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An afternoon with poets: Sophia Eisenhut, Hildegard König, Christian Lehnert and Konstantin Stawenow

Religion needs poetry! Vol. I

Poets and writers in dialogue, with Sophia Eisenhut, Hildegard König, Christian Lebnert and Konstantin Stawenow.

December 15, 2023, 14:30-18:00
Domstraße 10
99084 Erfurt

Participation is possible and requires registration by sending an email to thomas.sojer@uni-erfurt.de

Recent works by the authors (selection):

 

On the 110th birthday and 80th death anniversary of the Jewish writer Etty Hillesum (1914-1943)

Hillesum

The Dutch Jewish writer Etty Hillesum was born on 15th January 1914 in Middelburg, Netherlands, and died in the Auschwitz concentration camp on 30th November 1943.

Etty Hillesum is particularly well known for the diaries she kept between 1941 and 1943. These diaries offer a deep insight into her inner self, her spiritual development and her reflections on friendship, sex and her seeking God during the Holocaust.

To mark the 110th anniversary of her birth and 80th anniversary of her death, Etty Hillesum's writing was brought into dialogue with selected organ compositions from the interwar and post-war period. This music is sober, tinny and sincere.

The organ was played by Geneva-based organist Elisabeth Hubmann, who was previously organist at the Obrechtkerk in Amsterdam, where she was responsible for several world premieres of contemporary organ and choral music. The selected texts by Etty Hillesum were read by Tom Sojer. The event was a co-operation between the Catholic Forum in Thuringia and the Augustinians in Erfurt (Brunnenkirche).

The event can be listened to on the channel of the Augustinians in Erfurt here.

Reading with Erfurt's writer in residence Isabella Straub and a talk about the Stoa, serenity and GDR architecture

Stadtschreiberin

On 27 October, Erfurt city writer in residency Isabella Straub read from her new novel in the chapel of Saint Clement in the cloister of the Erfurt cathedral. 

In the subsequent conversation, Tom Sojer spoke with the author about serenity, the legacy of Epicurus and the importance of literature for a better understanding of current societal transformation processes. 

Isabella Straub lives in Vienna and Klagenfurt. She was the city writer in residence of Erfurt in 2023. Her most recent publications include

Wer hier schlief, Blumenbar 2017 , Das Fest des Windrads, Blumenbar 2015 , Südbalkon, Blumenbar 2014

Reading with Sophia Eisenhut from "Anorexia und Gottesstaatlichkeit" (Merve 2021)

On June 29, 2022, Sophia Eisenhut read from her debut book "Anorexia und Gottesstaatlichkeit".

Jörg Seiler, historian of religion, Max Walther, media anthropologist, and Britta Müller-Schauenburg, philosopher, joined the author afterwards to talk about her perspectives on Ignatius of Loyola, political theology and the relationship between language art and religion. 

In the course of these event, Jörg Seiler and Tom Sojer started thinking about and planning the set-up of a research centre for language art and religion. 

Sophia Eisenhut, born in Regensburg in 1995, lives in Berlin, studied art history and typography in Leipzig, including fine arts in Michael Riedel's class. Scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, scholarship from the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus in the field of literature. In her writing practice, media reflexivity plays just as much a role as overcoming the boundary between theory and fiction, as well as her interest in the historical as a place of the utopian. 

Recent publications by Sophia Eisenhut (selection):