2026: Daniel Kelhmann, “The Long Night Comes to an End”

March 5, 2026

Daniel Kehlmann, “The Long Night Comes to an End”

Columbia University Mosse Lecture
mosselectures.wisc.edu/columbia

Thursday, 5 March 2026, 18:00 EST

Deutsches Haus
420 W 116th St.
New York, NY 10027

Chair: Oliver Simons (Columbia University)
Comment: Johannes von Moltke (University of Michigan)

Sponsored by:
Global Mosse Lecture Series
The Mosse Foundation
Columbia University Department of Germanic Languages
Deutsches Haus at Columbia

Lecture Description: For good reason, there is currently a great deal of discussion about how a society that has lost its democratic freedom can find its way back. Less thought is given to what that “afterward” might actually look like in concrete terms. Here German literature offers suggestive points of reference. Alfred Döblin, Heinrich Böll, Heimito von Doderer, Georg Kreisler, and Ingeborg Bachmann wrote, from different perspectives, about what constitutes the framework of a society in which perpetrators and victims are forced by circumstances to live side by side, and silence about the crimes becomes an imperative that is meant to make society’s very functioning possible. Every “long night comes to an end, ” as the title of Alfred Döblin’s last novel has it—but what, in fact, does such a day after actually look like?

Lecture Series Description: Each year the annual Mosse Lecture, presented by the Columbia Department of Germanic Languages, seeks to honor the legacy of the progressive Mosse publishing house founded by Rudolf Mosse, which helped to shape the democratic public sphere during the German Weimar Republic. Descendants of the Mosse Family include Prof. George L Mosse, the acclaimed historian of fascism, Dr. Hilde L. Mosse, a distinguished child psychiatrist who worked with Harlem children suffering from reading disabilities, Hans Strauch, an accomplished architect, and Roger Strauch, a successful high technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Hans and Roger co-lead The Mosse Foundation’s efforts to sustain and promote the Mosse Family’s philanthropic legacy to support distinguished educational, research, health, and arts institutions and progressive causes.

Oliver Simons delivers opening remarks — Deutsches Haus

**Daniel Kehlmann** is an award-winning author whose internationally acclaimed novels, including *Measuring the World* and *Tyll*, have been translated into over forty languages. His latest novel, *The Director*, about the Austrian filmmaker G.W. Pabst and the Nazi era, is widely praised as one of the most important books of the year.

Annette Hornischer / American Academy in Berlin / Johannes von Moltke / 2024 01 25

**Johannes von Moltke** is the Rudolf Arnheim Collegiate Professor of German Studies and Film, TV, and Media at the University of Michigan. He has published widely on German film and cultural studies, critical theory, fascism, and the rise of the new right.

**Oliver Simons** studied German literature, cultural studies, and philosophy at Humboldt-University in Berlin, where he received his Dr.phil. in 2005. His teaching and research interests focus on literature and science, post-colonial studies, the “end” around 1800, and literary theories. His first book, a comparative study on spatial concepts in philosophy, empirical psychology, art history, and literature around 1900, appeared in 2007: *Raumgeschichten: Topographien der Moderne in Philosophie, Wissenschaft und Literatur* (Wilhelm Fink Verlag). His second monograph, a book on literary theories, was published in 2009 (*Literaturtheorien zur Einführung*, Junius Verlag). He has co-edited volumes on German colonialism (Francke Verlag 2002), *Kafkas Institutionen* (2007), *Ingeborg Bachmann and the media* (2008), and *The Oxford Handbook of Carl Schmitt* (2017). His most recent book, *Literary Conclusions: The Poetics of Ending in Lessing, Goethe, and Kleist* examines how textual endings around 1800 correspond with theories of causality and conclusion. He is currently completing two monographs, *Reading as Method* and *Understanding Theory*. Oliver is also the editor of the peer-reviewed journal *The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory*.