Danube – Strong Currents and Between Worlds
From 2026, Leipzig Book Fair will incorporate a variety of curated focus topics as a fixed part of its programme – open to all subject matters, both international and social. The coming year will kick off with the diverse literature of the Danube region. Under the slogan “Danube – Strong Currents and Between Worlds”, book presentations, discussions and debates will take place on a dedicated stage in Hall 4 on all days of the fair. The programme, curated by Stephan Ozsváth, is being developed in collaboration with partners such as the German Federal Foreign Office, the German Federal Agency for Civic Education, the Goethe Institute, TRADUKI, the City of Leipzig and cultural institutions in the participating countries, and shows where stories in the Danube region connect or divide: literarily, historically, socially and politically.
Close to 3,000 kilometers of Danube – that is Europe's flow: It springs up in the Black Forest and runs through ten European countries – Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Rumania, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine – before it opens out into the Black Sea in the Danube Delta.
Main subject areas
The Danube programme at Leipzig Book Fair 2026 will take place on a stage created specifically for this purpose. Book presentations, talks, panel discussions and other formats will bring the Danube region to life and will be curated around the following key topics:
Between bridges and borders
The Danube is both a natural border and a connecting element. As a transport route, it has always facilitated migration, trade and cultural exchange. At the same time, it repeatedly acts as a dividing line: between rich people, nations and ideologies. This ambivalent character also shapes the literature along the Danube. At Leipzig Book Fair, this tension is addressed as a complex of themes in literary, historical and socio-political terms. Authors from the region discuss the Danube as a border, symbol and space of experience.
Cultures, conflicts, forces – identity in transition
Leipzig Book Fair focuses on everything that is happening or has happened socially, historically and politically on both sides of the Danube. The book fair presents the literary diversity of the Danube countries, their differences and similarities, their joys and their horrors. The invited authors provide deep insights into this ambivalence and bring to life for the audience the developments that have shaped the Danube region both historically and in the present day.
Water lines – living spaces and dreams
The Danube as a migration route is one of the four central themes of the focus topic. This aspect shapes Danube literature in many ways, whether in the form of flight, labour migration or return to the old homeland. The events on the Danube Stage bring this complexity to life for the audience.
About the curator Stephan Ozsváth
- *1965 in Andernach
- education in Berlin, Granada, Debrecen, Madrid
- worked as an ARD correspondent for South-Eastern Europe, Mexico and Poland
- writes books, trains journalists and hosts the RBB literature podcast “Orte und Worte” (Places and Words) with two colleagues
- lives and works near Vienna and in Berlin
Our partners
Advertising materials
Use our free information and advertising materials to make the Focus Topic visible.
Easily order our print advertising materials by filling out the online form!