„Dass ein gutes Deutschland blühe …“ Musikalische Lesung

In the organizer's words:

Roman Knižka & OPUS 45: Life after the end of the war 1945 - 1949 (focus: Hamburg) Registration required

1945-2025: The 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War started by Hitler's Germany and the liberation from National Socialism. To mark the occasion, actor Roman Knižka and the OPUS 45 wind quintet return to the early post-war period in their new program: "'Dass ein gutes Deutschland blühe ...'. Life after the end of the war 1945-1949" recalls the devastating consequences of war and dictatorship. Starting with the caesura of 1945, Roman Knižka and the OPUS 45 wind quintet, consisting of musicians from the Hamburg State Opera, the NDR Radio Philharmonic Hanover, the Dresden Philharmonic and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, shed light on a tense transitional period between destruction and a new beginning - right up to the founding of two German states, the separation of which continues to have an impact to this day.

May 8, 1945: With the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht, Hitler's Germany was officially defeated. The Second World War had lasted almost six years and claimed around 60 million lives. Germany's cities lay in ruins, millions were homeless, on the run or in captivity. The Allied victorious powers took control of the country.

The end of the war in Hamburg forms a separate chapter in the program. In the Hanseatic city, the war ended just a few days before the German surrender: on May 3, 1945, British troops entered the largely destroyed city almost without a fight. Prior to this, decision-makers - including the combat commander Alwin Wolz and even senior SS leaders - had defied Hitler's fanatical order to hold out and prepared a surrender without a fight. In the first part of the evening, Roman Knižka impressively describes exactly how these dramatic final days of the war between negotiations, surrender and chaos unfolded, using historical documents and vivid testimonies from contemporary witnesses, such as Ingrid Wecker from Hamburg. The tragic events surrounding the Neuengamme concentration camp and the massacre of Jewish children on Bullenhuser Damm on April 20, 1945 are also discussed - memorials to a criminal ideology whose traces are deeply engraved in the city's memory.

"That a good Germany may flourish ..." uses literary texts, reports and contemporary testimonies to tell of a country between apocalypse and awakening, of the confrontation with Nazi crimes, of the fate of Jewish concentration camp survivors, of hunger winters, displaced persons and returnees. Political milestones such as the Potsdam Conference, the Nuremberg Trials, the currency reform and the Berlin Blockade are addressed, as is the questionable practice of denazification in everyday life.

Literature and music after 1945: The program also deals with new cultural beginnings. Writers such as Wolfgang Borchert, Bertolt Brecht and Nelly Sachs were moved by the question of how to write after the catastrophe. Roman Knižka will read from their works.

In the ruins of cities such as Darmstadt and Munich, forums for new music emerged early on. OPUS 45 performs works by György Ligeti, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Dmitri Shostakovich and Hanns Eisler. Compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Strauss and Jacques Ibert can also be heard, as well as pop and swing songs that reflect the attitude to life of a young generation caught between escapism and new beginnings.

Texts by Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, Wolfgang Borchert, Margaret Bourke-White, Bertolt Brecht, Stig Dagerman and Nelly Sachs, among others

Music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Hanns Eisler, Jean Françaix, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Jacques Ibert, György Ligeti, Dmitri Schos-ta-kowitsch and Richard Strauss, among others

Recitation: Roman Knižka

Dramaturgy: Kathrin Liebhäuser

The artists: Roman Knižka + Wind Quintet OPUS 45 = Ensemble OPUS 45

Roman Knižka
The actor Roman Knižka was born in Bautzen in 1970. He fled the GDR to the West before the fall of the Berlin Wall. After training as a carpenter at the Semperoper and studying acting in Bochum, he first played at the Schauspielhaus Bochum and has since appeared in numerous film and television productions. He is also a sought-after audio book narrator and regularly appears on stage. His distinctive, versatile voice delights children and adults alike.

The OPUS 45 wind quintet was created as part of a Berlin orchestral project - named after Brahms' "Ein deutsches Requiem" (opus 45). The five musicians on flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon are engaged in renowned orchestras such as the Hamburg State Opera, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra.

In close collaboration with the actor Roman Knižka, OPUS 45 has been developing literary-musical programs that combine music and language for several years. This has resulted in seven full-length productions to date, such as the program on Nazi resistance "Den Nazis eine schallende Ohrfeige versetzen!" or the staged reading "Es ist geschehen, und folglich kann es wieder geschehen ..." about the history and present of right-wing violence in Germany.

Free registration at:

www.buecherhallen.de/zentralbibliothek-termin/80-jahre-kriegsende-dass-ein-gutes-deutschland-bluehe-19382/datum/20250917.html

Responsible: Dr. Sabine Bamberger-Stemmann