Past events

The European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) and the Social Science Institute of the SWPS University of Warsaw invite you to the German-Polish networking event "Doing Democracy: Connecting Academia and Civil Society Across Borders" in Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice on Thursday and Friday, 23 and 24 April 2026, as part of the European Reform University Alliance (ERUA). For two days, the focus will be on impulses, dialogue and exchange in the field of democracy work across the German-Polish border. Interested parties are invited to take part in public discussion formats.

How is digitalisation changing the world of work, companies and family life? These are the questions addressed by the lecture series "Digitalisation in dialogue between campus and companies", which will take place at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) from Wednesday, 22 April. The aim of the series of events is to promote dialogue between students, academia and regional companies and to discuss current developments relating to digital transformation in a practical way.

The European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) is awarding the 25th Viadrina Prize to the bestselling author, actor and cabaret artist Steffen Möller. With this award, the university is honouring his literary work and his artistic achievements as an entertainer and actor, with which he has contributed in a special way to a deeper understanding between Germany and Poland for many years. The award ceremony, followed by a cabaret show and drinks reception, will take place on Thursday 21 May at 4 p.m. in the Kleist Forum.

Mr Michael Zaske, Head of the Health Department of the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Social Cohesion of the State of Brandenburg and the District Administrator of the Oder-Spree district, Mr Frank Steffen and other decision-makers from the @see region will present and discuss the "social infrastructure" from various perspectives.

A film about them became a hit: the Hamburg senior citizens' choir "Heaven can wait", whose members are all over 70 years old, will soon be performing at Frankfurt's Theaterhaus Kleist Forum. On April 18, 2026, the 35 or so singers, who together bring over 2,000 years of life to the stage, will charmingly and full of joie de vivre overturn common prejudices about older people.

The Volkshochschule Frankfurt (Oder) (VHS) is organising a series of online courses on digital skills, project management and marketing in spring and early summer 2026. Various compact evening and day courses will be offered from April to June. Topics include MS OneNote, MS Outlook, MS Teams and digital collaboration tools such as OneDrive, SharePoint, Planner and Lists.

Tournaments and a huge medieval market spectacle will attract visitors from near and far to Spandau Citadel for the 19th time at Easter. From April 4 to 6, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., market people, knights, jugglers, acrobats and minstrels await the people for market hustle and bustle and amusement.

Travel back to the time of knights and castles and experience unique market events at Storkow Castle. Daredevil tournaments on horseback by the "Manchur Tengri" riding group, the knights' camp, numerous taverns and taverns, the daring and charming juggling skills of the "Flugträumer" and the sounds of the minstrels "The Sandsacks" as well as the colourful hustle and bustle of the historic market await you!

In the Oder-Spree district, the mobile library will become a mobile adventure location for the whole family during the Easter holidays. Under the motto "Easter adventures in the mobile library", visitors can look forward to a special hands-on experience from 30 March to 10 April 2026. In addition to the wide range of media on offer – from exciting books, Tonies, magazines and films to music, games and interactive tiptoi media – a special activity will provide extra fun this year: the Easter bunny has hidden at least one egg at every stop. If you look carefully through the shelves, you may be lucky enough to discover a little surprise.

On Friday, 27 March 2026, the district of Oder-Spree is once again offering those interested in setting up their own business a free initial consultation at the Erkner site of the Oder-Spree district administration in Erkner to prepare for self-employment. Interested parties will receive comprehensive information on the most important steps on the path to self-employment during a personalised one-to-one meeting.

On Sunday, 22 March, at 11.00 am, the opening of the special exhibition "Beyond Prussian Glory – The 'Other' Anton von Werner" will take place at the Viadrina Municipal Museum.

Stage and film stars Julia Jäger and Matthias Habich will be guests at Frankfurt's Kleist Forum theatre on 22 March. In the staged reading "Lélé", they give voice to two people who could not be more different and yet build an unexpected relationship. A quiet story that was written especially for the two actors.

The market focuses on the cultural diversity of Eastern European Easter customs. Traditions from Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Lithuania and Romania will be presented, combined with local contributions from Brandenburg. The aim is to make Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice stand out as a joint cultural centre for the Easter period – with a clear feel-good, family and meeting character. Families are invited to a colourful market in a historic atmosphere.

The Kleist Forum will be 25 years old in March, and to celebrate this anniversary appropriately, Mummenschanz, an award-winning theatre company from Switzerland, has been invited to Frankfurt (Oder). Mummenschanz have been delighting the theatre world and audiences around the globe for 50 years. Their anniversary programme "50 Years" can be seen at the Theaterhaus Kleist Forum on 21 March.

On Thursday, 19 March at 6 p.m., the music school invites you to the "Teachers on Stage" concert in the music school's chamber music hall. As part of the Easter Market of Cultures, a concert afternoon will take place in the Friedenskirche on Sunday, 22 March from 2 p.m. Pupils and ensembles will present a programme of singing, piano and chamber music as well as band projects.

City Management Frankfurt (Oder) is planning an offensive to revitalize Frankfurt's city centre with GewerbeFREI. On March 19, 2026, the vacant commercial spaces in Karl-Marx-Straße, Große Scharrnstraße, the Lenné Passagen and the Oderturm will open their doors to the public from 4 to 7 pm. This is a unique opportunity for anyone with the dream of opening a business – whether a store, restaurant, studio, workshop or café – to view the spaces and make direct contact with the landlords.

