Around the Europe Day on 9 May 2020, the German National Library started its activities for Germany’s presidency of the Council of the European Union They started with a series of filmed short readings on the subject of Europe. 15 actors will be reading texts about Europe in front of cameras set up in the reading rooms of the German National Library in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main, which are otherwise deserted because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The texts for the readings, each of which lasts around five minutes, were chosen in cooperation with the actors and cover a wide range of genres from lyrics to prose and non-fiction books to speeches. The actors will set the mood and give the texts spatial presence in a wide variety of productions.

This series of readings was inspired not least by the fact that a large number of events scheduled to take place at the DNB’s locations had to be called off due to the pandemic and cancellations had to be sent to the many cultural operators involved in them – including authors, actors, film producers, musicians and publishers. The DNB commissioned 15 actors and a small team of film makers to produce the “Reading EUROPE” clips as a token of support. These film highlights draw attention to the diversity of the German National Library’s collections. In addition to the exhibitions available online and the digital items in the catalogue, the web clips of the readings provide access to quotable works relating to Europe.

Adriana Altaras, Hansa Czypionka, Paul Frielinghaus, Max Gertsch, Teresa Harder, Maria Hartmann, Aykut Kayacik, Eva Mannschott, Andreina de Martin, Anika Mauer, Jonas Minthe, Maximilian Nowka, Judith Rosmair, Adisat Semenitsch and Christoph Tomanek will be reading texts by Adriana Altaras, Sri Aurobindo, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Yuval Noah Harari, Leonhard Horowski, Victor Hugo, Ian McEwan, Robert Menasse, Herta Müller, Gregor von Rezzori, Saša Stanišić, Simon Strauss, Kurt Tucholsky, Louise Weiss and Stefan Zweig.

15/15: Adriana Altaras reads from her book "Das Meer und ich waren im besten Alter"

14/15: Paul Frielinghaus reads from "Ach Europa! Wahrnehmungen aus 7 Ländern" by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

13/15: Max Gertsch reads from "Herkunft" by Saša Stanišić

(For licensing reasons, the video was only available until 31.12.2020)

12/15: Christoph Tomanek reads the "Rede beim Pariser Friedenskongress, 1849" by Victor Hugo

11/15: Anika Mauer reads from "Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit" by Yuval Noah Harari

10/15: Aykut Kayacik reads from "Die Kakerlake" by Ian McEwan

9/15: Teresa Harder reads "Rede vor dem europäischen Parlament in Straßburg, 1979" by Louise Weiss

8/15: Judith Rosmair reads from "Die Angstherrscher beherrschen das Angstvolk" by Herta Müller

7/15: Hansa Czypionka reads from "Das Ideal einer geeinten Menschheit" by Sri Aurobindo

6/15: Andreina de Martin reads from "Die Welt von gestern: Erinnerungen eines Europäer" by Stefan Zweig

5/15: : Adisat Semenitsch reads from "Das Europa der Könige" by Leonhard Horowski

4/15: Jonas Minthe reads from „Der Europäische Landbote“ by Robert Menasse

(For licensing reasons, the video was only available until 31.12.2020)

3/15: Maximilian Nowka reads "Europa" by Theobald Tiger/Kurt Tucholsky

2/15: Eva Mannschott reads the essay "Gemischtes Doppel - Vernunft und Emphase" by Simon Strauß, included in the volume "House of Europe. Europäische Zeugnisse in der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek".

1/15: Maria Hartmann reads from "Maghrebinische Geschichten" by Gregor von Rezzori