpenbeck will receive the International Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz. Around the award ceremony, which only takes place every three years, the International Stefan Heym Society, in cooperation with the City of Chemnitz, has put together a varied programme of readings, lectures and theatre performances as well as events in the Stefan Heym Forum throughout the year.
On Sunday, 2 April at 11 a.m., Jenny Erpenbeck will introduce herself to the Chemnitz audience during a literary matinee in the TIETZ event hall and read from her latest novel "Kairos". Admission to the event is free of charge.
In the novel, 19-year-old Katharina and Hans, a married man in his mid-fifties, meet by chance in East Berlin at the end of the 1980s and don't get away from each other for the next few years. Against the backdrop of the declining GDR and the upheaval after 1989, Jenny Erpenbeck tells of the abysses of happiness - of the path of two lovers on the border between truth and lies, of obsession and violence, hatred and hope.
On 20 April and 29 April, both at 7.30 pm , the Chemnitz Theatre will be showing "Der große Hanussen" on the large stage in the Spinnbau, Altchemnitzer Straße 27. In this play, Stefan Heym deals with the end of the clairvoyant and star of the Berlin variety theatre scene, Jan Erik Hanussen, whose violent death in the spring of 1933 was quickly interpreted as an indication that the Reichstag fire a few weeks earlier had apparently been planned by the National Socialists. A moderated discussion will also explain how it came about that the play was not premièred until 20 years after Heym's death.
On 13 June at 7 pm, interested parties are invited to a literary evening with Bernadette Malinowski, Professor of Modern German and Comparative Literature at Chemnitz University of Technology, Michael Müller (International Stefan Heym Society) and Dr Christoph Grube (Germanist, Chemnitz University of Technology) at the Stefan Heym Forum in the TIETZ. Under the title "5 Days in June", Heym's novel about the uprising of 17 June 1953, which was banned in the GDR, will be examined. Admission is free of charge.
This novel will also be the subject of short guided tours of the Stefan Heym Forum, which will be offered on the Chemnitz Museum Night on 13 May.
On 21 September at 5.30 pm, the focus will be on one of Stefan Heym's greatest works, "The Crusaders". A commented reading in the Stefan Heym Forum at the TIETZ will focus on the World War II epic, which was first published in the United States in 1948 and made Stefan Heym known internationally as a writer and to the German reading public for the first time. Admission is free of charge.
On 19 October at 7 p.m. , a panel discussion in the Stefan Heym Forum at the TIETZ will present and discuss notable new publications from recent years with a closer connection to Stefan Heym's life, work and impact. Admission is free of charge.
The supporting programme will conclude on 7 November at 7 pm with a lecture on Stefan Heym's Chemnitz relatives and the persecution of Jews during the Nazi era. To mark the 85th anniversary of the pogroms of November 1938, historian Dr Jürgen Nitsche will trace the fates of Heym's Chemnitz relatives in detail. Admission is free of charge.
International Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz
The International Stefan Heym Prize of the City of Chemnitz is awarded in memory of the life, work and achievements of Stefan Heym, son and honorary citizen of the City of Chemnitz. The International Stefan Heym Prize is intended to honour contemporary and courageous personalities who, like Stefan Heym, have made outstanding and lasting achievements as writers and publicists. The prize is endowed with 20,000 euros.
The award ceremony will take place on 1 April from 6 pm at Chemnitz Opera House. Admission is free of charge, a maximum of two tickets per person will be issued (while stocks last). Tickets are available in the Chemnitz Theatre webshop and at the advance booking office of the Tourist and Ticket Service, Markt 1.
The programme booklet is available in the administrative buildings and citizen service points of the City of Chemnitz, in the TIETZ and in cultural institutions.
www.chemnitz.de/heympreis