95 events at 54 locations in 18 districts: That is the balance of the Literaturhaus Berlin, which has been crisscrossing Berlin since September 2024 under the charming motto “Li-Be for the city”. The reason: The ancestral house, i.e. the famous, dignified property in the middle-class Fasanenstrasse 24, has since been renovated and made barrier-free. “Well, barrier-free,” says Janika Gelinek at a press breakfast on Tuesday morning in the interim office of the Literaturhaus in Moabit. “As much as we are looking forward to our old home, it will remain a hurdle for many,” she adds.
In this respect, the tour was the best thing that could have happened to the Literaturhaus since its co-chiefs Janika Gelinek and Sonja Longolius took over in 2019 – and have brought a lot of fresh air to it since then. Because on their tour they have successfully played in the most adventurous places: from the Picture Gallery to the Animal Anatomical Theater, from the Prinzenbad to the Green Stage in Hellersdorf.
“We had the same number of visitors at fewer events,” says Gelinek and is obviously looking forward to the new start in the old building, which is scheduled to take place this summer. Only then will it become clear: “Have we lost an audience? Are new ones coming? Or will it be after a while as if nothing ever happened?”
Anyone who has followed any of the Li-Be events live or on stream in the last year and a half will regret the end of the houseless era. Because it doesn’t matter whether the rapper AMEFU read Paul Celan’s “Todesfuge” on the day of the book burning in SO36 or whether Mikael Ries was able to present his graphic novel “The Upside Down Heaven” in the middle of the residential area in Lichtenberg where it is set: literature usually waits far too long to be discovered instead of going to the door itself.
However, when asked whether a literary house without a house wouldn’t actually be an idea for the patent office, the always elated Janika Gelinek answers with a deep sigh. Like many other cultural institutions, the Li-Be also suffered from the Senate’s austerity measures – even though such a tour is of course far more complex in terms of logistics, personnel and money than normal operations at a fixed location.
“Did you know that there are no power sockets in the picture gallery?” she laughs, and then mentions the 1,800 kilometers that the house’s rental car now has “on the clock”.
The word exhaustion is no longer needed after these sentences. In this respect, the Literaturhaus team is of course blessed that the period of exile is coming to an end.
They will be on tour until the end of February, after which they will go to the Cabuwazi circus on Tempelhofer Feld until the summer break – a place that will certainly influence the program as much as other places before it. And then the renovation is finished. They hope to celebrate the house’s 40th birthday again in September in the old villa on Fasanenstrasse. Let’s see what remains of the great hike.