Gustav Peter Wöhler und Christian Maintz lesen Balladen und Moritaten Programm "Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne"

Gustav Peter Wöhler and Christian Maintz read ballads and moritat songs

Program: “And the Shark, He’s Got Teeth”

Saturday, November 7, 2026

8:00 p.m., Price: €20.00

Poetry is traditionally regarded as a genre for expressing emotions, but there are also poems that tell entertaining, dramatic, or comical stories: ballads and moritaten. In the past, they were performed at fairs; later, students memorized the most classic ones in German class; today, they are often reimagined with a humorous twist. Actor Gustav Peter Wöhler and author Christian Maintz will read such narrative poems, including well-known and lesser-known works, old and new, romantic and matter-of-fact. The program includes texts by Goethe, Heine, Busch, Kästner, Brecht, Ringelnatz, Kaléko, Ror Wolf, and, of course, Christian Maintz himself, among others.

Gustav Peter Wöhler is one of the most distinguished German-speaking film, television, and theater actors of his generation. He has worked with various prominent directors such as Peter Zadek, Werner Herzog, Doris Dörrie, Peter Timm, and Neele Vollmar; he regularly performs in theater productions in Hamburg, Berlin, and Salzburg; and has appeared in countless film and television productions. In 2013, he received the German Audiobook Award. As a singer, he regularly tours with the legendary Gustav-Peter-Wöhler Band.

Christian Maintz is an author and literary scholar, and, according to NDR-Kultur, also a “Hamburg expert on poetry with a sense of humor.” He is a two-time recipient of the Wilhelm Busch Prize and often gives readings in duet with well-known partners—formerly with Harry Rowohlt, and today with Barbara Auer, Meike Droste, Nina Petri, Peter Lohmeyer, and others. In 2016, his critically acclaimed poetry collection *Liebe in Lokalen* was published, followed in 2018 by the anthology *Vom Knödel wollen wir singen*.