Reading without nuclear power

Reading without nuclear power is a non-commercial, international literature festival that has been held in Hamburg every spring since 2011 and also offers literary events on social and political occasions throughout the year . At the festival, writers and artists work together to accelerate the nuclear phase-out and for the energy transition .

history

Nobel laureate in literature against nuclear power: Günter Grass . He read from My Century at the first event in 2011 .

Nobel laureate in literature against nuclear power: Swetlana Alexijewitsch . She read from Chernobyl in 2017 . A chronicle of the future .

Founded Reading without nuclear power in late 2010 jointly by authors and readers, including by the writers Feridun Zaimoglu , Nina Hagen and Gunter Grass , television journalist Oliver Ness and media entrepreneur Frank Otto . Since then, reading without nuclear power has been carried out by a citizens' initiative and the non-profit association Kultur für alle! e. V. organized. The first readings with Nina Hagen and Günter Grass took place in April 2011 in front of the Vattenfall company's nuclear power plant in Krümmel near Hamburg. Grass read the story from My Century for the year 1955, in which a man, head of department in the land registry, built a shelter in the garden for fear of nuclear power and died in the process.

In seven years there were more than 25,000 spectators at 65 events, and the audience occupancy rate is well over 100 percent every year.

The founding of the literature festival was a reaction to the Vattenfall reading days organized by the energy supplier Vattenfall , which were supported by the Hamburg state government. The company still relies on nuclear and coal power . It has been criticized for its aggressive cultural sponsorship . The 2012 patron of Reading Without Nuclear Power was Jakob von Uexküll , founder of the Right Livelihood Award .

From the public controversy surrounding the Vattenfall Reading Days , the Renewable Reading Days , the addition of reading without nuclear power , emerged as a festival of artists and authors. In 2013 there was an uproar when the curator of the Vattenfall Reading Days tried to discredit reading without nuclear power as radical left. For example, she wrote to Jakob Augstein: “The alliance of autonomous activists, eco-juice producers and television celebrities is about to razed a literature festival to the ground. And you're there. ”The director of the Hamburg Public Library Foundation, Hella Schwemer-Martienßen, was even blatantly asked by Vattenfall herself to stop her support for reading without nuclear power :“ In November 2012 we received a visit from a five-person Vattenfall delegation, including one Member of the board ”, she recalled,“ You asked us very intensively to give up the cooperation. ”After this hostility became public and the political parties began to deal with it, Vattenfall closed the festival.

Two dozen writers immediately welcomed the “end of culture abuse” in a public declaration under the heading “For the independence of literature” and declared reading without nuclear power “gain for literature”. Günter Grass said: “Before and after the Vatten case there was and is literature”, Jan Brandt : “Finally, the brilliant support for culture in Hamburg is over.”, Konstantin Wecker : “I think it's great that Hamburg is the cultural city of Abuse of culture by the nuclear industry is now spared. ", Frank Schätzing :" Since the energy turnaround has been a long time coming, we are all the more pleased about the literary turnaround. "

In 2017, "Reading Without Nuclear Power" was opened with Swetlana Alexievich , the Belarusian Nobel Prize for Literature . Two events focused on her novel Chernobyl. A chronicle of the future , from the Russian-language original of which she and Thomas Quasthoff in Hamburg and Barbara Auer in Lübeck read from the German translation.

concept

When reading without nuclear power, there are no classic readings in which an author speaks from his book. Rather, the festival, together with writers, dramaturges and actors, always presents its own arrangements of literature with ensembles of artists and authors put together for this purpose - so literary classics or current bestsellers are arranged as staged readings and performed by actors. Likewise, writers appear together to discuss their works and social issues. Were with Reading without nuclear power Nobel Prize winners such as Svetlana Alexievich or Günter Grass , this Grammy Award winner Thomas Quasthoff as well as numerous film and rock stars, UN diplomats and best-selling authors. For reading without nuclear power authors from around the world to Hamburg as Japan's former Prime Minister Naoto Kan in Tokyo, Auma Obama from Nairobi, Wikileaks co-founder Birgitta Jónsdóttir from Reykjavik or researcher legend Dennis Meadows ( Limits to Growth ) from Boston. In total, more than 250 authors and artists have appeared for reading without nuclear power in seven years , free of charge in the first five years, and since 2016 the organizers have been offering every creative artist an expense allowance.

The majority of the budget provided by sponsors will be used for festival advertising and his call for an accelerated nuclear phase-out. Every year, the Kultur Verein organizes a massive advertising campaign for everyone with up to half a million program booklets as supplements to daily and weekly newspapers, thousands of posters in the streets and large-format newspaper advertisements.

financing

Reading without nuclear power is a non-commercial festival and sees itself as a political action by civil society. Admission is free. The culture for everyone! e. V. renounces state and municipal funding. Political parties and party-affiliated foundations are also excluded from participation. All of them have a close relationship with the nuclear lobby for reading without a nuclear power operator.

There are no sponsors for reading without nuclear power . The festival budget is largely provided by silent sponsors. Several dozen citizens and companies make the intangible contribution. Theaters, event centers or professional football clubs such as Hamburger SV and FC St. Pauli make their houses available rent-free for reading without nuclear power.

Web links

• Website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stefan Bohlmann: Artists' protest in front of the Meiler Krümmel , Hamburger Abendblatt online, April 5, 2011 (payment barrier).
2. ^ Günter Grass: Mein Jahrhundert , Steidl, Göttingen 1999, pp. 222-225 ISBN 3-88243-651-4 .
3. ^ Ole Reissmann : Günter Grass rumbling against lobbyists , spiegel.de, April 10, 2011, accessed on January 25, 2017.
4. ↑ Continue after the exit , taz.de, April 19, 2014, accessed on January 20, 2017.
5. ↑ Reading without nuclear power - The renewable reading days ( memento of the original from January 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2012 program, Bewegungs.taz.de, accessed on January 20, 2017. 
6. ↑ Roger Willemsen shoots against electricity company . In: stern.de . April 7, 2012 ( stern.de [accessed January 15, 2017]).
7. ↑ Christoph Twickel: Complaint emails from the energy giant , spiegel.de, April 19, 2014, accessed on January 21, 2017.
8. ↑ Folke Havekost: Difficult reading conditions , neue-deutschland.de, April 19, 2013, accessed on January 21, 2017 (payment barrier).
9. ↑ Stephanie Lamprecht: Author Roger Willemsen: “We were defamed and insulted” , mopo.de, April 18, 2013, accessed on January 21, 2017.
10. ↑ Vattenfall read the riot act ( memento of the original from January 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , gruene-fraktion-hamburg.de/blog, April 22, 2013, accessed on January 21, 2017. 
11. ↑ Klaus Irler: Too much headwind , taz.de, October 4, 2013, accessed on January 21, 2017.
12. ↑ Günter Grass welcomes the end of the Vattenfall Reading Days , October 15, 2013, accessed on January 21, 2017.
13. ↑ Dirk Seifert: Culture - Ausselesen: Günther Grass thinks that's good , Umweltfairaendern.de, October 15, 2013, accessed on January 21, 2017.
14. ↑ Nobel laureate in literature pleads for more democracy , wn.de, February 21, 2017, accessed on March 3, 2017.
15. ↑ Different views: Böll and Grass. Exhibition opening with Nobel Prize winner for literature ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . boell100.com, accessed March 3, 2017.