Zeitenwende
('Dawning of a New Era')
Krieg gegen die Ukraine –
Reaktionen, Perspektiven
und Widerstandsaktionen
('War against Ukraine –
reactions, points of view
and acts of resistance')
'He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster.
And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.'
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
For Misha Katsurin, the Kiev-based businessman and active campaigner against Russian propaganda and fake news, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is 'not a war between two countries but between good and evil, the past and the future, dictatorship and liberal democracy. A war that affects everyone who wants to live in freedom.' In the words of the Ukrainian philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko, this means: 'Russia not only wants to destroy Ukraine, but also Europe.' The texts that will be read out aloud show that this war means the dawning of a new era in Europe, with the obligation to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia with all available means. Ultimately, this war is about upholding and protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms also elsewhere in Europe.
'You don't have to be Ukrainian to support Ukraine. You just have to be human,' Oleksandra Matviichuk said in her speech when the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. In this spirit, the reading will give various authors and current affairs analysts, many of whom hail from Ukraine and Russia, the chance to voice their points of view with regard to this dawning of a new era.
Fritzi Haberlandt is well-known for her performances in the theatre, where she has worked with Robert Wilson, Michael Thalheimer, Jan Bosse and Armin Petras, for example, as well as her appearances in films such as Fog in August, or the TV series Babylon Berlin. Stage and screen actor Boris Aljinovic was one of the inspectors in the Berlin-set episodes of the long-running television crime series Tatort, a role he played from 2002 to 2014. He has appeared in many of the Renaissance Theater Berlin's productions, and has contributed to a number of audio book recordings. He is also a passionate artist and sailor.
