Gegenüber Magazine Newsletter

October 30, 2025



Dear Reader,

What does freedom mean in a world shaped by growing complexity and social tension? How can we take responsibility, both individually and collectively, and across borders? Our latest edition is dedicated to Hannah Arendt — an influential thinker whose work continues to resonate globally. Fifty years after her passing, we have engaged deeply with Arendt’s ideas, and the diversity of perspectives have opened up new insights — and inspired us to keep thinking. We warmly invite you to explore this issue. Perhaps you’ll also discover new ways of looking at questions that shape our present.

Also new: Stream our series on Konrad Wolf in honor of his 100th birthday, read about German authors Sonali Beher and Iven Yorick Fenker's impressions on their ON THE ROAD journey along the US East coast and to Texas, and sign up for our next edition of GEGENÜBER Talks about Thomas Mann in November. 

Enjoy reading, watching, and reflecting.
Your GEGENÜBER Editorial Team

Hannah Arendt

Illustration: © Eléonore Roedel

Dossier

Hannah Arendt

Fifty years after her death, the work of German-American philosopher and author Hannah Arendt remains strikingly relevant. In the face of today’s complex challenges, her work compels to revisit fundamental questions of freedom, responsibility, and judgment. In this dossier we approach Arendt’s life and work in a nuanced and insightful way and invite you to reflect on them in a contemporary context: What does it mean today to think and act in the spirit of Hannah Arendt?
Gegenüber On the Road Travel Notes 2300x1000

© Ricardo Roa

Writings, reflections, and conversations

On the Road: Travel Notes

Two authors from Germany – Sonali Beher and Iven Yorick Fenker, both students at the Literature Institute Leipzig – traveled along the East Coast of the USA, from New York through Florida and then over to Texas. Explore the voices of a new generation and read their stories.
Konrad Wolf

© DEFA Stiftung/Rudolf Meister

Streaming through November 30

Konrad Wolf: Ways to Enlightenment

To celebrate the 100th birthday of East German filmmaker Konrad Wolf on October 20, this streaming series offers a selection of his pioneering, politically daring, and thought-provoking work. A committed anti-fascist of Jewish descent, Wolf vividly and pointedly depicted a generation questioning its role in Third Reich’s horrors, inviting his viewers — then and today — to consider their own relationship to the historical movements of their time. Stream seven films by Konrad Wolf for free until November 30th.
Gegenuber Talk - Literature Across Borders

© Goethe-Institut / portrait Susan Bernofsky: Caroline White / portrait Veronika Fuechtner: Katie Lenhart

November 25, 1-2pm | Translating Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain | online

GEGENÜBER Talks – Literature Across Borders

The challenges of translating and editing Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain reveal much about the novel’s enduring power and contemporary resonance. Literary scholar Veronika Fuechtner and award-winning translator Susan Bernofsky, who are collaborating on a forthcoming translation, shed new light on Mann’s masterpiece—exploring its continuing fascination and relevance in today’s political and cultural moment.

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