Previous episodes

Zafer Senocak is one of the leading voices in the debates of multiculturalism, national and cultural identity in Europe. Born in Ankara, but living in Germany since his early childhood, his knowledge and empathy for both the Western and the Islamic world derives from his own experiences in between two worlds. In his work as well as in this present interview, he questions the historical background of migration to Germany, the ongoing attempts to integrate those migrants into society, the implications of Islamic fundamentalism on persistent racism and the possibility of a national entity and unity in Germany. The author was invited to the Sydney Writers Festival in May 2011 and engaged in several discussions about migration and multiculturalism in Europe and the Islamic world. © SBS German Radio.

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Art without Borders (part two)
No other German artist and theater director has been as active as Christoph Schlingensief in earning the term "political" for his work. As society's concept of the political became increasingly arbitrary and theatrical, Schlingensief responded with a rather unusual cure: he fought against the haziness of politics by totally confusing supposed unambiguities, by using reality as the main platform for his work and by working with handicapped or amateur actors. The theatre cannot function without reality – this was one of Schlingensiefs main credo. Listen to the second part of the interview with Anna Teresa Scheer who also tries to answer the question: How would the Australian audience be able to engage with an artist like Schlingensief or how would Schlingensief have worked in Australia? © SBS German Radio

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Art without Borders (part one)
The work of German artist Christoph Schlingensief spanned a diverse range of fields, including film, theatre, activism, television and opera. In over two decades, Schlingensief produced a large body of politically engaged work that challenged audiences to think critically and creatively about a broad range of socio-political issues and debates. This book – the first comprehensive study in English of Schlingensief’s intriguing body of work – outlines his background and provides descriptive analyses of key productions in each of the mediums he employed prior to his untimely death in August 2010. Listen to the interview with Anna Theresa Scheer who is one of the editor of the new book: Christoph Schlingensief: Art without Borders, eds. Forrest, T.L. & Scheer, A.T. (Intellect Books: Bristol, UK/Chicago, USA, 2010). © SBS German Radio

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

The dead aren’t dead, least of all in literature, and even literature itself has something ghostly and nocturnal about it, although in a benign sense. It observes life tenderly, even from afar. In Dagmar Leupold´s latest Novel “Die Helligkeit der Nacht” Heinrich von Kleist and Ulrike meet in spring-time 2008, and Kleist begins to take notes on his thoughts and their conversations in a virtual diary. Listen to the second part of the conversation in German between Dagmar Leupold and Yixu Lu organizer of the Kleist-Symposium at the University of Sydney: Why is Kleist still important today? Is it possible to change the world through literature? A literature journey of affection, questions, meditations and observations revolving around themes of literature and radicalism, history and its hopes, the absolute and its abysses. © SBS German Radio

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

The celebration of the 200th anniversary of the death of Heinrich von Kleist has started in Sydney with a University of Sydney Symposium on the work and actuality of Heinrich von Kleist. 40 international Kleist experts travelled to Sydney; among them German author Dagmar Leupold whose latest novel creates an unlikely and poetic encounter between Heinrich von Kleist and Ulrike Meinhof. Listen to the first part of the interview with Dagmar Leupold and Yixu Lü, Chair, Department of Germanic Studies, University of Sydney. Followed by a German reading with Dagmar Leupold at the Goethe-Institut in Sydney. What is the connection between Kleist and Australia and how did Dagmar Leupold approach Kleist for her novel? © SBS German Radio

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Internationally renowned author Ilija Trojanow is a man of the globalised world. Born in Bulgaria, he grew up in South-Africa, travelled through India and the Orient and lives now in Europe. Throughout all this time his language of literature remained German. Ilija Trojanow was a guest of the Adelaide Writers´ Week and subsequently gave a reading at the Goethe-Institut in Sydney. His bestselling book “The Collector of Worlds” describes the life of the British officer Sir Richard Burton who becomes obsessed with learning indigenous languages und foreign cultures. Listen to Ilija Trojanow as he talks in German about his love for the world and for the German language. 

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Marion Döring is the Director of the European Film Academy, which is based in Berlin, and presents the annual European Film Awards every second year in one of the other European capitals. The event is broadcast in over 40 countries. In March 2010 Marion Döring visited the Perth International Festival and introduced Short Matters, this year's best short films from Europe, for the first time in Australia. Short Matters features a fabulous selection of award-winning dramas, comedies, animation and documentaries from Europe's premiere emerging talent. She talks with Trudi Latour. © SBS German Radio

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Ilija Trojanow is an international bestselling author and has visited Australia as a guest of the Goethe-Institut and the Adelaide Writers Week 2010. In his conversation with Trudi Latour he discusses his famous novel "The Collector of Worlds", which is build around the real life character Sir Richard Burton who travelled the world, learning indigenous languages and foreign cultures. We hear about the question of cultural identity and literature. © SBS German Radio

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Erica Fischer talks about her book "Aimée & Jaguar", a real-life love story about two women who fall in love in war-troubled Germany. Published in 1994, it instantly became a major success and has since been translated into 20 languages. The story is based on extensive research and was later made into a film by Max Färberböck. The movie was screened at Goethe-Institut Australia's 9th Audi Festival of German Films. Erica Fischer presently lives in Berlin and works as a freelance author, interpreter and journalist.

