Journey of Discovery

War and Literature was the theme of the second Neuruppin Fontane Festival, an event held every two years with the aim of establishing Fontane’s birthplace as a nationally recognized literary centre. Based on Fontane’s personal travel diaries, in which he also recorded his observations as an official war reporter, the 2012 literature festival examined to what extent war is depicted in contemporary literature, especially that of South Eastern Europe.
The military conflicts in the Balkans during the 1990s changed the face of Europe. The works of literature by numerous post-Yugoslavian writers have been shaped by experiences with death, retribution, displacement, escape and asylum. In presenting the writings of several of these authors, the festival wanted to illustrate how literature can contribute to our understanding of the Yugoslavian civil war.
Furthermore, the festival aimed to re-evaluate outdated attitudes regarding war and peace, friendship and hostility, coincidence and inevitability of historic events in order to arrive at a new European self-image.

Artistic directors: Otto Wynen, Peter Böthig; Artists: Drago Jančar (SLO), Goran Petrovic (RS), David Albahai (RS/CDN), Dragan Velikic (RS), Vladimir Pištalo (RS), Edo Popovic (HR), Vladislav Bajac (RS), Esther Kinsky, Felicitas Hoppe, Andrzej Stasiuk (PL), Jury Andruchowytsch (UA), Martin Mosebach, Pinar Selek (TR), Gotthard Erler