"And then the sky suddenly fell"

• Readings

Reading with the acting ensemble

May 1, 1945: The war is over. Zero hour. The end and the beginning. "How bitter it is when the
rejoicing of the world is for the defeat, the deepest humiliation of one's own country. How terribly
it reveals once again the abyss that had opened up between Germany and the civilized
world. And yet: I say, despite everything, it is a great hour: the return
of Germany to humanity," wrote the writer Thomas Mann in a radio address
to the "German listeners".
In an increasingly uncertain world, at a time when old certainties seem threatened
, on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the liberation from National Socialism, we question
the past and present with historical and contemporary texts. When did the war
end? How did it begin? Will it come again? Is peace possible? How can democracy succeed?
Does history repeat itself? How can we act? "We must never forget," says Margot Friedländer, "but remembering alone is not enough."