Reading with the theater troupe
May 1, 1945. The war is over. Hour Zero. The end and the beginning. “How bitter it is when the
world’s jubilation is directed at defeat, at the deepest humiliation of one’s own country. How
does this once again reveal, in all its horror, the chasm that had opened up between Germany and the civilized
world. And yet: I say that, despite everything, this is a momentous hour: Germany’s return
to humanity,” says the writer Thomas Mann in a radio address
to the “German listeners.”
In an increasingly uncertain world, at a time when old certainties seem to be under threat
, on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the liberation from National Socialism
, we examine the past and the present through historical and contemporary texts. When will the war
end? How did it begin? Will it return? Is peace possible? How can democracy succeed?
Does history repeat itself? How can we act? “We must never forget,” says Margot Friedländer, “but remembering alone is not enough.”
May 1, 1945. The war is
