On 10 September at Wasser-Stadt-Leipzig e. V.: Long Night of Reading as part of the Days of Industrial Culture

For the first time, the Verein Industriekultur Leipzig e.V. is hosting a long night of reading to mark the Days of Industrial Culture. You can look forward to a varied evening full of exciting stories, surprising insights and multifaceted texts on the region’s industrial history. The event will take place at the Wasser-Stadt-Leipzig e. V. clubhouse in Plagwitz District Park (Industriestraße 72, Leipzig).

Doors open at 4.30 pm. The event kicks off at 5.00 pm with Jörg Jacob, who will be reading from *Baumgarten fährt durch die Luft*.

What’s it about? Leipzig in 1880. The ‘Gründerzeit’ era. The city is growing rapidly. More and more people are flocking to the burgeoning industrial city to work in the newly emerging factories. Residential buildings, roads and railway lines are being built; new neighbourhoods are springing up; surrounding villages are moving closer to the city and being incorporated into it.

Amidst the spirit of optimism and innovation that characterised the Gründerzeit, two men were planning something unusual and unprecedented for Easter 1880 – the wealthy Leipzig publisher and bookseller Hermann Wölfert and Georg Baumgarten, a Saxon chief forester and inventor. Baumgarten had developed a completely new type of aircraft and had already tested the first models.

However, a resounding success had so far eluded them. At Easter 1880, though, the new prototype of this airship was to take to the skies above Leipzig, with Wölfert and Baumgarten on board. A daring episode with an unforeseen outcome ensues.

Jörg Jacob’s novel, which centres on actual events from 1880, aims to offer a glimpse into the era of great industrial upheaval in Saxony, going beyond Baumgarten’s fate.

From 6 pm to 8 pm, there will be a reading accompanied by a sound performance based on texts by Wolfgang Hilbig and Walter Bauer

.

One of the established traditions of the Leipzig Industry|Culture|Festival is an annual literary event dedicated to the distinctive literary oeuvre of the most important writer associated with the industrial culture of Central Germany – Wolfgang Hilbig.

Thomas Böhme, a member of the

Hilbig Society

, has been invited to read Hilbig’s texts, as he was awarded the Walter Bauer Literary Prize by the City of Leuna this year. Böhme, born in 1955 in Leipzig, where he still lives today, has worked as a freelance writer since his debut with the poetry collection *Mit der Sanduhr am Gürtel* (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag 1983). In addition to his poetry collections, which appear with great regularity, he has published novels, novellas, experimental prose and photobooks.

In volumes such as *Im Ort* (In the Village), which is dedicated to the Mansfeld region, he, like Bauer, turns his attention to a world shaped by work and change, and, much like the prize’s namesake, explores what this work and this change do to those who experience them.

The memory of Walter Bauer is preserved in particular by the Merseburg town chronicler Jürgen Jankofsky. After finishing school, taking his A-levels and dropping out of his chemistry degree, Jankofsky trained as a professional musician. This was followed by a distance-learning course at the Leipzig Institute of Literature and a stint at the Halle/Saale Literature Centre.

Since then, he has worked as a freelance artist. For this event, Jankofsky will supplement readings with vocal collages, which he has arranged using original recordings by Walter Bauer.

And at 8.30 pm, the evening will draw to a close with the book launch for *Renntag in Leipzig. Geschichten aus dem Scheibenholz* (Race Day in Leipzig: Stories from Scheibenholz), published by Passage Verlag. To mark the publication of “Racing Day in Leipzig”, the authors Corinna Schulze, Clemens Meyer and Enrico H. Ruge will offer insights into the book and its creation.

Long Night of Reading, Thursday 10 September, 5.00 pm to 9.30 pm. Admission is free. Refreshments will be available (at your own expense). Doors open from 4.30 pm.