Reading: “Pulver” by Johann Reißer

The novel tells the story of an arms factory and its founder, the industrial magnate Max Duttenhofer (1843–1903), who invented low-smoke gunpowder and built up a global conglomerate within a few decades. His illegitimate granddaughter, Rosa, experiences the full force of the arms race during the First World War whilst working in the gunpowder factory.

*PULVER* is a historical and family novel that depicts how militarism and nationalism transform society. The invention by the Swabian Duttenhofer had a direct impact on the arms industry, which was massively expanded in Spandau, and on the rearmament policy decided upon in Berlin.

The reading will take place at the Spandau exhibition on the military industry in the Exerzierhalle; it will be accompanied by a guided tour, numerous photographs and an explicit invitation for questions from the audience.