There's the background anja. The upright christine. The mysterious erik. The imaginative ludwig or the tough sabine and the well-traveled wiga. She and others are united by the joy of writing, of weaving fine and coarse reading materials: "textweber bamberg" the men and women of different ages and professions call themselves "jugglers". They meet every monday evening for about an hour, and have been doing so for the past 16 years!
Juggling with language
"The textweavers grew out of a volkshochschule course on "creative writing" in 2004, tells renate steinhorst, who organizes the writing evenings. Since the continuation of this course did not find the required twelve participants, some authors looked for another solution. Because "writing and juggling with language together had given them so much fun", renate steinhorst looks back. At least the 75-year-old once turned writing into a profession: she was an editor and public relations officer and, in addition to a biographical account, has also written a guide to the city of bamberg and a volume of photographs of the world's cultural heritage.
Creative writing in the text weavers works like this: one of the group members takes turns suggesting a topic, and everyone writes whatever comes to mind spontaneously for 30 minutes. Renate steinhorst names some of the topics such as "finds", "when dreams fly away", "the misunderstanding or even "the madam. Afterwards the short stories will be read aloud. "We are open for praise and blame", says martin meyer, who joined the textweavers in 2008 and has stuck with it ever since. The exchange of ideas after the writing phase is at least as much fun, adds meyer. As are the public readings at which the textweavers present some of their best products: "no coarse literature", how renate steinhorst and martin meyer write, but a colorful kaleidoscope of stories, formulations and word games.
Martin meyer is certainly an exception among the text weavers. For he has turned his talent for writing into a profession. After studying law in bamberg, where he worked as a prosecutor and judge, he has been writing novels, short stories and poems since leaving the judiciary. His new work, hot off the press, is titled "the wrong karl valentin, a historical novel "close to crime without murder, as meyer explains, but with identity theft and imposture. Anecdotal occasion for the authors was the joint birthday 4. June: "karl valentin was born in 1882, i in 1967." And besides, according to meyer, he is a musician like valentin, who also mastered several instruments.
Letter to karl valentin
Martin meyer once wrote a letter to the comedian karl valentin and read it to the textweavers. The audience gave him a thoughtful and cheerful welcome. These now continue to weave their reading materials in the "mode macht mut" store in the luitpoldstrabe. Spinning threads, twisting them into friction-proof webs. And come gladly to readings also for small circles.