Digitalization of the LCB Audio Archive

Since 1963 the Literary Colloquium Berlin (LCB) has invited writers to readings and discussions on the Wannsee with the goal of promoting inner European integration through intellectual exchange. Some of these writers of European renown include Günter Grass, Martin Walser, Herta Müller, Max Frisch, Felicitas Hoppe, Heiner Müller, Katja Lange-Müller, Cees Nooteboom and Marlene Streeruwitz.
All the events - lectures, readings, chaired discussions - have been recorded on audiotape and broadcast in the radio programme Studio LCB. Since it began almost 50 years ago, the LCB Archive has accumulated approximately 730 audio recordings which reflect the role of intellectuals in an ever-changing society and document a cross-section of German literary history over the last half century.
Because these tapes are susceptible to deterioration and breakage, the LCB has digitalized its unique collection of post-war literature and then edited and presented it on a digital platform. Enhanced with films and photos, and supplemented with information about the writers, the spoken texts, publishers and presenters, the events are now presented to the public as documents of contemporary history. In the long-term, the LCB wishes to include other recorded events from selected literary institutions and use the site as a national archive for literary conferences of all kinds.

Artistic directors: Thorsten Dönges and Marcel Regenberg

Venue and schedule:
Literary Colloquium Berlin, 27 Sept 2011, 8 p.m., presentation of www.lesungen.net (external link, opens in a new window) and discussion
with Ulrich Janetzki, Joachim Kersten, Eva Menasse, Hajo Steinert