Event as part of the 31st Schwerin Literature Festival
THE SECOND TURNING POINT: Why East Germany Matters to Us All – A Reading with Marieke Reimann
Missed the chance to shape the transition, life achievements devalued, top positions filled by West Germans—a truly just reunification was missed. Not only politically, but also in the media, economically, and in everyday life: East Germany is often caricatured, perceived as a cliché rather than reality. Marieke Reimann, born in Rostock in 1987 and raised in a prefab apartment building, knows these divisions firsthand. As a journalist and former editor-in-chief, she has been fighting for years for a visibility that goes beyond the “whining East German” stereotype. Why are reunification celebrations held without East Germans? Why is Friedrich Merz glad to have been born in the West? Why do people vote for far-right parties in areas with high out-migration and few women? And can Angela Merkel and Tokio Hotel be role models? Marieke Reimann combines personal reporting with sharp analysis and identifies the gaps in our society in a brilliant, unvarnished way. In her book, she calls for a renewed interest in one another.
Marieke Reimann served as editor-in-chief of SWR until 2024 and chaired the ARD editors-in-chief’s roundtable. Reimann was thus the youngest and first East German editor-in-chief at a public broadcaster in the West. Until 2020, she was editor-in-chief of the magazine *zett der Zeit*. There, she developed a sustainable subscription model and founded an East Germany desk.
Moderator: Sabine Rennefanz, journalist and author
Friday, October 16, 2026, at
7:30 p.m.
City Library in the Schweriner Höfe, Klöresgang 3
Free admission
Free tickets (required) available at the box office of the Kulturforum Schleswig-Holstein-Haus
Organizers
Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the Cultural Office of the State Capital Schwerin
