Lesung gegen das Vergessen

In the organizer's words:

Reading against forgetting
Books from the fire

On Sunday, May 10, 2026

from 12 to 3 pm on Odeonsplatz

A reading against forgetting, in remembrance and as a warning

May 10, 1933 was a fateful day for many people in Germany. From one day to the next, they lost their livelihoods. Because on May 10, 1933 - 93 years ago - professors and students burned books by hundreds of authors on blazing pyres. Across Germany, the National Socialists organized these fires in large squares - such as Königsplatz in Munich - as an "overall action" against the intellectual "spirit of decomposition".

For many years, public readings from these "burnt books" have been organized throughout Germany on 10 May: Once again this year, once-burned texts will be read on Odeonsplatz on May 10.

On Sunday, May 10, 2026, readings of once-burned texts will commemorate the authors despised by the National Socialists.

Ricci Hohlt, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Caro Matzko, Dieter Hanitzsch and Julia Schmitt-Thiel, among others, will read from once-burned books to commemorate the works and their authors. Pupils from the Rainer-Maria-Rilke-Gymnasium in Icking and students from the LMU will also be taking part in the reading.

A broad alliance against forgetting

The memorial reading has been taking place on Odeonsplatz on May 10 since 2008. The project was initiated by Gerhard Schmitt-Thiel. After his death in March 2024, Helena Nitsche organized the event together with Renate Hausdorf in collaboration with and with the support of the City of Munich's Department of Culture . They are supported by the Paul-Klinger-Künstlersozialwerk e.V. and the Mohr-Villa Freimann e.V. and Global Understanding e.V. associations.

Organizer Helena emphasizes the special importance of the memorial reading:

"In many European countries - including here in Germany - there has been a strong shift to the right in political parties in recent years. And the censorship of books is also very popular again today: in the USA, for example, books are banned from the school canon if they do not agree with the values of those in power. Erich Kästner, whose books were also burned in 1933, warned: 'You must not wait until the snowball has turned into an avalanche. You have to crush the rolling snowball - no one will stop the avalanche'. The books burned in 1933 conveyed values, knowledge and stories that the Nazi regime wanted to withhold from the German population. Today, we are in the fortunate position of being able to read a large proportion of these texts again. And that is exactly what we want to do: We read in memory of the once ostracized authors whose works should never have been banned. And we read as a warning, because such an attack on artistic freedom, freedom of the press and freedom of speech, on the foundations of democracy, must never happen again."

Reminders online too

During the coronavirus pandemic, we collected video readings on the Instagram and Facebook channels of Lesung gegen das Vergessen as well as the YouTube channels of Paul-Klinger-Künstlersozialwerk e.V. and Mohr-Villa Freimann.

People from all over the world are called upon to upload a video to their social media accounts on May 10, 2026, in which they present an excerpt from a book that fell victim to the book burning and tag it with the hashtags #gegenvergessen and #10mai1933. The official Instagram and Facebook channels of the reading against forgetting will share the published readings. This will also create online attention and awareness for the texts that were burned 93 years ago and are still important and valuable.

Free admission, on a donation basis

Info: Lesung gegen das Vergessen, www.buecherlesung.de
Reading video archive on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube(channel of the Paul-Klinger-Künstlersozialwerk e.V. and the Mohr-Villa Freimann)

Contact: treffpunkt@mohr-villa.de, Tel. 089 324 32 64
Where? at Odeonsplatz (U3/U6)
Current information at: www.mohr-villa.de