Classics!

Classics? A conversation that is as enjoyable as it is necessary

Goethe and Schiller, Hölderlin and Nietzsche: How are the classics faring? How can they assert themselves in an age that radically questions the certainties of our former culture and perceives books as merely one of many forms of media? What role do they still play, if any, in the theatre, or private reading? These are questions that are best put to Rüdiger Safranski. It is partly to his credit, following his E. T. A. Hoffmann biography in 1984, that a broad section of the public has started to read literary and philosophical classics. On the occasion of his 75th birthday on 1 January, 2020, he met his long-time publisher Michael Krüger and publicist Martin Meyer for a conversation that is not only about the classics, but also the role they play in our lives.