If you're particularly inattentive, it may have escaped your attention that 2009 is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But don't worry, soon all the celebrations and commemorations will be coming out of your ears and you'll be cursing the day Hungary opened its fences. (Although - if they hadn't, it'd be the sixtieth anniversary of the GDR this year, which might even be more of a strain.)
If you're in Berlin, you can catch free readings marking the events of 1989 this coming weekend on Alexanderplatz. This big square, now given over almost entirely to the joys of shopping and getting run over by trams, was where a number of demonstrations took place in the months leading up to November 1989. And as writers actually played a role in the "Peaceful Revolution", with people like Christa Wolf and Christoph Hein speaking at demonstrations and Walter Janka prompting public debate on the sins of the past, it's a nice idea to make readings part of the large open air exhibition marking the anniversary.
It looks like there are some interesting writers on the bill, including Jana Hensel, Cornelia Schleime and Susanne Schädlich.
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