Exhibition on the life and work of Stefan Heym
06.09. - 06.10.2024 | Peter-Weiss-Haus, Doberaner Str. 21, 18057 Rostock
Opening hours: Mon. to Sun, 10:00 am - 10:00 pm
Stefan Heym - Rigorous, socialist, anti-fascist, writer and on the pulse of time
Stefan Heym's life and literary work reflect the contradictions of the century with all its tragedies, hopes and illusions. Heym's extensive and varied oeuvre, which has been translated into more than 30 languages, includes novels, novellas, essays, short stories, poems, journalistic texts, speeches, articles on current affairs and fairy tales. Throughout his life, he was primarily interested in topics such as anti-fascism, democracy and socialism, the history of the labor movement and the social influence of writers in a rapidly changing media world.
He saw himself as a storyteller and publicist, a "rigorous truth teller" who relied on the stimulating power of the word to make reality more transparent. With his sharp-tongued journalism, he accompanied the respective current social discourses and continuously intervened, sometimes under the motto that it is necessary to "shout, even if it seems as if there is nothing but desert around you". He countered the repeated accusation that his books too often contain reportage-like elements and are basically merely epic realizations of current topics with a rather American nonchalance:
"Everyday literature is among the genres of literature roughly what the infantry is among the branches of arms: but without infantry it is impossible to win a war."
Stefan Heym (* April 10, 1913 in Chemnitz as Helmut Flieg; † December 16, 2001 in Israel) is considered one of the most important German writers. To mark this anniversary, the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, in cooperation with the International Stefan Heym Society, is paying tribute to one of the GDR's most important writers.
Dr. Therese Hörnigk, one of the most renowned experts on his life and work, has curated the exhibition.
The exhibition not only looks at the author's diverse literary work, from historical and critical novels to poems, stories, speeches and essays to fairy tales. Literary scholar Dr. Therese Hörnigk locates Stefan Heym's biography in an exhibition concept that shows on 28 display panels how the artist remained true to himself as a critical socialist through all historical turning points and intervened in social conditions.
As part of the exhibition, on Sunday, September 15, we invite you to the concert "HEYM. Vom Aufstoßen der Fenster" with Robert Stadlober, Klara Deutschmann and Daniel Moheit.
The Literaturhaus Rostock and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung are showing the exhibition in cooperation with the International Stefan Heym Society.
