Sax Royal: Schöne Höhen, fiese Tiefen

It has now become a cherished tradition: Every summer, the Dresden-based reading group Sax Royal hosts a special open-air reading at the German Hygiene Museum. This year, the literary collective—represented on stage this time by Michael Bittner, Max Rademann, and Gesine Schäfer —will present a program tailored to the current exhibition“How’s It Going?”

The audience can look forward to stories, poems, and songs that wittily explore what our brains and minds get up to in our daily lives. The program will focus on the “quirky” people we encounter in everyday life, the emotional holes we fall into and how to climb out of them again, and the pitfalls of the euphoria our hormones bring us.

This time’s guest author for the summer guest performance is Jochen Schmidt, co-founder of the Berlin reading stage “Chaussee der Enthusiasten” and author of numerous short story collections, novels, and travel books. His latest novel, *Hoplopoiia*, was published in 2025 by C.H. Beck. In it, Schmidt portrays the urban neurotic Richard Sparka—and our society, marked by overwhelming demands and isolation.