StadtLesen in Offenburg and the Markant Group simply belong together

Opening 

Successful start: the four-day event StadtLesen was opened at Offenburg marketplace in the best weather by Franz-Friedrich Müller, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Markant AG, the deputy mayor Hans-Peter Kopp and the initiator of StadtLesen Sebastian Mettler.

School competition «Wortartist» (Verbal artist)

The award ceremony for winning short stories about «Respect» was then held by John Grewe, CEO of Markant Deutschland GmbH, at the school competition «Wortartist 2022»:

1st place: Lina Graf | Grimmelshausen-Gymnasium | 12th Grade

2st place: Emira Pecklot | Klosterschulen Unserer Lieben Frau | 10th Grade

3rd place: Tara Grosser | Schiller-Gymnasium | 11th Grade

Musical reading

The bibliophile highlight of the evening was the reading by Gerd Anthoff and his programme »Dorfbanditen«! He was accompanied musically by two members of the Munich philharmonic orchestra, Matthias Ambrosius and Quirin Willert. With the musical reading, Gerd Anthoff and the two musicians took the listeners back into the much-cited »good old days« and showed them that not everything was better back then. The music always reflected the basic character of the stories that were read, and in doing so, combines the texts to form a literary and musical work of art.

Book donation to Ukrainian refugee children

Books allow people to explore different worlds and to forget everything around them for a moment. Reading can help to distract you at least for a time, especially in difficult moments. Book donations in Ukrainian were handed over to approximately 20 Ukrainian refugee children on Friday lunchtime by Mark Michaelis, CEO of Markant Services International GmbH. The campaign was organised by Markant employee Oksana Karpik in cooperation with the bookstore Akzente.

Markant Poetry-Slam Vol. No. 2

The popular Markant Poetry Slam also took place at the «StadtLesen» event for the second time on Friday evening. The competition was again hosted by the native «Slammer» Philipp Stroh from Offenburg. Eight participants presented texts they had written themselves and the audience could vote on who makes it into the final! In the end, the «Slammers» Andrea Maria Fahrenkampf and Lenny Felling won. 

Special highlight: the reading hairdresser

Courageous visitors of «StadtLesen» were also able to decide on the spur of the moment to get a new haircut: the mobile reading hairdresser and winner of the 2021 German Reading Prize Danny Beuerbach voluntarily cut hair for a story in return.

Relaxed atmosphere in the Markant reading room

The four days of StadtLesen in Offenburg went by in a flash again! The outdoor reading event full of interesting artists, exciting books and great company again had a great deal to offer from Thursday to Sunday evening: there was the chance to read and listen, there was free ice cream and air balloons for the young visitors and a photo box to capture memories of the event. Many Markant employees helped at the event. But there was no reason to be sad, because as our Chairman of the Board of Directors Franz-Friedrich Müller explained: «We already have the next 10 years of StadtLesen with Markant Group to look forward to!».