Rumbalotte continua The Waiters Come and Go, We Remain– A Celebration for Peter Brasch’s 60th

Born in Cottbus, East Germany in 1955, the writer Peter Brasch never allowed the political constraints of his day to dictate the way he behaved or his view of the world. Even when reading German Studies at university, his unconventional ideas made him unpopular with the East German authorities. After he was expelled from university in 1976, he had to scrape a living from odd jobs. From 1980, Peter Brasch worked as a freelance author, dramatic advisor and director in Berlin, and was fully employed by the East German broadcaster’s radio play department from 1986–89. After the fall of the Wall, although he still published articles and essays in various periodicals or anthologies, he also issued major works for the first time, such as Rückblenden an Morgen. Prosa, Gedichte, Stücke (1991), and his volume of prose Schön hausen (1999). In the last years of his life, the gruelling search for work and a source of income increasingly counteracted the benefits of post-Wall freedom. He survived on a mix of occasional theatre productions, grants and places on job creation schemes. Peter Brasch died in 2001 aged 45.

To commemorate what would have been Peter Brasch’s 60th birthday, the Kulturspelunke Rumbalotte and the Akademie der Künste are paying tribute to this provocative figure and inveterate dreamer. The celebration comprises a reading, film and music, as well as the book premiere of Arkadien. The readings showcase previously unknown and, in part, unpublished writings from the Peter Brasch Archive. With Margit Bendokat, Marion and Lena Brasch, Martina Hanf, Anne Lebinsky, Peter Ludewig, Bert Papenfuß, Petra Schramm, Hermann Treusch and Stefano Zangrando.