When Christa Wolf's novella What remains was published in 1990, a fierce debate broke out in the literary feuilleton about the role of literature in the GDR. Almost 40 years later, many traces of and connections within this literary community can be found in the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery. This walk explores these traces to conjure up the image of a failed society whose utopian dream reverberates in the literature it produced. In German.

Few other opera houses in the world have staged as many world premieres as the Deutsche Oper Berlin since 2012, under the directorship of Dietmar Schwarz. In conversation about the recently published book Wie kommt das Neue in die Welt? (How does the new enter the world?), which summarises the directorship, Akademie members Schwarz and Rebecca Saunders as well as composers Detlev Glanert and Sara Glojnarić will provide insights into the creative process. In German.

The surrealist is regarded as a “rule-breaker par excellence – a kind of poet with a knife between his teeth”, remarks Julien Gracq in the essay Surrealism and contemporary literature (SINN UND FORM 4/2025). The editor of the French edition of his works, Bernhild Boie, the poet Norbert Hummelt and the editor of SINN UND FORM, Gernot Krämer, talk about his work. In German.

JUNGE AKADEMIE fellowship holders will open their studios: In their compositions, performances and feature films, Huihui Cheng (Music), Lisa Gertsch (Film and Media Arts), gruppe-aja (Architecture) and Kira Xonorika (Human Machine Fellowship) will provide insights into their current projects dealing with topics such as neurodiversity, sustainability, technosciences and acoustic-electronic landscapes.

Opening event of the project 494h 29m 53s by Karin Sander, which shows 1,254 video films from the Video-Forum collection at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) in a 494-hour long-term screening in the Studio at the Akademie der Künste. Panel discussion with Marius Babias, Bjørn Melhus, Anh-Linh Ngo, Karin Sander and Hito Steyerl, followed by a video screening (9 pm – midnight). Free admission.

The writer Anna Seghers lived in Berlin Adlershof for almost three decades. Her former flat in an apartment building has been open to the public as a museum since 1985. Most of her apartment remains unchanged. The extensive library can be viewed in the living room and study. In 2025, the Anna Seghers Museum will continue to open every first Sunday of the month from 11 am to 4 pm and offer guided tours in German.

The theme of Anna Seghers’ work is the self-liberation of her literary characters. To what extent does this liberation have biographical features? An approach to the transformation from sheltered daughter to headstrong writer. Guided tour in the writer’s home and study as it was, when she lived there from 1955 until her death in 1983. In German.

A two-hour walk leads from the Brecht-Haus (Brecht House) to the Berliner Ensemble in the footsteps of Bertolt Brecht. This is where the writer and director moved in the years after his return from exile, where he achieved his artistic breakthrough in the 1920s. Meeting point ist the courtyard of the Brecht-Haus. In German.