"Powder" - Author Reading with Johann Reißer

The former Rottweiler city clerk Johann Reißer tells in his gripping family and historical novel about the beginnings of the German arms industry, the big business of war and death, but also about the hopes and abysses behind it. During his stay as part of the Rottweiler city clerk scholarship in 2014, the author Johann Reißer stumbled upon the Rottweiler entrepreneur Max Duttenhofer. He was fascinated by this colorful figure, began to research and write, and now, with the publication of the novel, he returns to where it all began: the former industrial area in the Neckar Valley, which in its current form was largely shaped by Duttenhofer. In the Badhaus, he will present his novel "Pulver" on March 6 at 8 PM, one day after its release.

About the content: Everyone in the Black Forest town knows the cheeky Max, who prefers to hang out with the old powder miller instead of working in his parents' pharmacy. No one suspects that this ambitious boy will take over the powder mill and soon build an internationally operating corporation. His low-smoke gunpowder is a quantum leap for warfare and makes him one of the most powerful men in the Empire, orchestrating deals with Bismarck and Krupp and selling his powder as far as Japan. However, not everyone is pleased with how industrialization and nationalism are changing society. The arms race culminates in World War I, which his illegitimate granddaughter Rosa experiences as a worker in the powder factory. Traumatic experiences turn her into a fighter against militarism... This multi-voiced historical and family novel spans a bridge between the 19th and 21st centuries, touching on locations such as Rottweil, Stuttgart, Hamburg, and Berlin. Gripping until the last page, it traces the drive for acceleration and expansion of modernity and its transformation into destruction and violence, showing the fragmentation of society, growing social tensions, and political radicalization.

"Max Duttenhofer's existence has nearly been forgotten, yet he was one of the most powerful men in the Empire – and one of the most enigmatic." - Frank Thadeusz, DER SPIEGEL

Johann Reißer, born in 1979 in Regensburg, earned his doctorate in archaeology and sampling in poetry. Scholarships took him to Rottweil, Esslingen, Pfaffenhofen, Regensburg, and Wewelsfleth. For the manuscript of his debut novel "Pulver," he received the Berlin Senate Scholarship. Reißer teaches philosophy and creative writing and lives in Berlin. Admission: €5. Reservations via: Cultural Office Rottweil, Tel. 0741 494 219, kultur@rottweil.de