“Sebald Remembering” Program, Berlin, June 6, 2026

Lettrétage, “an anchor institution for Berlin’s independent literary scene,” has announced a special program devoted to W.G. Sebald in their Berlin space on June 6, 2026, called “Sebald Remembering.” The event website says: “At the heart of Sebald’s work lies a deep understanding of crises, an exploration of the effects of catastrophes on the human psyche, both individually and collectively. He vividly describes the narrative disintegration and self-alienation that accompany exile, having spent the second half of his life in Great Britain. In works such as A Natural History of Destruction, he also addressed German wartime suffering and the destruction of German cities, always with an eye toward the politics of the past.” The event is centered around a quotation from Sebald’s last novel Austerlitz (2001): “I have always resisted the power of time, driven by an inner compulsion that I myself have never understood, and cut myself off from so-called current events, in the hope—as I…