Second edition of the series “Literarische Heimat Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf”

Many authors who helped shape the cultural life of their time were born in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf and Charlottenburg districts or spent years of their lives here. 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.

In the second edition of the series “Literarische Heimat Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf” focuses on two foreign authors for whom Berlin was an important stopover, and one author who lived in Berlin her entire life until she was deported by the Nazis:

• Russian exile writer Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) lived in Berlin for fifteen years, including on Nestorstraße in Halensee, before he who had fled the October Revolution was forced to flee once again.
• The Swiss writer Robert Walser (1878–1956), whose work is characterized by ironic, existentially precise observation, lived in several Berlin lodgings at the beginning of the 20th century.
• Born in Berlin, Gertrud Kolmar (1894–1943), one of the most important German-Jewish poets of the 20th century, grew up in Charlottenburg and lived in Wilmersdorf for many years until she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943 and murdered there.

Over the course of three evenings, we will present the lives and works of these authors. Acting students from UdK will read excerpts from their works.

Program

Venue: Heinrich-Schulz-Bibliothek, Otto-Suhr-Allee 98, 10585 Berlin

Thursday, 7 May 2026, 18.00
Fanny Wehner (ZfL): Vladimir Nabokov – Berlin wider Willen: fünf Adressen und ein Stadtführer
Reading: Daniel Petrenko and Moritz Tostmann (UdK)

Monday, 1 Jun 2026, 18.00
Patrick Eiden-Offe (ZfL): Robert Walser –- Von Biel nach Berlin und zurück: Prosastückli aus dem Weltstadtgetümmel
Reading: Kamil Saad Amad and Mia Dräger (UdK)

Thursday, 2 Jul 2026, 18.00
Shira Miron (University of Basel): Gertrud Kolmar – Dichten gegen den Alltag
Reading: Feryal Djavadi and Dilan Graf (UdK)

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