Stolpertexte

LBI has teamed up with prominent German-language fiction authors and poets to highlight the rich holdings of our archives through short texts published in local newspapers. Known as Stolpertexte in homage to the brass memorial bricks that dot European streetscapes at the homes of former Jewish residents, these short texts invite the reader to imagine the lives of people who left traces in the LBI archives.

LBI launched the project with a reading at the Capa-Haus in Leipzig during the city's famed book fair on March 21 featuring writers Ulrike Draesner, Norbert Hummelt, Karosh Taha, and Ruth-Maria Thomas.

Each Stolpertext uses the tools of literary narrative or poetry to explore the true stories of an individual or family based on their papers in the LBI Archives and will be published in a newspaper based near where the protagonist lived.

In addition to the writers who participated in the Leipzig launch event, the authors involved in the project include Fred Breinersdorfer, Ulrike Draesner, Lena Gorelik, Olga Grjasnowa, Tanja Kinkel, Tijan Sila, Karosh Taha, Julie Zeh, and many others.

Dana von Suffrin is a Munich-based writer whose debut novel Otto is about a Jewish Transylvanian who settles in Germany after twenty years in Israel. The dark comedy is loosely based on her own family’s story. Von Suffrin is also a historian who wrote a dissertation about the Zionist botanist Otto Warburg. Researching her Stolpertext about the restitution claims of the Bavarian refugee Werner Kleeman gave her new insight into a topic she already knew well, both personally and professionally. “Even as a historian myself, I didn’t realize how excruciating and re-traumatizing the restitution process was for the victims,” she said. “No one in my family talked about it.” However, she says she tried to let Kleeman and his papers speak for themselves: “He didn’t want to see himself as a victim,” she said, “but he was resolute, unrelenting, and even demanding - and he was right.”

“The great poet Hölderlin wrote, ‘Was bleibt, stiften die Dichter,’ - what remains, is a gift of the poets,” said Matthias Pfeffer, a television producer, author, and philosopher who developed the concept for Stolpertexte and is co-curating the project with the LBI. “Literature is not only absolutely essential to our understanding of the past, but by preserving memories, writers can also help build a better future.”

The Stolpertexte will be published in newspapers across Germany throughout 2024. LBI also plans to print a selection of the texts in a book later this year.

Stolpertexte published to date:

• Fred Breinersdorfer, "Neue Verhältnisse", Stuttgarter Zeitung, April 19, 2023.
• Ulrike Draesner, "Erinnerung Lernen", Berliner Zeitung, December 6, 2023.
• Orhan Erdem, "'Was man schreibt, das bleibt", Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, August 31, 2024.
• Lena Gorelik, "Es ist 1930, Friederike ist 30 Jahre alt und wiegt 32 Kilo", Berliner Zeitung, July 25, 2024.
• Nicolas Greiner, "Stilles Heldentum", Mannheimer Morgen, March 19, 2024.
• Olga Grjasnowa, "'Ich brauche dich': Die Geschichte des jüdischen Ehepaars Ernst und Erna Feder", Der Tagespiegel, March 20, 2024.
• Norbert Hummelt, "Familie Strauss in Marburg: Die Geschichte (fast) vergessener Juden", Oberhessische Presse, March 22, 2023.
• Mascha Jacobs, "Villeicht Quittengelee", Frankfurter Rundeschau, August 28, 2024.
• Tanja Kinkel, "'Ich habe noch nie so sehr geweint': Wie das Leben einer Bamberger Familie ab 1933 zerstört wurde", Nürnberger Nachrichten, March 23, 2024.
• Felicitas Korn, "Die Bildhauerin Erna Weill: Das ist mein Weg", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 24, 2024.
• Tara Meister, "Es gibt nicht nur Stolpersteine, es gibt auch Stolpertexte: Tara Meister erinnert an eine jüdische Aktivistin" ("Flieder"), Die Presse (Vienna), April 14, 2024.
• Amalie Mbianda Njiki, "In diesen Minuten zerbrach eine Welt", Südkurier (Konstanz), June 15, 2024.
• Moritz Rinke, "In Gedenken an die Familie Zwienicki in Bremen" und "Der neue Stolperstein an meinem Kühlschrank", Weser Kurier, March 18 and 25, 2023.
• Katja Röder, "Bittere Botschaft eines Briefes", Fränkischer Tag, June 3, 2024.
• Victor Sattler, "Hoffentlich ist es dann nicht zu Spät", 54books.de, August 17, 2023.
• Dana von Suffrin, "Ein lebenslanger Kampf," Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 25, 2024.
• Tijan Sila, "Abschied aus Kaiserslautern", Die Rheinpfalz, March 4, 2024.
• Konstantin Schmidtbauer, "Brief aus den letzten Tagen jüdischen Lebens", Burgenland Kurier, December 27, 2023. (this text also appears on the Web site of the Burgenländischen Forschungsgesellschaft)
• Dana von Suffrin, "Ein lebenslanger Kampf", Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 26, 2024.
• Karosh Taha, "Der Tod forderte seinen Teil von mir", Münchner Merkur, April 3, 2024
• Karosh Taha, "Schlimmer behandelt als Vieh", Berliner Zeitung, August 5, 2024.
• Ruth-Maria Thomas, "(Der Himmel leuchtete rot) Wie eine Jüdin in den 1930er-Jahren aus Deutschland floh", Lausitzer Rundschau, March 21, 2024.
• Ulrich Woelk, "'Ich weinte vor Freude' Der Vernichtung knapp entkommen – das Schicksal der Kölner Jüdin Melanie Leffmann", July 8, 2024.
• Juli Zeh, "Die Lange Reise der Edith Hillinger", Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung, March 16, 2024.

Media Coverage of the Stolpertexte Project

• David Dambitsch, "Neues Projekt: Stolpertexte des Leo Baeck Instituts," Deutschlandfunk, January 3, 2025.
• Heribert Prantl, "Stolpersteine, Stolpertexte", Prantls Blick, November 24, 2024.
• Christhard Läpple, "Stolpertexte", 3Sat/Kulturzeit, March 28, 2024.
• Ulrich Gutmair, "Literarisches Gedenken (Eindrücke von der Leipziger Buchmesse)", taz, March 22, 2024.
• Florian Pfitzner, " 'Stolpertexte' erzählen Lebensgeschichten getöteter Juden in Nazi-Deutschland", Frankfurter Rundschau, March 19, 2024.
• Bettina Treiber, "Erster Stolpertext in Österreich verfasst", Burgenland Heute, (ORF) January 31, 2024.
• Norbert Reichel, "Es ist Mai und wir Sitzen im Garten", Demokratischer Salon, February 2025.