Wolfgang Schopf: Auf den »Spuren« von Ernst Bloch in den Suhrkamp Verlag

April 9, 2026 / 7.30 pm / Literature Café

Wolfgang Schopf: In the "footsteps" of Ernst Bloch at Suhrkamp Verlag

In 1956, Peter Suhrkamp received the recommendation to base his publishing house's philosophical program on the work of Ernst Bloch alongside Adorno and Benjamin. But it was not until 1959, when Siegfried Unseld succeeded him as publisher and his enthusiasm for Bloch's complete works, that two paths opened up: the publishing house became an organ that would supply a broad public with key texts that would raise awareness. And Bloch, who had returned to Leipzig from exile and soon paid for his criticism of the GDR state leadership with isolation, found a "guest professorship for life" with Suhrkamp from 1959/1961: an imagined and written "homeland". - An annotated montage of historical documents invites you to travel along to Ernst Bloch's hoped-for destination in life.

Wolfgang Schopf is head of the Literature Archive at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. He was in charge of the Suhrkamp and Insel publishing house archives from 2000-2009. He publishes on sources of "Suhrkamp culture", such as editions of letters by Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Boehlich, Wolfgang Koeppen, Siegfried Kracauer, Peter Suhrkamp and Siegfried Unseld. For Ernst Bloch, "Das Abenteuer der Treue. Letters to Karola 1928-1949" (Suhrkamp 2005), he acted as editorial advisor.

Admission: 10,- / 7,- EUR ǀ Event organized by Literaturhaus Leipzig e.V.

Discounts are available for disabled persons and their accompanying person (only if listed on the disabled pass), unemployed persons, schoolchildren and students (up to 35) as well as holders of the Leipzig Pass or an honorary pass, in each case only on presentation of the pass).