On 10 May 1933, the "Action against the Un-German Spirit" initiated by the NSDAP, the SA, the Hitler Youth and the National Socialist German Student Association reached its climax. On Berlin's Opernplatz and at other university campuses, Nazi socialists burned books, writings and art catalogues of unwelcome writers, artists and academics. All of the "beautiful" and humanistic literature of the time was devoured by the flames.
To mark the anniversary of the book burning, Chemnitz hosted readings in bookshops and libraries, cultural centres and churches, museums, educational institutions, bistros and public squares on Tuesday, 10 May 2022. People read from burnt books, suppressed literature and courageous texts that stand up to war, violence and marginalisation.
Everyone was invited to read along and listen at the locations on 10 May. The reading began at sunrise at 5:27 a.m. in the new headquarters of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 GmbH in the Schmidtbank-Passage and then travelled through the city before returning to the headquarters of the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz GmbH at 8:43 p.m. for sunset, where the day ended with a convivial get-together and canapés.
Chemnitz read in many voices and languages on 10 May 2022, including Hungarian, Hebrew, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Czech and Catalan. Chemnitz reads from texts by Mascha Kaléko, Erich Kästner, Simone Weil, Bertolt Brecht, Marina Zwetajewa, Jizchok Leib Perez, Rose Ausländer, Albert Einstein, Nelly Sachs, John Lennon, Ilse Rau and Stefan Heym.
The Lord Mayor of Chemnitz, Sven Schulze, also took part in the campaign and read - as did the head of the municipal music school, Nancy Gibson, for example. Hartwig Albiro, the long-standing theatre director of the local theatres, Renate Aris, a survivor of the Shoah, Christoph Magirius, the former superintendent and honorary citizen of the city, Etelka Kobuß, the city's migration officer, Klaus Kowalke, owner of the "Lessing und Kompanie" bookshop, and Nora Seitz, master butcher and team manager of the national butchery team, also read texts aloud.
Prof. Dr Ulrike Brummert presented two programmes as part of the reading and at the same time as part of the Flanierlesens: ENT_RÜSTET (texts against war and violence) and Across the sea (texts by authors who crossed a sea fleeing Nazism and violence).
