NIMM PLATZ - KÖLNER LITERATURSOMMER MIT TRAUDL BÜNGER

In the organizer's words:

Traudl Bünger reads from Eisernes Schweigen. The assassination of my father. A German family history.

Even as a child, Traudl Bünger knew that her father was surrounded by a secret about which he always kept an iron silence. After his sudden death, she sets out on a search, reads files, talks to family members and rummages through the things her father left behind. Once again, she finds confirmation of what she always knew and what is still inexplicable to her today: Her father was a right-wing extremist. And not only that: as a young man, he planted bombs. With fatal results.

In her book "Iron Silence", Traudl Bünger looks into the abysses of her family history. She also takes us deep into the history of the Federal Republic of Germany and shows us a young country that has to reposition itself while overlooking the long shadows of its past. A country that is simultaneously discovering its great strength: students documenting right-wing activities and denouncing Holocaust denial. Thousands of people taking to the streets against inhumane positions. An evening about the danger our democracy has been in from the very beginning - and about the power to free ourselves from it.

"A very important book for this country, in which the brown past casts ever greater shadows on the present." (Farin Urlaub)

Traudl Bünger, cultural mediator and author, was supported by the Fritz Bauer Institute for her work on "Eisernes Schweigen" and was also awarded the Wellershoff Scholarship from the City of Cologne, the Author's Scholarship from the Kunststiftung NRW and the Working Scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW. Traudl Bünger lives in Cologne.

The Cologne Literature Summer is curated by the Cologne Literature Scene

NIMM PLATZ am Neumarkt is a joint project of the Cologne cultural administration and the independent cultural scene, with contributions from the University of Music and Dance (HfMT) and the Academy of Media Arts (KHM).