Salon Controversial: Letters – Max Frisch and Peter Suhrkamp

About this event

This evening at the Holzhausenschlösschen you experience a staged reading of the newly published correspondence between Max Frisch and his publisher Peter Suhrkamp. Dramaturg Ruthard Stäblein’s selection turns the letters into an ‘apprenticeship novel’ of a young writer, from humble beginnings in postwar Germany to the global success of Stiller and Homo Faber. Wolfram Koch, known from the Frankfurt Tatort and the Schauspiel Frankfurt ensemble, and Stephan Wolf-Schönburg, whose stage career spans the Berlin Schaubühne and the Salzburg Festival, bring the exchanges to life. Stäblein hosts the evening and provides the context. The event also features the volume’s editors: Dr Tobias Amslinger, head of the Max Frisch Archive, Dr Jan Bürger of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach, and Dr Barbara Wiedemann of the University of Tübingen. The salon thrives on an atmosphere of spirited literary debate, in the tradition of founder Hanne Kulessa (d. 2022), who valued real intellectual friction over cosy agreement. Anyone unable to attend in person can watch a free livestream on the Bürgerstiftung’s website on the day of the event.