Cottbus is all about literature this weekend. According to the organizer, the motto of the second edition of the open-air reading festival "Literature on the Park Bench" this year is "Blickpunkt Brandenburg

Chairs are set up in front of every park bench. Festival director Eckehard Hündgen described the concept on Saturday where interested parties want to listen, they look for a place where they can have a picnic and experience literature. Red umbrellas mark the benches where literature can be experienced live. The readers devote themselves to one of the two federal states in stories and texts.

According to Hündgen, the festival should also help show the diversity of the city's cultural landscape. "We all know, unfortunately, that Cottbus is not always represented with the headlines that we all want," he said. The festival definitely has that in mind. Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) speaks of a growing and changing right-wing scene in Cottbus and southern Brandenburg.

"Here, the visitors are on an equal footing with the authors," says Hündgen, describing the special nature of the festival. Last year, the participants were enthusiastic because the listeners also told stories. In addition, the ambience couldn't be nicer: Both Cottbus parks are in the immediate vicinity of the historic old town. According to the organizers, the Goethe Park is the oldest park in the city. In 1895 it was laid out as a city park on the once marshy site of the Mühleninsel and is bordered on three sides by the Spree. It is connected to the Carl Blechen Park by the Blechensteg.

Literature on the park bench/program