Literature is history, literature is diversity. However, literature can also challenge and intimidate. This is the case with Thomas Mann's century novel "Buddenbrooks: Decline of a Family." In it, Mann develops a complex web of characters and motifs that presents challenges even to experienced readers.

This issue is addressed by actress Meike Rötzer. With her storytelling book publishing house and events throughout the German-speaking world, she has enriched the art of storytelling through a new form. Instead of presenting the novel in a classic reading, she narrates and experiences it. She unravels character webs and motif complexes, traces the actions, emotions, and thoughts of the characters, thereby opening up Mann's novel to the audience in a unique, unusual, and yet familiar way.

Musically accompanying her that evening is pianist and keyboardist Jacob Greenberg, who has performed throughout America and Europe as a long-time member of the "International Contemporary Ensemble." In a combination of his sounds and Rötzer's narration, the audience not only immerses itself in the story of the Buddenbrook family but also in the manor Haddenhausen, whose historically charged halls can embody the turbulent narrative like hardly any other place.