Conference: Nichts als gegeben hinnehmen. Max von der Grün und die Öffentlichkeit

Conference: Nichts als gegeben hinnehmen. Max von der Grün und die Öffentlichkeit
March 12-13, 2026

Fritz Hüser Institute for Literature and Culture of the Working World, Dortmund, in cooperation with the RTG “Literature and the Public Sphere in Differentiated Contemporary Cultures,” FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg

Organization: Dr. Antonia Villinger, Arnold Maxwill
Contact: Dr. Antonia Villinger

Max von der Grün (1926-2005) is an author primarily associated with literature about the working world and the Ruhr region in academic and public perceptions. He published over 30 books covering a wide range of genres and topics. Many of his novels have been adapted into films. In addition to ‘Irrlicht und Feuer’, which caused a scandal in 1963, he was also successful with his children’s and young adult books, especially ‘Vorstadtkrokodile’ (1976), and attracted considerable media interest with subsequent publications. Von der Grün also achieved this through radio features, articles in magazines, essays for photo books, continuous book tours and interviews.

Von der Grün’s texts are almost always dedicated to social issues in post-war Germany, the precarious working conditions, corruption, racism, and social inequality. Von der Grün saw his writing as siding with the weaker members of society, without wanting to subordinate his novels and stories to non-literary activism. Despite all grievances, he preferred fictions’ possible worlds to the operative activism of some of his fellow writers. His motto was: ‘Don’t accept anything as a given’.

May 2026 marks the 100th birthday of Max von der Grün, which will be taken as a starting point to (re)read his texts from literary, cultural, and media studies perspectives. The aim of the (re)readings is to work out the socio-critical potential of his texts, adopting different theoretical perspectives, such as environmental humanities, gender and class studies. While this provides new perspectives on his texts, the history of their reception as well as other connections to the literary public are also relevant. In particular, as Max von der Grün was a founding member of the Dortmund Group 61, his texts also provide information about literature and the literary scene in West Germany up until the 1980s.

The conference will take place at the LWL-Industriemuseum Zeche Zollern on March 13, 2026. Travel and hotel expenses will be covered. As a prelude, an evening event with a reading by Heike Geißler is planned at the Literaturhaus Dortmund for March 12, 2026. The lectures are scheduled to take 30 minutes each. A later publication is planned.