Tobias Schrank © Goethe-Institut

Frankfurt Book Fair 2021

As we did not attend the Frankfurt book fair in 2020 due to the pandemic situation, the Goethe-Institut presented itself again with a booth in 2021. You’ll find relevant content concerning the Frankfurt book fair on this website, e.g. four live interviews with authors at our booth. Have fun browsing and discovering our content!

Time to listen

The video project ‘Time to listen’ offers a collection of stories recorded in their own homes by writers drawn from all modes of art and from all parts of the world. In this new chapter headed ‘Finally...!’ the stories play with this word that amounts to a kind of sigh: does it denote the end of an upsetting situation, or mark a grand and exciting finale?
Live in Frankfurt and on YouTube, curator Thomas Böhm was talking to each of the contributing authors.
More information about the authors

Time to listen
Interview with Colm Tóibín

Time to listen
Interview with Michal Hvorecký

Time to listen
Interview with Antje Rávik Strubel

Time to listen
Interview mit Zaia Alexander

It happened, but it wasn’t the same: Due to the pandemic, the 2020 Frankfurt Book Fair took place under unusual conditions. This year, it is taking small steps back towards normality.

Photo (detail): © picture alliance/dpa/Arne Dedert

Frankfurt Book Fair
Read and work

As the saying goes: Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone. As the Frankfurt Book Fair kicks off, Christoph Schröder takes a somewhat wistful look back at the good old book fair days – and though he’s looking forward to this year’s fair, his hopes are pinned on the next.

German book prize 2021 Antje Rávik Strubel

German Book Prize 2021
In the Ranks of Women

Antje Rávik Strubel’s novel “Blaue Frau” (Blue Woman) was named best novel of the year. In 2021, the German Book Prize goes to a sophisticated and dedicated writer.

The German Book Prize is awarded every year at the Frankfurt Book Fair: shortlist 2020.

Photo (detail): © Deutscher Buchpreis

The German Book Prize
The longlist – the bottom line

Literature prizes are all well and good, but it isn’t always the case that the prize-winners are also the most successful books: let’s look back at the German Book Prize over the last ten years.

Interview with Shida Bazyar

Shida Bazyar Photo (Detail): Georg Wendt © picture alliance / dpa Why do we believe storytellers? And why do they sometimes have to lie to us? A discussion in German with Shida Bazyar about female, post-migrant writing, the NSU and literary criticism. By Regine Hader

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The graffiti by Alex Lazich at the Messe underground station in Frankfurt am Main

Street-Art Project

On the occasion of the Frankfurt book fair, the Goethe-Institut and the cities of Toronto and Frankfurt am Main broght Frankfurt street artist Justus “Cor” Becker to create a downtown mural in Toronto. Canadian artist Alexander “Bacon” Lazich created mural at the suburban railway station “Frankfurt-Messe”. You’ll find the corresponding videos here.

Jemand Society

The Jemand Society is here with unexpected interventions that will challenge you to imagine, speculate and take action towards imaginable and desirable futures. Are you ready? Sign up and become a Future Agent now!

further cultural and language offers

International Relief Fund, Grafic: © Katja Römer

International Relief Fund 2021

In 2020, the Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut initiated the International Relief Fund for Organisations in Culture and Education in response to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on cultural organisations abroad. Because of the positive reception and high effectiveness, the funding was continued in 2021.

Collage of still images from the video series Unser Leben in Deutschland

Our lives in Germany

How does learning German impact your life? Yiğit, Riesta, Simone, Eric and Imam speak German as a foreign language and live in Germany since quite a while. They all have their own stunning story. Its time to listen: dive into the perspective of migrants, who report about setting up a new live in short videos.

Getvico24

Are you into teaching German as a foreign language? Listening is also the motto of our big digital conference worldwide: the GETVICO24 is a virtual and innovative platform about the German language which leads you in 24 hours around the world. Diversity and sustainability are the main topics of the conference. No matter where you are right now: listen in, get in contact and discuss with your colleagues all over the world.

GETVICO24
Start: October 20th 2021 at 21:00 CET for 24 hours

Weltenschreiber

With the literature project „Weltenschreiber“ young people were introduced to literary writing. The project was implemented by the Robert Bosch Stiftung in 2018. The Goethe-Institut cooperated in this exciting project in order to implement it through its network with young German learners abroad. At seven Goethe-Institutes in Eastern and Central Europe, students not only developed personal access to the German literary scene through exchanges with German authors, but also improved their own expression in German as a foreign language.