Abgefackelt! Die Düsseldorfer Bücherverbrennung von 1965

"It was not Goebbels, but St. Paul who inspired them. They did not know the German, but the Acts of the Apostles." Erich Kästner

On Thanksgiving Sunday in 1965, books were once again burning on the Rhine. A group from the Protestant "Jugendbund für Entschiedenes Christentum" (EC) had gathered for a "missionary outreach". Chanting pious songs, they threw "trashy books" and works by Kästner, Grass, Camus, Sagan and Nabokov into the fire. Passers-by on the street watched the action. One speaker spoke of an act of "self-defense": "We have talked about dirty and trashy literature and have come to the conclusion that brutal, criminal, sexual and utopian scenes and books can affect the life of faith of the individual. We want to free ourselves from the dominance of such role models. They take us away from Jesus." Then the flames flickered upwards.

Permission from the city
The macabre spectacle on the Rhine enjoyed the official approval of the City of Düsseldorf's public order office. A few weeks before the action, the Youth League had applied in writing for permission "to burn trashy literature" on Karlplatz near the government district. Günter Grass had held his last Düsseldorf election speech on this square. Erich Kästner, in town for a reading, sought out the Lord Mayor. He spoke of a silly boy's prank. Whereupon Lore Lorentz, who was also present, told him about the threatening letters to the "Kom(m)ödchen" ...
Reading from the burnt books, voices from the local press - a journey back in time to the heated federal election year of 1965.

Event in cooperation with the Heinrich-Heine-Salon

Moderation: Eva Creutz
Technical support: Ricarda Hinz