Patrick Eiden-Offe (ZfL): Robert Walser –- Von Biel nach Berlin und zurück: Prosastückli aus dem Weltstadtgetümmel

When Robert Walser (1878–1956) moved from the tranquillity of the Swiss town of Biel to Berlin in 1906, he had big plans. He wanted to immerse himself in the hustle and bustle of the big city and become a professional writer. Although he had published a few pieces before, he had mainly made a living as a bank clerk and office assistant. In Berlin, Walser roamed the streets as a flâneur, living in lodgings and spending his nights in pubs. His “Prosastückli” (prose pieces) reveal an ironic power of observation that repeatedly flirts with his own provincial “Hirtenbübeligkeit” (shepherd boyishness). However, beneath this humorous playfulness, an existential darkness soon emerges which would come to characterize his later work.

Reading by Kamil Saad Amad and Mia Dräger, students in the Acting program at Berlin University of the Arts.  

Literarische Heimat Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf

Many authors who helped shape the cultural life of their time spent years of their lives in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf and Charlottenburg districts. In cooperation with the ZfL and the Acting program at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), the Stadtbibliothek Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf presents some of these authors.

Fig. above: D.M. Nagu from the series Songs for a Future Generation (2020) (detail)