In memory of Hanjo Kesting

We mourn the loss of the great cultural publicist and friend of the Lausitz Festival Hanjo Kesting, who died in Hamburg on 20 February shortly after his 82nd birthday.

Starting out from literature, Kesting has spent his life exploring art in its many forms. With great expertise and mischievous humour, he always made surprising and illuminating cross-connections. He possessed the intellectual calibre and the necessary playful, lively spirit to casually build great bridges, even between supposedly distant subjects.

The audience at the Lausitz Festival benefited from his unpretentious expertise and his joy in thinking, recognising and formulating at some unforgettable events. In the 2022 edition of the festival, for example, Hanjo Kesting wittily commented on Voltaire's amusing key work of the same name at a literary evening in the Altes Stadthaus Cottbus, which accompanied the performance of Leonard Bernstein's »Candide«, which Bernstein had used as the basis for his opera. In the same year, Kesting presented variations on the myth of the water creature in a literary matinee on Melusine, Undine and other mermaids at Branitz Castle. The following year, he organised the evening around Arthur Schnitzler's novella »Fräulein Else«, but his remarks and insights already had to be presented by Frank Arnold, as Kesting's cancer made it impossible for him to appear in person.

We take a bow to Hanjo Kesting, this friendly grand seigneur of the mind, to whom we owe some wonderful and enriching hours at the Lausitz Festival. He will continue to speak to us through his numerous books.