Poet Houses in the Balic Sea Area

‘To grasp what a writer has to say, you need to journey to his country’ wrote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe some 200 years ago. This international literature project is designed to invite people to journey to the places where some of the Baltic Sea Region’s great writers lived and worked. Initiated by the small town Klütz in north-eastern Germany and supported by the ministry of education, science and culture of the state Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania, the project provides a basis for common activities and international exchange, creating links between writers’ houses around the Baltic Sea.

These places where outstanding writers lived and worked attract both tourists and visitors with a general literary interest. The houses are more than just museums, they have become places for learning and research, venues for readings and exhibitions. In order to promote these values and to encourage joint initiatives, the town Klütz published a brochure in which the participating partners present themselves. In the future, the new cultural connection is ought to be tightened through more co-operations.

However, already today, the poet houses around the Baltic Sea are offering inspiration and information. In Klütz for example, you can visit the Literaturhaus ‘Uwe Johnson’, a memorial for the German writer located in an old granary. As the regime of the former German Democratic Republic did not like Johnson’s critical views, his work used to be ignored there for a long time. The new house that just opened in April 2006 is now going to change this.

The participating poet houses are the following:

• Literaturhaus "Uwe Johnson" in Klütz, Germany (in German)
• Gerhard-Hauptmann-Haus in Kloster/Hiddensee, Germany (in German)
• Koeppenhaus in Greifswald, Germany (in German)
• Kustavi, the home village of Volter Kilpi, Finland (in Finish)
• Strindberg-Museum in Stockholm, Sweden (in English)
• Ibsen-Museum in Grimstad, Norway (in Norwegian)
• Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odenberg, Denmark (in English)
• Buddenbrook-Haus in Lübeck, Germany (in German)
• Günter Grass-Haus in Lübeck, Germany (in German)