Nearby. A utopia of the small town?

When: April 22, 2026, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Apollo Görlitz, guest performance

More information is available here.

Is the small town a place of the future—a place where the shape of society can both be observed and shaped? Long neglected by politics and the media, it is now precisely the “provinces”—the villages and small- and medium-sized towns in rural areas—that are experiencing a surge in attention. Here, as if under a magnifying glass, we can observe pressing issues and challenges that are driving societal change and transformation: whether it’s demographics and public services, or migration and social cohesion; whether it’s coming to terms with our own past, the importance of community, or the relationship between East and West, city and countryside, center and periphery.

But: How—and from what perspectives—do we view the lived worlds of small towns? What can we learn from the experiences of small-town residents regarding issues affecting society as a whole? We will explore these and other questions at Apollo together with author and FAZ journalist Simon Strauß on the occasion of his latest book, *In der Nähe* —bringing together perspectives from literature, social sciences, and urban planning to engage with both history and the present.

Program Schedule
6:00 p.m. Welcome and Introduction: Utopias and Dystopias of the Small Town—Literature, Planning, Society
6:15 p.m. Marc Weiland: Fictions of Manageability . Small Towns in Literature and the Media
6:30 PM Heidi Pinkepank: Short Distances, Multifunctional Spaces, Social Manageability—The Small Town from an Urban Planning Perspective
6:45 PM Julia Gabler: Presence : Near Yet Distant. Sociological commentary

- Break -

7:30 PM Simon Strauß reads from “In der Nähe. Vom politischen Wert einer ostdeutschen Sehnsucht”
followed by: Panel discussion and Q&A with the audience

Julia Gabler is a sociologist and has been conducting research since 2015 at the Institute for Transformation, Housing, and Social Spatial Development at the Zittau-Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, focusing on topics such as structural change processes and regional development. In this capacity, she has led several research projects and initiated participatory processes. Her PhD thesis focused on shrinking industrial cities.

Heidi Pinkepank is the managing director of the Institute for New Industrial Culture (INIK) GmbH. She studied landscape architecture in Erfurt and Vilnius, as well as World Heritage Studies at the BTU Cottbus. At INIK, Heidi focuses, among other things, on post-mining landscapes in Lausitz, returnees to small towns, and the significance of culture in structural change.

Simon Strauß is a writer and journalist for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He studied Classics and History in Basel, Poitiers, and Cambridge and is a co-founder of the group Arbeit an Europa. His most recent literary works include *Sieben Nächte* (2017), *Römische Tage* (2019), and *Zu Zweit* (2023). *In der Nähe* (2025) is his first nonfiction book, for which he conducted extensive research in the small Brandenburg town of Prenzlau.

Marc Weiland is an adjunct professor of literary studies at Zittau-Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and has been studying literary and media narratives of rural spaces for several years. He is the founder of the book series *Rurale Topografien* published by Transcript-Verlag and has edited, among others, the books *Topografische Leerstellen* (2018), *Kleinstadtliteratur* (2020), and *Die Zukunft auf dem Land* (2022).

An event presented by the Gerhart Hauptmann Theater Görlitz-Zittau in cooperation with the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the Georg-August University of Göttingen.