Literary highlights in January

This year, too, begins with fresh ideas and forward-looking perspectives, always following the chime of the Grossmünster bells at 6 pm in the bay window of the ‘Karl der Grosse’. The first winter address will be delivered by Christian Huser, Mayor of the City of Zurich; as an entrepreneur, he is committed to preserving and promoting the dual education system. Further speakers on the following dates:

Saphir Ben Dakon, communications and inclusion expert; Philippe Koch, City Councillor for Housing; Franz Hohler, author; Anja Derungs, Managing Director of the Zurich Women’s Shelter Foundation; Emma Hodcroft, Assistant Professor at the University of Basel, Co-Founder of Pathoplexus, Dr Yuvviki Dioh, Diversity Officer, Anita Borer, Member of the Cantonal Parliament and communications specialist, Maya Tharian, Co-President of JGLP Switzerland, MSc student in Circular Economy Management, Hannan Salamat, Curator and Cultural Strategist at the Zurich Institute for Interreligious Dialogue

1816: the ‘Year Without a Summer’ at Lord Byron’s house on Lake Geneva. A group of young English holidaymakers, including the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his fiancée and future wife Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, pass the time in the face of the bad weather with ghost stories and semi-scientific discussions. It is here that the 19-year-old invents the story of the young Swiss scientist Dr Victor Frankenstein, who succeeds in creating an artificial human being who cruelly interferes in the life of his creator.

Excerpts from this brilliant creation by a young woman are read by the equally young ZHdK graduate Ann-Kathrin Stengel; accompanying her at this evening séance is the Galatea Quartet, performing string quartets by Philip Glass and others.

To mark the start of the International Year of Pastures and Shepherds, storytellers Cornelia Gilgen, Karin Elmer, Margrith Skamradt and Sabine Balmer whisk us away into the world of fables and fairy tales for adults and children aged 10 and over. These centuries-old traditions from all over the world have lost none of their relevance and tackle existential human themes in a funny, exciting and sometimes thought-provoking way. They entertain, impart wisdom and allow us to immerse ourselves in our own fantasy world. Fairy tales and stories for adults and children aged 10 and over.

It’s the 1970s, and Catharina has no intention of conforming. With her close-knit circle of female friends, a few gin and tonics and even more cigarettes, the politician Catharina Cornelius manoeuvres her way through the quagmire of the old boys’ elite in Bonn in the late 1970s with captivating intelligence. But when the Liberal is unexpectedly appointed Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor, her taken-by-surprise colleagues in the highest government circles rub their eyes in disbelief.

Author Heike Specht talks to Marah Rikli on stage at sphères about her latest book. Specht studied history and literature in Munich. She wrote her doctoral thesis on the Lion Feuchtwanger family and worked for several years as a publishing editor.

In the footsteps of nostalgia: does it keep us trapped in the past, or does it also help us shape the future?

Cédric Weidmann – author, literary scholar and director of the Aargau Literature House in Lenzburg – explores the history of nostalgia and explains how the ‘Swiss disease’ has crept into visions of the future: for instance, into the revolutionary texts of the 18th century, the economic forecasts of the 19th, the philosophy of the 20th and the science fiction films of the 21st century. ‘Anticipation of Nostalgia. The Calculus of the Idealisation of Language and Capital’ (Verbrecher Verlag 2025) seeks to answer whether nostalgia is truly only regressive – or whether the idealisation, that filtered view of other times, might not also hold a productive perspective on the future.