Lecture
Thursday, May 27, 2010, 7 PM

Peter Zilahy

Author, Budapest/Berlin; Albert-Einstein-Fellow 2009

TEMPTATION MONUMENT. Berlin’s Secret Quest for a Cathedral

Péter Zilahy presents his original take on Berlin’s architectural story from the point of view of the lacking cathedral. The audience will get to know why Berlin never had a cathedral and why several of its railway stations and public buildings were built to resemble cathedrals. The author presently lives in Berlin and has been visiting the town for the past 25 years and witnessed the social and architectural changes. Germany’s biggest city has been the symbol of division in the cold war with massive propaganda machines operating on each side and also served as a testground for many brutal and some more sophisticated architectual ideas. Its urban space was used – more than any other town in Europe – to prove ideas to be right or wrong. Will this ever change? What is the reason behind this quest for identity?

Péter Zilahy is one of Hungary’s most exciting, diverse writers. Originally a poet, he also writes prose, drama, essays, is a photographer and does live performances. He recently performed a sell-out show at Symphony Space on New York’s Broadway. The polyglot author presently lives in Berlin, where he publishes essays in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, but he also writes pieces for The Guardian, The Financial Times and The New York Times. His cult novel, The Last Window Giraffe has been translated into more than 20 languages. It’s won multiple awards, as well as having been adapted into an interactive CD-ROM and a live stage performance.

The event will be held in English