Culture Island of Föhr Summer
Reading with Jochen Missfeldt
24 September 2025, 7 pm
Shortly after Theodor Storm married his fiancée Constanze Esmarch in 1846, he entered into a passionate love affair with the eighteen-year-old Doris Jensen. Like him, she comes from Husum and is the daughter of the wealthy timber merchant and senator Peter Jensen.
Like him, she comes from Husum and is the daughter of the wealthy timber merchant and senator Peter Jensen. His family, like Storm's maternal family, is part of the Husum patriciate: they visit each other, drink tea and punch and play whist and L'Hombre.
The love between the two is a heavy burden for Storm's young marriage. It was not until 1848, when Constanze was three months pregnant, that Doris left Husum - probably under pressure from her family superiors. For her, a fifteen-year odyssey begins, a time of learning and self-assertion. But the love affair continues, and when Constanze dies unexpectedly after the birth of her seventh child, the two finally find each other.
To tell this moving story of a woman's life in the 19th century, Jochen Missfeldt draws on his extensive knowledge as a biographer of Storm - on letters, novellas and poems, on newspaper reports, testimonies and historical sources in general. But even more is based on invention, empathy and imagination. The landscape, weather and sea, which he describes masterfully, underpin the whole, lending it sensuality and poetry.
FöhrerLesen in cooperation with the Hotel Upstalsboom Wyk auf Föhr
Admission free - however, we kindly ask you to free ticket booking via ticket2go as a reservation and admission control.
Further information: www.föhr-erLesen.de
Photo credit: Ilse Clausen
An exciting interplay of contrasts unfolds between choppy seas and a mirror-smooth sea: Stories tell of the brute force of a hurricane, of sudden calm, of the pulsating life of summer or of the deep winter silence that settles over the island.
The Föhr erlesen literature festival opens its doors for the fifth time from 19 to 27 September 2025. It invites you to explore the interplay of storm and silence in literature and life as well as to listen to the words that oscillate between these extremes and open up new perspectives. The weather determines everyday life, just as inexorably as the ebb and flow of the tide. That's just the way it is. The people here know that the two are inseparable - unpredictable forces of nature and those moments of calm when time seems to flow more slowly.
To kick off the Book Days and as a member of the jury for the story competition for Föhr primary school children, the Föhr erLesen team was able to win over bestselling author Stephan Schäfer, who will be reading from his novel "25 Last Summers".
In keeping with the theme, renowned Storm expert Jochen Missfeldt and author Silke von Bremen will also enrich the programme with readings, and numerous events are planned again this year in cooperation with a wide range of partners, including Föhr Touristik, the Nieblum spa administration, the Dr. Carl Häberlin Friesen Museum, the Ferring Foundation, the town library, the St. Johanniskirche e.V. support association, the Hospiz Initiative Föhr-Amrum e.V. and the VHS Föhr. Another highlight is the planned awarding of the fourth Föhr Poetry Prize. In addition to Peter M. Röhm, Jochen Gemeinhardt and Amelie Ahrens, Britta Cathleen Krebs, winner of the 2023 Poetry Prize, has been added to the jury.
We will publish the programme at the beginning of May - it will be exciting!
