Talk on International Holocaust Day
KREISKY FORUM SPECIAL in co-operation with ESRA
On the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day
ESRA talks in the town hall
Peter Huemer with Wolf Biermann
Wolf Biermann epitomises a piece of contemporary German history like no other. His name is inextricably linked with that of the GDR; he became a symbol of resistance against a dictatorship that tried by all means to silence critical artists. His expatriation from the GDR in 1976 triggered an unexpectedly large wave of protest and still marks the beginning of the end of the GDR for many people today.
Wolf Biermann will introduce the conversation with music.
Wolf Biermann was born in 1936 into a communist working-class family in Hamburg and spent his early childhood under the Nazi dictatorship. His father, who was Jewish, was arrested and murdered in Auschwitz in 1943. Wolf Biermann moved to the GDR at the age of 17 and began writing poems and composing songs in 1960. Over time, he became the harshest and best-known critic of the SED party dictatorship. The Stasi kept him under round-the-clock surveillance, bugged his flat and spied on his private life. In 1965, he was banned from performing and publishing in the GDR for an indefinite period. In 1976, he was not allowed to return to the GDR after a concert in Cologne.
Biermann has been honoured with many major German literary prizes, including the Fontane Prize (1969), the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize (1989), the Mörike Prize (1991), the Georg Büchner Prize (1991), the Heinrich Heine Prize (1993) and the Ernst Toller Prize (2018). His volumes of poetry have been translated into numerous languages and he has given concerts in many countries around the world. He also frequently intervenes in day-to-day politics - both through his sharp-tongued and provocative essays as well as his highly acclaimed speeches in the Berlin Bundestag.
Peter Huemer is a historian and journalist in Vienna. He founded the series In dialogue in ORF radio, which he headed from 1987 to 2002.
Venue: Stadtsaal, 1060 Vienna, Mariahilferstraße 81
Ticket prices:
Category 1: € 22.00; Category 2: € 15.00
Tickets for this performance are available directly from the Stadtsaal:
Online ticket reservation: www.stadtsaal.com
Ticket reservation by telephone:
Tel. 01/909 22 44
Mon-Fri 14.00 - 20.00 hrs;
during match operations also Sat. 16.30 - 20.00, Sunday 18.00-20.00
The proceeds from this fundraising event will benefit the work of the ESRA psychosocial centre and enable the care of people living outside Vienna, e.g. survivors of National Socialism who have been expelled from Austria.