“A significant and curious literary event”: The foundation of the Bielefeld Colloquium for New Poetry

The public reading in the Kunsthalle turned out to be a “significant curious literary event” (Westfalen-Blatt of 13 February 1978) with an unexpectedly large audience and lively atmosphere. These public events spontaneously came into being almost by chance in 1978. They featured renowned representatives of concrete poetry such as Ernst Jandl, Helmut Heißenbüttel, Friederike Mayröcker, Oskar Pastior, Franz Mon or Gerhard Rühm. In the following years, they developed into a popular “festival of experimental literature”, making Bielefeld the European capital of poetry once a year.

Despite its success and the reputation it had gained, the colloquium had always stood on shaky financial ground and after 25 years the event was drawn to a close with little fanfare and great care by the Bielefeld literary scholars Professor Dr. Jörg Drews und Professor Dr. Klaus Ramm.

„Silent Self-Dissolution“
After 25 successful years, the colloquium ended in “silent self-dissolution” in 2002, still with the improvised and informal style that had characterised it since its inception. There were no sponsors in sight and Drews and Ramm were heading for retirement. The last colloquium, which was as lively, controversial, illuminating and challenging as ever, and was certainly not just a veteran meeting of a vanishing literary form, was concluded with a typically unpretentious “thank you” and “good night”.