CAROLIN EMCKE "What Counts as a Human?"

Description

12th Heidelberg Literature Autumn | Festival Theme Focus #HUMAN CAROLIN EMCKE "What Counts as a Human?" In Conversation with Prof. Dr. Stefanie Schüler-Springorum Reading and Discussion December 5, 2026, 8:00 PM, Karlstorbahnhof (Hall) A cooperation of Heidelberg Literature Autumn and Karlstorbahnhof Heidelberg "What Counts as a Human?" What does radical humanism mean? Are there limits to empathy for others? What obligations does remembrance of history impose on us? Are there limits to the duty to speak in the name of human rights? Or should nothing prevent us from perceiving others as part of the universal whole? Carolin Emcke has already asked herself these questions before October 7 and Gaza. But since then, they have become even more urgent. Ultimately, it is about the existential question: What counts as a human? Carolin Emcke discusses this with the renowned historian, director of the Center for Antisemitism Research at TU Berlin, and author Stefanie Schüler-Springorum. Born in 1967, Carolin Emcke studied philosophy in London, Frankfurt/Main, and Harvard. She earned her doctorate on the concept of 'collective identities.' From 1998 to 2013, she traveled worldwide to crisis regions and reported on them. In 2003/2004, she was a visiting lecturer for political theory at Yale University. She is a freelance publicist and repeatedly engages in artistic projects and interventions, including the theme days "Telling War" at the House of World Cultures. For over ten years, she has organized and moderated the monthly discussion series "Streitraum" at the Schaubühne Berlin. She has received multiple awards for her work, including the Theodor Wolff Prize, the Otto Brenner Prize for critical journalism, the Lessing Prize of the Free State of Saxony, and the Merck Prize of the German Academy for Language and Literature. In 2016, she received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. "What Counts as a Human?" (published 2026, S. Fischer) is her latest book, a bestseller. "Emcke's texts keep alive the question of whether it is indifferent when people are drowned out and fall silent, while others loudly exercise their power." Elisabeth von Thadden, DIE ZEIT Stefanie Schüler-Springorum is an author, historian, and since 2011 director of the Center for Antisemitism Research at TU Berlin, as well as co-director of the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg since 2012. Previously, she worked at the Topography of Terror Foundation and led the Institute for the History of German Jews in Hamburg from 2001 to 2011. Her latest book, "Unerwünscht. Die westdeutsche Demokratie und die Verfolgten des NS-Regimes," presents the post-war West German society from the perspective of those persecuted under National Socialism. It tells a largely overlooked history and describes the experiences of surviving Jews, Sinti and Roma, former forced laborers, and homosexuals in West Germany during the first decades after the war.

Highlights

• Reading and discussion with Carolin Emcke
• In dialogue with Prof. Dr. Stefanie Schüler-Springorum
• Theme: What counts as a human?

General Information

On December 5, 2026, a reading and discussion with Carolin Emcke will take place at the Karlstorbahnhof Cultural Center in Heidelberg. As part of the 12th Heidelberg Literature Autumn, the question of the value of human life and the limits of empathy will be discussed.

Location

Marlene-Dietrich-Platz 3, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

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