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Meet the Author with
Jakob Hein

Online book presentation and discussion|Author's Talk

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Jakob Hein © Susanne Schleyer

In Jakob Hein's satirical novel Wie Grischa mit einer verwegenen Idee beinahe den Weltfrieden auslöste, the young GDR civil servant Grischa Tannberg embarks on a political and economic adventure in the early 1980s. As a shy assistant at the State Planning Commission, he surprisingly develops an ingenious – and completely unorthodox – plan to save the ailing GDR economy. The starting point is a state-controlled cannabis experiment that Grischa initiates as part of trade relations with the ‘brother country’ Afghanistan.

The story links this absurd idea to a real historical event: the billion-dollar loan that Franz Josef Strauß brokered for the GDR in 1983. Hein uses this to tell a humorous, pointed and deliberately exaggerated explanation of how this political coup came about – including a ‘miracle of Bavaria’ that steers the plot in increasingly bizarre directions.

Author Jakob Hein will be a guest at Meet the Author in March 2026 to present his novel in conversation with Dorine Schellens, assistant professor at Leiden University. The event will take place online and in German.
Do you love books and are you looking for new reading material? Meet the Author presents exciting German-language books, from debuts and bestsellers to narrative non-fiction. Hear directly from the authors how their stories come about and what inspires them. Participation is free and open to everyone. Register via the link and simply tune in!
"Wie Grischamit einer verwegenen Idee beinahe den Weltfrieden auslöste"

His boss would never have dreamed that Grischa, the shy assistant at the planning commission, would be prone to subversion and come up with an admittedly rather ingenious plan to provide their ailing organisation with a new and surprisingly abundant source of funding. In this case, “business” stands for an entire country. Grischa's boss is astonished, and with him all sorts of elderly ministers in the Central Committee. Shortly afterwards, however, the police chief of West Berlin is most astonished when tumultuous scenes unfold at the Invalidenstraße border crossing, on the wrong (!) side. Hundreds of young people want to go over to the East, as if by magic. When the government in Bonn gets wind of this, the situation becomes precarious. But then the East makes the West an offer it can't refuse!

Text source: © Galiani

BIO

  • Dr. Jakob Hein

    Writer, specialist in psychiatry

    Jakob Hein, born in Leipzig in 1971, has lived with his family in Berlin since 1972. He works as a psychiatrist. Since 1998, he has been a member of the Reformbühne Heim und Welt theatre company in Berlin's Jägerklause. He has published 17 books to date, including Mein erstes T-Shirt (2001), Herr Jensen steigt aus (2006), Wurst und Wahn (2011), Kaltes Wasser (2016) und zuletzt Die Orient-Mission des Leutnant Stern (2018).

  • Dorine Schellens

    University Lecturer

    Dorine Schellens is an assistant professor at Leiden University and works in the fields of contemporary Russian and German literature and culture. Her research focuses on the reception of late Soviet Russian art in Europe, contemporary Russian protest art and cultural theory. Her current research focuses on representations of (alternative) future scenarios in Russian and East German literature and art. She is a member of the steering group of the academic solidarity network The University of New Europe, which supports students, academics and cultural workers who are at risk due to Russia's war in Ukraine.

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