A personal journey to the Arctic

Birgit Lutz has been traveling to the Svalbard archipelago for 16 years - first as a journalist, later as an expedition leader and dedicated observer of a region in transition. In her lectures, she shares her experiences from more than one and a half decades of work in the Arctic.

With great proximity, expertise and many photos and videos, she talks about the impressive landscape, the diverse wildlife and life in the international settlement of Longyearbyen. As an expedition leader, she introduces visitors to the history and present of the island and involves them in her own research project. At the same time, she reports on her personal impressions - such as the bluish light at the beginning of the polar summer, the call of the little auks or the joie de vivre of exuberant sled dogs.

Birgit Lutz succeeds in taking an intelligent yet loving look at a region that she has long since made her second home. She talks about the fascination of the Arctic - without ignoring the pressing ecological problems. She emphasizes that it is the little things that deserve attention, both in the Arctic and in life.

Birgit Lutz is a trained journalist and has written for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Swiss Tagesspiegel magazine, among others. After a trip to the North Pole in 2007, she specialized in the Arctic, crossed Greenland, skied to the North Pole twice and now works for the Alfred Wegener Institute in a research project on plastics, among other things.

In her books - including Heute gehen wir Wale fangen, Nachruf auf die Arktis and Mein Spitzbergen - she combines personal travel experiences with well-founded information about a threatened world. Birgit Lutz lives at Schliersee.

As part of the "Dacheröden on Tour" series, Kultur: Haus Dacheröden regularly invites people to talk about their very different journeys and experiences abroad. Whether daring adventures, profound encounters or inspiring experiences - the talks bring the world to Erfurt and awaken the desire to discover.