Nah am Wasser Vol. 3: SCHAM mit Bianca Nawrath x Harbour Front Literaturfestival Hamburg

The new series of events at the Rathauspassage Festival Center of the Harbor Front Literature Festival explores the big—yet deeply personal—questions of love, relationships, and sexuality. Together with fascinating guests, Prof. Dr. Sonja Bröning will spend three evenings discussing the emotional worlds in which we feel safe—until we experience them firsthand. The focus will be on desire, power, and shame—explored openly, intelligently, surprisingly, and accessibly.

Right in the heart of Hamburg, a space is being created for honest conversations, new perspectives, and encounters beyond taboos. Personal, relevant, and always right by the water.

Sonja Bröningteaches and conducts research as a professor of developmental psychology at MSH Medical School Hamburg, including in the sexual sciences program. At MSH, she also organizes the book club “Liebes Leben.” She is a couples and sex therapist in private practice.

Dates:
Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 8:00 p.m. Vol. 1: DESIRE with the ZEIT podcast “Is That Normal?”
Tuesday, September 29, 2026, 8:00 p.m. Vol. 2: POWER with Eva Ladipo
Tuesday, October 6, 2026, 8:00 p.m. Vol. 3: SHAME with Bianca Nawrath

Tuesday, October 6, 2026, 8:00 p.m.
Vol. 3: SHAME with Bianca Nawrath

 Shame accompanies us throughout our lives. It silences us, makes us look away, or causes us to doubt ourselves. At the same time, it reveals a great deal about who we are, how we love, and what expectations society places on us.

Together with Prof. Dr. Sonja Bröning, Bianca Nawrath discusses the many faces of shame—in sexuality, relationships, and our social interactions. Drawing on her books *Pop Culture: How We Stop Being a Sexual Fantasy and Start Having Sexual Fantasies* and *Beautiful Shame*, the discussion centers on female desire, societal expectations, responsibility, and the question of why looking away is often easier than looking closely.

When does shame become an obstacle—and when can it teach us something about ourselves? How do outside perspectives shape our relationship to our own bodies, to pleasure, and to other people? And what responsibility do we bear for one another in a society that all too often prefers to look away?

An evening about vulnerability, courage, and the strength to face the things we’d most like to hide.