Reading and talk: Ottmar Ette - Wunder Bunker

With Ottmar Ette and Antje Bielfeld-Müller

Literature meets Nazi history: between the miracle weapon and the economic miracle, the novel "Wunder Bunker" tells the story of the construction of Germany's largest bunker - the "Valentin" bunker on the Lower Weser - with its concentration and labor camps as a cipher of German and European history in the transition from the 1940s to the 1950s. As a historical novel, it uncovers the continuities in this history; as a literary parable and animal fable, it humorously unfolds the abysses of human existence from the perspective of a herring gull; as a biographical sketch, it illuminates different characters, camp inmates from all over Europe, architects and engineers, guards and seemingly uninvolved neighbors as a psychogram of the time; as a thriller, it unfolds the tensions between brutal violence and aesthetic resistance.

The event will take place in the Humboldthain anti-aircraft bunker, which was built in 1941 using forced laborers and prisoners of war. It is one of those historical spaces in which architecture, violence and memory remain inextricably linked. Against this backdrop, Ottmar Ette's novel "Wunder Bunker" is particularly poignant.

Ottmar Ette is a writer, Professor of Romance Studies and Comparative Literature and Honorary Member of the Modern Language Association. In addition to his novels "Zwei deutsche Leben" and "Mein Name sei Amo", he has published numerous influential theoretical works, including the trilogy "ÜberlebensWissen". He is leading a long-term project on Alexander von Humboldt at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and works in Potsdam, Berlin and Changsha (China).

public transport: S+U / DB Gesundbrunnen, Bus 247

Accessibility: The Humboldthain flak tower is not barrier-free.

Notes: Sturdy closed shoes are required. We recommend warm clothing, as the temperature inside the flak tower is around 10°C all year round. Please bring a flashlight, the path through the park is not illuminated.Translated with DeepL

Meeting point: Entrance at the Humboldthain climbing wall

Price: €10.00

Reduced price: €8.00

Next date:

• Date Tuesday, 23/June/2026 19:00 bis 20:30
• Venue Flakturm Humboldthain
• Address Hochstraße 5, 13357 Berlin-Kreisfreie Stadt Berlin