The staged reading is a unique piece of contemporary history that illustrates how a dictatorship works and what it does to people.
Thu, July 2, 7:00 p.m. | Peter Weiss Haus, Doberaner Str. 21, Rostock
Staged Reading & Discussion: “The Hearing: 10 Scenes from the Life of W. Schnur—How a Dictatorship Works”
With Max Urlacher and Uli Plessmann
By: Prof. Dr. Jürgen Haase
Wolfgang Schnur (1944–2016) was regarded in Rostock and beyond as a brilliant lawyer who stood up to the GDR state on behalf of his clients. In 1990, he nearly became the first freely elected Minister President of the GDR. What no one suspected: Schnur was not only a lawyer for opposition activists and a Christian, but also a State Security informant for 25 years.
The play “The Hearing” by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Haase is based on the final interview between Wolfgang Schnur and journalist Alexander Kobylinski. Rather than an artistic adaptation, the focus is on Schnur’s statements, presented faithfully as they were given: a unique piece of contemporary history that illustrates how a dictatorship functions and what it does to people.
Following the staged reading, Dr. Steffi Brüning (Rostock Documentation and Memorial Center) and Susan Schulz (Heinrich Böll Foundation, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) will speak with
the participating artists and historian Dr. Volker Höffer from the Stasi Records Archive in Rostock at the Federal Archives.
Admission: 5/8/10 EUR & Kulturticket
Organizers:
Documentation and Memorial Center in the former State Security remand prison in Rostock/LpB M-V, Heinrich Böll Foundation MV & Literaturhaus Rostock