About this Event
© The Indigo Press / Irmeli Jung
Deutsches Haus at NYU and Goethe Institut New York presents a reading by Anne Weber from her book (Indigo Press, 2025, translated by Neil Blackadder), followed by a conversation between her and the book's translator Neil Blackadder, which will be moderated by the author and literary translator Tess Lewis. The conversation will focus on Anne Weber’s deeply personal reckoning with what it means to be German, how the past continues to manifest in the present, how this “Zeitreisetagebuch” (Diary of Time Travel) came to be, and finally, how the translation from German to English was facilitated by the author and translator.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and there will be a book signing following the program.
Originally published in German in 2015, Anne Weber's "Ahnen: Ein Zeitreisetagebuch" is now available in English in a beautiful translation by Neil Blackadder. How do you live with a history you can’t escape? What did it mean to be German one hundred years ago? And what is it like today? These are the questions at the heart of Sanderling, a classic work of literary inquiry by Anne Weber, one of Germany’s leading contemporary authors.
Weber embarks on a personal journey into the past to uncover the life of her great-grandfather Florens Christian Rang (1864–1924), whom she nicknames Sanderling after the darting shorebird. A Protestant pastor in Prussian-ruled Poland, Rang served a church whose mission to “Germanise” the local population would later be echoed in the murderous ambitions of the Third Reich.
After leaving the church, Sanderling moved in the circles of Walter Benjamin, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Martin Buber. He joined a group of writers, artists, and philosophers who dreamed of a utopian society, even as one of his sons, Weber’s grandfather, would go on to become a Nazi.
By deciphering his letters and diaries, and travelling in his footsteps to Poland, Weber traces the contradictions and crises, the reckonings and departures of a complex legacy. With literary and philosophical references including Sontag, Sebald and Nietzsche, Weber combines her family history with a broader examination of ethics and morality to create a travel diary through time, reaching back to understand her ancestors.
About the participants:
is an author, and a translator into both French and German. She studied in Paris and has worked for several publishers. She has written a dozen books, each in a German and French version. Her book Epic Annette has been translated into 15 languages and won the 2020 German Book Prize. She has also been awarded the Annette-von-Droste-Hülshoff-Preis and the Joseph-Breitbach-Preis. Anne Weber is currently the Max Kade Foundation writer-in-residence at Deutsches Haus at NYU.
translates drama and prose from German and French. His translations of plays by Lukas Bärfuss, Ewald Palmetshofer, Rebekka Kricheldorf, and Mishka Lavigne have been produced in London, New York, Chicago, and other cities. His translations have been published in many journals and books and he has received grants from the NEA, PEN, and the Howard Foundation. In 2023, Neil served as Translator in Residence at Princeton University. His translation of Anne Weber’s non-fiction book Sanderling will be published in the US in February.
is a translator from French and German. Her translations include works by Peter Handke, Walter Benjamin, Lutz Seiler, Jonas Lüscher, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and Montaigne. Her translation of Maja Haderlap’s Angel of Oblivion won the ACFNY Translation Prize and the 2017 PEN Translation Award. A Guggenheim and Berlin Prize fellow and an American Library in Paris Scholar of Note, she is an Advisory Editor for The Hudson Review and co-curator of the Festival Neue Literatur, New York City’s annual festival of German language literature in English.
Attendance:
While NYU has ended COVID-19 related restrictions and policies, we continue to remind and recommend to members of the NYU community that they stay up-to-date on their boosters and stay home if they feel sick. Masks are always welcome.
Accessibility:
The first floor of Deutsches Haus at NYU, where our auditorium is located and where a majority of our events take place, can be made wheelchair accessible through the use of our ramp. If you would like for a Deutsches Haus staff member to set up this ramp for you, please call our Front Desk at +1 212-998-8660 upon your arrival. For any other accessibility-related questions or concerns, please email us at [email protected] or call us at +1 212-998-8660.
"'Sanderling:' An Evening with Anne Weber, Neil Blackadder, and Tess Lewis " is funded by the DAAD from funds of the German Federal Foreign Office (AA) and the Max Kade Foundation.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Deutsches Haus At New York University, 42 Washington Mews, New York, United States
USD 0.00
