Chamisso Days in the Ruhr Area – Why here?
The Robert Bosch Stiftung has organized "Chamisso Days" at irregular intervals since 1998. At these events, all the past winners of the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize are invited to spend several days in a town or region to give readings, hold discussions, and lead school events or writing workshops for young adults.
To date, the Chamisso Days have taken place in cities like Stuttgart, Leipzig, and Basle. But the prize has expanded steadily in recent years and public awareness of it has increased proportionately. It was therefore time to invite the prize winners – who now number well over 40 – to attend Chamisso Days in a larger metropolitan region.
The choice of the Ruhr area was simply the logical choice. Like no other region in Germany, the Ruhr area provides palpable illustrations of "migration history". Hardly any other urban area in Germany has been so strongly shaped, both socially and culturally, by migration. What would Schalke 04 have been in the 1930s without Ernst Kuzorra, who came from Poland? And what would it be today without the Altintop brothers, whose father came to the Ruhr as a guest worker from Turkey?
The "Chamisso Days in the Ruhr Area" will present literature by German writers who, like so many other people in the area, migrated into the language and culture of Germany at some point in their lives.
To date, the Chamisso Days have taken place in cities like Stuttgart, Leipzig, and Basle. But the prize has expanded steadily in recent years and public awareness of it has increased proportionately. It was therefore time to invite the prize winners – who now number well over 40 – to attend Chamisso Days in a larger metropolitan region.
The choice of the Ruhr area was simply the logical choice. Like no other region in Germany, the Ruhr area provides palpable illustrations of "migration history". Hardly any other urban area in Germany has been so strongly shaped, both socially and culturally, by migration. What would Schalke 04 have been in the 1930s without Ernst Kuzorra, who came from Poland? And what would it be today without the Altintop brothers, whose father came to the Ruhr as a guest worker from Turkey?
The "Chamisso Days in the Ruhr Area" will present literature by German writers who, like so many other people in the area, migrated into the language and culture of Germany at some point in their lives.
