August 1914

The German network of literature houses is interested in gaining a better understanding of the outbreak of the First World War one hundred years ago. Twenty-three writers from as many European cities responded to a call for literary texts by the network of literature houses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The writers began by reading old newspapers which appeared in their home cities in July and August 1914 and then wrote texts based on what they found. What did people feel strongly about in August 1914? How did they perceive and report on the outbreak of war? And how can we talk about that period and its people nowadays? The project made a point to highlight the perspective of countries, which were not militarily involved in the First World War, so that readers would better understand the pan-European dimension of the war. The writers produced a broad range of essays, observations of contemporary history, and stories set at the beginning of the First World War. Eighteen writers have been invited to present their works in an event series in May and June at the participating literature houses which started with a long literature night in Berlin on 9 May. The texts also appeared in an anthology in the series “die horen”, published by Wallstein Verlag.

Artistic director: Ernest Wichner
Artists: Bettina Balàka, Zsófia Bán, Marcel Beyer, Melitta Breznik, Éric Chevillard, Filip Florian, Marjana Gaponenko, Karl-Markus Gauß, Lukas Hammerstein, Dževad Karahasan, A.L.Kennedy, Angela Krauß, Steffens Kopetzky, Andrea Molesini, Stefan Moster, Erwin Mortier, Melinda Nadj Abonji, Julya Rabinowich, Uwe Saeger, Katrin Seddig, Ulf Stolterfoht, Ayfer Tunc, Sreten Ugričić.