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Renowned German writer Antje Rávic Strubel was merely a teenager living in East Germany when the Berlin wall came down 20 years ago. At the Melbourne Writers Festival 2009 she talks about the impact of the wall on German literature and also reads a chapter from her book “Snowed under”. This episodic novel is set in an Eastern European ski resort after the collapse of the socialist regime. Antje Ràvic Strubel has been author in residence for one month in Sydney. (Podcast: Antje Rávic Strubel, in a session entitled “And the wall came tumbling down”, August 28th 2009, Festival Club, ACMI, Courtesy of the Melbourne Writers Festival, 2009.)

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Stefan Aust, a renowned German author and journalist talks to Trudi Latour from SBS German Radio about his work on "The Baader Meinhof Complex". While the book on the German terror organization “RAF” sold well after it got published in 1985, the 2008 movie adaption by Bernd Eichinger was an outright success. Aust recently travelled to Australia to present the movie on the Sydney Film Festival and to participate in several panels. He spent three years with detailed research on the RAF and was able to meet many of the terrorists first hand. © SBS German Radio.

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Award-winning author Saša Stanišić about his first novel “How The Soldier Repaires The Gramophone”.
Born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, he fled as a 14-year old with his parents to Germany and used his personal experiences of the war in the Balkans in his novel. Listen to this very personal SBS Interview with Trudi Latour and to the authors reflection on ethnic diversity, the results of political ideologies, and its impact on personal identity today. (c) SBS German Radio.

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Saša Stanišić´s debut novel “How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone” is the moving story of a young Bosnian fleeing his homeland and finally finding refuge in Germany. Discover this remarkable young author as he talks to Jeremy Fisher, Executive Director of the Australian Society of Authors about the war that changed his life, about his lost childhood and the power of literature. Saša´s view draws a very subjective perspective on history. Listen to this promising author as he reads in German and English. Literature for the ears spoken the way it should be.

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Listen to the SBS-interview with Andrea Maria Schenkel who won several literature awards for both her first novel "The Murder Farm" (Tannöd) as well as her second novel "Ice Cold" ("Kalteis"). "The Murder Farm" has already been made into a radioplay, with a play and a movie currently being produced. Journalist Trudi Latour talks to the bestseller author about her amazing career, the novel "The Murder Farm" and the writer's future plans. (c) SBS German Radio

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Listen to Australian Writer Vanessa Berry, just returned from her residence in Leipzig and Berlin. Posted to Germany through the Goethe-Institut she had the chance to discover different German stories and situations – view through the eyes of a young Australian writer. Vanessa Berry studied “Writing and Contemporary Cultures” with Honours at UTS in Sydney. She reads different texts, inspired by her experiences in Germany. Discover Vanessa’s perspective on Germany and listen to a short introduction to Vanessa’s work by Ivor Indyk.

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

German author Andrea Maria Schenkel is a new star on the German literary scene. "The Murder Farm" ("Tannöd") is a fresh take on the crime novel and was a phenomenal success, winning the German Krimi-Preis as well as the prestigious Friedrich-Glauser-Preis. Andrea was invited by the Goethe-Institut and the Melbourne Writer's Festival to visit Australia for a tour in August 2008. Listen to this unusual crime story - with an unsolved end which leaves the reader alone between the living and the dead, the innocent and the guilty.

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Germany's greatest science writers, Stefan Klein, brings a journalist's eye for detail to illuminate the highways and byways of happiness and it´s causes at the Perth Writers Festival 2008. Stefan Kleins internationally acclaimed bestseller "The Science of Happiness" has been published in more than twenty-eight countries. In his conversation with Stephanie Dowrick the author is trying to answer the questions: Can intelligent people really be happy? What is happiness and how do we achieve it?

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Wibke Bruhns, well known journalist, writer and TV-presenter was guest of the 2008 Sydney Writers's Festival. Her bestselling book "Meines Vaters Land" has been published in English translation by Random House as "My Father's Country". The extraordinary story of her family over three generations has been described as "a fascinating mix of private chronicle, contemporary reporting, and personal search for identity".

Uwe Timm’s writing comprises novels, short stories, essays, poetry and award-winning titles for children and young adults. His awards include the Literature Prize of the Bavarian Academy for Fine Arts, the Munich Literature Prize, and the Schubart Literary Prize. His books have been translated into many languages. Available in English translation are among others "The Invention of Curried Sausage" (New Directions, 1995), "Morenga" (New Directions 2003) and "In My Brother’s Shadow" (Bloomsbury 2006)

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Zoran Drvenkar was born in Croatia in 1967 and moved to Berlin at the age of three. His novels, poems, plays and short stories, many of them for children, have won him numerous awards. After his thriller ‘Moving Too Fast’ (2003) he published ‘Yugoslavian Gigolo’ and the screenplay for the award-winning film ‘Tough enough’

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können

Galsan Tschinag is the author of more than thirty books, a shaman, a singer and the chief of the Tuvan people in Mongolia. He was born in the early 1940s in the high mountains of Mongolia; from 1962 until 1968 he studied at the University of Leipzig in Eastern Germany, where he adopted German as his written language. His books, amongst them the highly successful novel ‘The Blue Sky’ have been translated into many languages.

Sie benötigen den Flashplayer , um dieses MP3 abspielen zu können