Berlin: Literary evening dedicated to Laza Lazarević
This event was organised with the aim of presenting his work to a wider audience after the erection of a memorial plaque in Schumannstraße in the centre of Berlin, on the building where he lived from 1872 to 1879 during his medical studies at Friedrich Wilhelm University.
The event was attended by guests from German institutions, cultural and academic circles, Slavic scholars, students of the Serbian language, as well as representatives of the diaspora and media.
In welcoming the guests, Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia in Berlin Snežana Janković, spoke about the great contribution of Laza Lazarević as the founder of realism in Serbian literature and about the traces he left in medicine. She pointed out that on that day, 140 years after his stay in Berlin, the Serbs were proud to celebrate his work and his humanity, illuminating in this way the rich tradition of cultural and educational ties between Serbia and Germany.
Dr. Vesna Cidilko, Slavic scholar and retired professor at Humboldt University, and prof. Gordana Ilić-Marković from the Institute of Slavic Studies at the University of Vienna spoke about the life and work of Laza Lazaravić, as well as the perception of his work in Germany, whereas their students read excerpts from Lazarević's most famous literary works in Serbian and German. On this occasion a translation of the famous short story “Švabica” (The German Girl), which has not been translated into German so far was presented for the first time and the translation was made by prof. Gordana Ilić-Marković and students of the Institute of Slavic Studies at the University of Vienna.
The guests were also addressed by Wolf von Moltke, the owner of the building on which the memorial plaque to Laza Lazarević was placed, as well as Milan Čobanov, President of the Central Council of Serbs, who spoke about plans to organise an exhibition about Laza Lazarević and other famous Serbs.
After the official programme, a cocktail party was held.