“When did we realize that we live in a new country? And how? And how do we learn to breathe against the wind that is ominously brewing and presses with sharp gusts into our lungs?” With these questions in mind, the cultural sociologist Alexander Leistner initiated a literary-sociological experiment: As “Überlandschreiberinnen,” Manja Präkels, Tina Pruschmann, and Barbara Thériault, supported by the Volkswagen Foundation, traveled through Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia in the election year 2024, spoke with local people, and documented their observations about the noticeable change in the social climate over the past decades.
The literary reports collected in the book “Extremwetterlagen” (Verbrecher Verlag, 2025) provide “explanatory approaches to how the new right became so dominant” (taz). Alexander Leistner, Manja Präkels, and Barbara Thériault will discuss their insights into this pan-German phenomenon.
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Photo: Alexander Leistner © Sven Reichhold, Manja Präkels © Christoph Voy, Barbara Thériault © Wiko Maurice
Supported as part of the Literature Summer 2026 - An event of the Baden-Württemberg Foundation,
http://www.literatursommer.de Co-hosts: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg, jos fritz e.V., in cooperation with the Historical Seminar of the University of Freiburg
Date: 16.06.2026, 19:30
Location: Literaturhaus Freiburg, Bertoldstraße 17
Admission: 11/7 Euro
Reading and discussion
Literaturhaus
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
