Best of Ingrid Noll

Description

Ingrid Noll reads the best from her works
She is the "Grand Dame of German crime literature," the Lady of Crimeheim, and among other things, honorary commissioner of the Mannheim police station. Ingrid Noll is an author with an international reputation and a resident of Weinheim. At 91 years old, she will read a potpourri of her best stories at the Weinheim Literature Festival 2026. Ingrid Noll, born in 1935 in Shanghai, studied German studies and art history in Bonn. She came to Weinheim with her husband, the late doctor Peter Gullatz. The couple has three children and she is now a fourfold grandmother. After the children left the house, she started writing crime stories, all of which became bestsellers. In 2005, she received the Friedrich Glauser Honorary Award for her entire work. Although it took a long time for her first publication, Ingrid Noll has always had a fondness for language and writing. As a small child in China, she was called "Ame" because the Chinese could not pronounce "Ingrid." Her father showed her how to write the three letters. When she showed the sheet around, the adults said: "Ame, that's you." "I found it totally magical, there were a few strokes on the paper and that was me. I then learned to read and write very quickly," says Ingrid Noll Georg Weinreich reads from "The Usual Walls"
Unexpectedly, the financial director of a Bavarian diocese dies. While the public prosecutor's office assumes a natural cause of death, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome becomes suspicious and assigns Monsignor Ries to the case. Is it really a crime involving a church official? The suspicion quickly falls on Bishop Ehrmann – a man with too worldly secrets, who, together with his mistress, architect Viktoria, commits a seemingly perfect crime to eliminate a confessor... The investigation intensifies as the Pope lies dying. His soon-to-be successor has chosen this bishop as the new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, so Monsignor Ries is investigating his future superior. Gerhard Weinreich combines crime novel, church satire, and power analysis into a multi-layered plot alternating between cover-up, loyalty, and power calculation. Moral principles are systematically pitted against institutional interests. The "usual walls" are both real and metaphorical boundaries: between truth and lies, faith and power, conscience and career. The novel is characterized by a pointed, dialogue-rich narrative style. Irony and subtle sarcasm permeate the conversations. Religious formalities contrast with mundane, sometimes colloquial remarks, creating a satirical break. At the same time, Weinreich works with recurring metaphors – walls, rooms, doors – symbolizing insulation and institutional self-defense. Inner monologues and perspective shifts deepen the psychological dimensions of the characters, while detailed depictions of the Vatican and the Bavarian diocese attest to authenticity. This novel has the potential to trigger discussions about responsibility, credibility, and institutional self-isolation – and to remain memorable precisely because of its ironic sharpness. Gerhard Weinreich: born 1963. Physicist. Likes Schubert and suffers with BVB. Works in a forest. In a lung clinic. Sometimes writes novels. Ingrid Reidel reads from "The Dark Legacy of Matala"
Actually, journalist Iris Baumann just wants to write a harmless summer story. Light. Colorful. Non-committal. Matala appears to her like a postcard: a small Cretan village that once attracted hippies from all over the world and still lives on big words about freedom and love. Iris believes in it. Too much. Sun, anecdotes, a little nostalgia, exactly what you want to read in summer. But what she considers folklore is actually a disguise. And what she overlooks, she has long been observing. Behind the colorful facades, behind slogans of freedom and love, something else lurked. Something darker. When she stumbles upon a secret cult that has been operating in secret for decades, her journey turns into a deadly nightmare. In a web of betrayal, dark rituals, and an eerie power, a race for survival begins.
Ingrid Reidel was a very normal housewife until she found an urn in her grandmother's house. That changed everything. Now she writes crime stories as profound as the furrows in her face... or as diverse as her hats.

Highlights

• Reading by Ingrid Noll, the Grand Dame of German crime literature
• Event as part of the Weinheim Literature Festival 2026
• Noll reads from her best stories

General Information

Ingrid Noll, an internationally renowned author, presents a selection of her most famous works at the Weinheim Literature Festival 2026. At 91 years old, she shares her passion for writing and language with the audience at the Weinheim District Court.

Location

Ehretstraße 11, 69469 Weinheim, Germany

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