Alexander Solloch & Olli Dittrich - Harbour Front Literaturfestival

Harry Rowohlt
“He will become what he is,” his high school diploma read. And it was true! Harry Rowohlt became everything he had always been and wanted to be: a hilarious wordsmith and a virtuoso master of digression, a translator of the untranslatable, and a reader with a thousand voices—and, to top it all off, “Penner Harry” on Lindenstraße. Yet his life turned out quite differently than planned, because he didn’t want to become what he was supposed to be: the successor to his publisher father.

Journalist Alexander Solloch has written an impressive biography. Not only is it brilliantly researched and reveals many a surprise, but it also has “a sound all its own—a Harry Rowohlt sound” (Deutschlandfunk Kultur). He’ll discuss the life and work of this jack-of-all-trades, while actor Olli Dittrich will read excerpts from the master’s writings. It’s going to be a huge celebration!

Alexander Solloch, born in 1978 and raised in the Lower Rhine region, studied history and French in Leipzig and Aix-en-Provence. After completing his internship, he worked as a freelance writer and radio host. He was nominated for the German Radio Award in 2011 and 2019. Since 2014, he has been the literary editor at NDR.

Olli Dittrich, a trained theater painter, is a master of transformation. The four-time Grimme Award winner is considered one of the best contemporary creators of fictional characters. His films, TV shows, and parodies have received countless national and international nominations and awards. He is also a fixture in the music business as a composer, lyricist, and multi-instrumentalist, with nearly 2 million records sold. With his most famous character, the bar philosopher “Dittsche,” Dittrich regularly appears on major German stages, including the Schauspielhaus Bochum, the Berliner Ensemble, and the Elbphilharmonie. The nearly three-hour solo performance was honored with the LEA Award in 2021.