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Book presentation and discussion with author Jos Versteegen and translator and literary scholar Marita Keilson

As part of the series "Writing about Exile", in cooperation with S. Fischer Verlag

Hans Keilson, born in Bad Freienwalde in 1909, was a doctor and poet, sports teacher and musician. In 1933, his first novel "Das Leben geht weiter" was published by S. Fischer Verlag. His escape into exile in the Netherlands in 1936 saved his life, he became a psychoanalyst. After the war, Hans Keilson, whose parents were murdered in Auschwitz, took care of the traumas of Jewish war orphans. An euphoric review in the New York Times made him world-famous in 2010 and his books were translated into over 20 languages. He died in the Netherlands in 2011.

Jos Versteegen's biography, recently published by S. Fischer Verlag, provides the first complete and nuanced picture of this charismatic man and his eventful life. On this evening, Hans Keilson's widow, the literary scholar Marita Keilson-Lauritz, will also be a guest.

Moderation: Ludger M. Hermanns

In cooperation with the Freud-Museum-Berlin Initiative

Free admission, no registration required

Location: Werkstatt Exilmuseum
Fasanenstr. 24, 10719 Berlin
The building is unfortunately not barrier-free.

The guests:

Jos Versteegen is a Dutch poet, lecturer and translator. He has published seven volumes of poetry, most recently the collection "Woon ik hier" about memories of old people. Versteegen translated the poems that Hans Keilson wrote in hiding for the love of his life into Dutch. They were published in 2016 under the title "Sonnets for Hanna". The translation was the starting point for his biography of Hans Keilson.

Marita Keilson-Lauritz is a literary scholar and lives in the Netherlands. Her work centres on the subject of homosexuality and literature. She is the editor of Hans Keilson's "Diary 1944" and "Sonnets for Hanna" and translator of the biography "Hans Keilson – Always a New Life".

Ludger M. Hermanns works as a specialist in psychosomatic medicine, psychoanalyst and group analyst in his own surgery in Berlin-Charlottenburg. He is chairman of the Archive for the History of Psychoanalysis, a member of a working group for a Freud Museum Berlin, co-editor of the psychoanalysis-historical journal Luzifer-Amor and editor of numerous psychoanalysis-historical source works.

Photo: © Martin Spieles / S. Fischer Verlag