A Novel about Freedom — Told Freely: For the Literature Summer Schleswig-Holstein 2026, Meike Rötzer brings Tolstoy's classic to Lübeck. With Charlotte Balle on the violin.
"Freedom? What for freedom?" — this question leads straight into a story about love and desire, societal expectations, loneliness, and the search for another life. At the center is a woman who defies the limits of the role that others have assigned to her.
In the cultural church St. Petri in Lübeck, "Anna Karenina" will not be experienced as heavy required reading, but as a concentrated, sensual narrative in 90 minutes – freely adapted from Tolstoy and accompanied by live music.
Meike Rötzer is an actress, publisher, and audiobook narrator. From 2008 to 2022, she was an editor at Matthes & Seitz publishing house. In 2022, she founded the storytelling book publishing house, and in 2023 she was nominated for the German Audiobook Award as the best interpreter. In Lübeck, she has already captivated audiences with her interpretation of Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain."
Charlotte Balle was part of the State Orchestra Stuttgart, at the Hamburg State Opera, and with the Stuttgart Philharmonic. She is the first violinist of the string quartet Ladystrings and has performed on stages around the world with artists including Jon Lord, Michael Jackson, and Robbie Williams.
Advance ticket sales: via Luebeck-ticket.de
This is a collaboration between St. Petri in Lübeck and the Literature House Schleswig-Holstein. Funded by the Possehl Foundation and the Mellingen Foundation. The Literature Summer Schleswig-Holstein 2026 is conducted in cooperation with the State Commissioner for Political Education of Schleswig-Holstein and funded by the Ministry of General and Vocational Education, Science, Research, and Culture of Schleswig-Holstein, the state capital Kiel, and the Friends of the Literature House e.V.