Literary Walking Tours of Berlin

Join us as we explore the fascinating literary history of Berlin and consider how we can use what we see to inspire and enrich our own writing.

During our visit to Berlin, we are offering two different and complementary tours of Literary Berlin. You are welcome to join one or both, and it is suitable for all - whether you live in Berlin or are just visiting. We look forward to meeting you!

“An infernal cesspool and paradise in one” - Walking the literature of Berlin

Friday 27 March 1.30 pm

If Paris was the capital of the 19th century, Berlin surely was the one of the 20th: the city on the Spree was the centre of the German Empire and the first German democracy, was destined to become Hitler’s “Germania” but instead became a focal point of the Cold War after the defeat of the Nazis and the destruction of the city in Word War Two. And it was here that the reunification of Germany was celebrated in 1990. All these intense historical shifts found their expression in the writing of the city, from the expressionists before 1914 to the feuilletons of Joseph Roth, Nabokov’s stories and Christopher Isherwood’s legendary autobiography and the novels of Christa Wolf and Jörg Fauser. In the spirit of Franz Hessel’s flâneur this walking tour starts at the epicentre of pre-WW1 and Weimar Berlin art, the former Romanisches Café on Breitscheidtplatz, and follows the steps of the many writers of the city through the tempestous history of Germany from 1900 to the present, finishing at Bert Brecht’s final address in Berlin. Includes a short S-Bahn ride (public transport ticket AB required).

A Tale of Two Cities - Berlin writing from 1945 to today

Saturday 28 March 2 pm

Berlin after 1945 is the tale of two cities of our time. Germany’s Cold War division created two separate literary cultures, especially after the Berlin Wall went up in 1961. West Berlin became an isolated outpost in the middle of the GDR; the only place in Germany where military service was not compulsory so it attracted students, draft-evaders and underground writers like Jörg Fauser and Jürgen Ploog. The GDR’s cultural landscape was inevitably different, but attracted many writers, playwrights and poets. Anna Seghers, Arnold Zweig, Hans Mayer and Bertolt Brecht all moved to East Berlin to support the fledgling ‘anti-fascist’ socialist state. Later, that state became increasingly oppressive and drove many writers like Sascha Anderson, Lutz Rathenow and Annett Gröschner underground. This walking tour charts those different currents in Berlin writing. Starting at Nordbahnhof station it visits key sites of the Battle of Berlin 1945 and the Berlin Wall, introduces key German and migrant writers, the literary scenes of East and West Berlin, and how much Berlin writing has influenced reunited Germany since 1990.

The workshop will be led by Marcel Kreuger. Marcel is a German-Irish writer, editor and translator living in Berlin, a regular contributor to Slow Travel Berlin, and, together with Paul Sullivan, the author of “Berlin – A Literary Guide for Travellers” (Bloomsbury). Marcel is inspired by writers like W.G. Sebald, Dubravka Ugrešić and Martin Pollack, and his essays have been published in the Guardian, Notes from Poland, 3:AM, Przekrój, CNN Travel, and the Irish Times, amongst others. He is the co-editor of Elsewhere – A Journal of Place, and has published five non-fiction books in English and German. marcelkrueger.eu

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