Kaleb Erdmann: Die Ausweichschule

In the organizer's words:

Measuring the unspeakable

On the last day of the Abitur exams in 2002, shots are fired at the Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt. Our narrator experienced this day as an eleven-year-old, was evacuated with his classmates and, in the weeks that followed, registered the helplessness of the adults in the face of this act. More than twenty years later, the event unexpectedly bursts into his life again and triggers an obsessive preoccupation with the subject, which is to result in a novel project. But why reopen old wounds after so many years? Does he have the right to do so? What about his memories, which stories did he tell so often that they became true?

Kaleb Erdmann's novel Die Ausweichschule is a skillful play with perspectives, a piece of autofiction that is as critical of the public (how voyeuristic is our interest in coming to terms with acts of violence?) as it is autocritical (what gives me the right to write about this day?). A trenchant, personal, harrowing text about a phenomenon that concerns us worldwide.

"Kaleb Erdmann's literary approach to the Erfurt rampage is a feat - he finds words for the unspeakable and leaves you speechless. The saddest, funniest and best thing I've read in a long time." Caroline Wahl

Kaleb Erdmann, born in 1991, studied literary writing at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig, as well as sociology and political theory in Munich and Frankfurt am Main. He was a finalist in the open mike, was nominated for the Retzhofer Dramapreis for his play Unten and was part of various television and entertainment formats as an author and editor. His first novel wir sind pioniere was awarded the LitCologne Debut Prize. Most recently, he wrote the play Always Carrey On for the Berliner Ensemble. Kaleb Erdmann lives and works in Düsseldorf.

Moderation: Sandra Da Vina