Jonathan Kaminsky is a civil engineer and works as a site manager at the Dresden housing construction combine. Through his girlfriend, he meets artists who persuade him to model for them. They wanted to create a sculpture of the New Man for the next major GDR art exhibition. In the end, he stands in front of the museum as a pillar of socialism. From this perspective, he tells his stories about his pious grandmother, his Russian-speaking grandfather, his violent father, a teacher and party secretary, and his forced move from the village to the suburbs of Berlin.
Wolfram Nagel, born in 1955 in a village in southern Thuringia, has led a life that could be the subject of several novels: From skilled construction worker to civil engineer, from NVA soldier to student at the "Johannes R. Becher" Literature Institute, from young family father in the alternative artist project of an empty castle to working as a freelance author for Radio DDR, MDR and Deutschlandfunk.
His novel draws on these experiences. It tells of origin and change, of confinement and expanse, of the search for one's own path in a state that often only tolerated individual life plans on the margins. Nagel combines keen observation with poetic imagination, creating a literary picture of the GDR that is both personal and universal.
We cordially invite you to a book premiere that not only presents the author's first novel, but also an author who has been observing social developments with a keen sense for decades.
The book forms an imaginary link to the City Museum's special exhibition on prefabricated housing.
- Moderation: Richard Stratenschulte
