Samuel Beckett: The German Room at the University Library Regensburg

Beckett's German Resonance Room: An exhibition that makes literature audible and visible

In Regensburg, the University Library opens a rare chapter of European modernity: Samuel Beckett: The German Room. From September 22, 2025, to July 31, 2026, the exhibition unfolds a multifaceted art experience about language, translation, and cultural transfer – precisely curated, rich in sources, and accompanied by an educational program.

Work Reflection in a Closed Space

The exhibition atmosphere ties into Beckett's stage spaces: focused, reduced, full of quiet tension. Visitors experience manuscripts, publisher correspondence, and visual testimonies that condense the spatial effect of the presentation – light on paper fibers, shadows on typescript, materials with traces of time. This aesthetic experience makes Beckett's work with form, silence, and intertext visible.

Beckett in German: Translating as Art

A focus is on the translations by Elmar and Erika Tophoven – key figures in the German-language reception. Their philological precision, documented in notes and correspondence, shows how fields of words, pauses, and sound colors become comparable to painting and music. Translating appears here as an artistic practice between art direction, epoch, and performativity.

Beckett in Germany: Travel, Radio, Direction

Stations in Berlin and Stuttgart, studio work for broadcasting corporations, directing projects: The exhibition traces Beckett's relationships with German culture and frames them art-historically. From early visits to late directing work, a cultural history of modernity emerges in which literature, theater, and media art speak to each other.

Publishers and Visual Art: From Suhrkamp to Manus Press

Especially rare: the first focused collaboration with the Stuttgart publisher Roland Hänßel. Five publications from Manus Press – partly with graphics by contemporary artists like Max Ernst – connect text, printing technique, and visual art into editorial artworks. Here, curation becomes the edition history in space.

Framework Program: Research Meets Audience

The exhibition includes lectures, film presentations, concerts, and a one-day conference in January 2026. The program offers amateurs and researchers in-depth work reflections and conveys cultural education – an invitation to actively explore Beckett's language, sound, and silence.

Visitor Voices

The visitors' reactions are clear: The German Room excites art lovers. On Facebook, a visitor writes: 'Never experienced such concentrated proximity to the work – each page breathes contemporary history.' On X, an art lover comments: 'Precise curation, strong spatial effect, compelling translation finds.'

Conclusion

Those who want to read Beckett anew should see him: In the upper foyer of the central library, the art of language condenses into sensual presence. Admission free, long opening hours, barrier-free access – ideal conditions for an intense work reflection. Experience the exhibition live and expand your understanding of European modernity.

Official Channels of the University Library Regensburg:

• Instagram: No official profile found
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ubregensburg
• YouTube: No official profile found
• Website: https://www.uni-regensburg.de/bibliothek/veranstaltungen/samuel-beckett/index.html

Sources:

• University Library Regensburg – Samuel Beckett: The German Room
• University Regensburg – Event Calendar: The German Room
• UB Regensburg – News from the UB, December 2025
• The Samuel Beckett Society – Exhibition and Program
• Beckett Society Kassel – Exhibition Announcement
• City Regensburg Cultural Database – University Library
• UB Regensburg – Barrier-Free Paths