"Sacristy and Martyr's Choir – a journey through 770 years of church history" is the name of a new special public tour that will be offered on Tuesday, February 3 and Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 2 p.m. in St. Mary's Church in Frankfurt (Oder). This tour will focus on the history of the south choir extension from the 13th to the 21st century.

While the situation on the labour market remains stable but without momentum, the Federal Employment Agency is offering numerous events from 16 to 20 March 2026 to support school pupils in their career choices. Various regional campaigns, digital parents' evenings (e.g. from 2 to 5 March 2026) and training fairs will help them find the right apprenticeship. By presenting professions and companies and creating contact opportunities, school leavers are supported in their transition from school to vocational training.

Former SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert will discuss the value of work on Wednesday, 15 April at 4:00 p.m. at the European University Viadrina. He will be speaking with Viadrina economist Prof Dr Jana Costas as part of the Viadrina Debate on the topic of "What is work worth? Between the platform economy, financial markets and social upheaval". Together and in dialogue with the audience, they will discuss how digitalisation and financial markets are changing work and why traditional notions of security and advancement are becoming fragile.

SAVE THE DATE – The training and skills fair in the Oder-Spree district will take place on 14 March 2026. All pupils, parents and families are cordially invited to attend from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Europaschule Oberstufenzentrum Oder-Spree, Palmnicken 1, Fürstenwalde/Spree! Discover a wide range of training and career opportunities and over 90 exciting companies as well as a colourful supporting programme on stage.

The Brandenburg Literature Council, the Kleist Museum Foundation and the Frankfurt (Oder) City and Regional Library are once again inviting you to a special programme on International Women's Day this year as part of the Brandenburg Women's Weeks 2026: The authors Franziska Hauser and Maren Wurster will be guests at the Kleist Museum on Sunday, 8 March, and will be in conversation with the audience during a reading followed by a coffee klatch.

The Oderbruch Museum invites you to the opening of the season on 7 March at 11 a.m. at Altranft Castle. The five authors of the new workshop book NACHBARSCHAFT will read from their texts, which they wrote together with around 25 people in the Oderbruch region. There will be clever, thought-provoking and humorous insights into living together. The presentation of the museum's 10th workshop book will be accompanied by music from Sören Birke on the harmonica.

The Brandenburg Women's Weeks are a nationwide political format regularly organised by committed women. This year's motto is "WTF – Anger meets Feminism" and brings together a variety of conferences, lectures, women's get-togethers, sporting competitions, festive events, workshops, exhibitions, etc. across the state, which form a clear counterweight to the increasingly harsh developments in a society that is becoming increasingly divided.

Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" can be seen at Frankfurt's Kleist Forum theatre on 6 and 8 March. The tragic love story of the geisha Cio-Cio-San, known as Butterfly, and the American officer Benjamin Pinkerton contains everything that makes a successful opera: strong emotions, drama and rousing melodies between Italian operatic tradition and Asian sounds.

Kokubu, one of the world's best-known taiko drum groups, is going on a major tour of Germany again in 2026 and, after their acclaimed tours in recent years, is setting new accents with their current show "Infinity". With thunderous rhythms, breathtaking precision, impressive synchronization and pure energy, Kokubu takes the audience into the soul of Japan.

The inaugural meeting of the Helene Lake working group will take place on Wednesday, 4 March 2026 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Frankfurt (Oder) Town Hall, Marktplatz 1, Heilbronn room. The event is open to the public. Lake Helene, which is located in the Oder-Spree Lake District landscape conservation area, has been closed by the State Office for Mining, Geology and Raw Materials (LBGR) since May 2021 due to the massive risk of landslides on the shore areas.

Whether gastronomy, social services or healthcare – at JOB Dating you will get to know professions that are meaningful, have a future and require real hands-on work. The aim is to make these "everyday heroes" visible together. Under the motto "Meet everyday heroes", JOB Dating invites you to experience various professions in a very practical way. Instead of just watching, you can get active yourself, try things out, join in and talk directly to people from the field.

How do food delivery services work? How did Heinrich von Kleist write? What can an old oak tree tell us? And what makes the fire department so important? The 20th Viadrina Children's University will address these questions. From March 4, children and young people between the ages of 8 and 13 can take part in four lectures in the lecture hall of the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder).

Are you rarely able to hear the organ in your village church? Can you play the piano and could you imagine accompanying chorales on the organ? Then you are cordially invited. Under the direction of cantor Patricia Kramer, workshop participants will receive an introduction to organ playing and can try out the organ in the workshop.

The new improvisational theater series "The Big 7" continues on 27 February at Frankfurt's Theaterhaus Kleist Forum. In this interactive show with the Berlin ensemble "Die Gorillas", the audience has the power. A wide variety of characters are improvised in moving monologues, rousing songs and funny scenes.

An unsparing story about right-wing terror, loss, the failure of the rule of law and the fight for justice will be shown at Frankfurt's Theaterhaus Kleist Forum on February 26. With "Aus dem Nichts", the Junges Schauspiel of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg has adapted Fatih Akin's award-winning film of the same name in its own version for the stage.

On the occasion of the International Tour Guide Day, the German-Polish Tourist Information invites you to a public city tour through the center of Frankfurt on Saturday, February 21, 2026. Meeting point is at 11:00 a.m. at the town hall. Under the title "With open eyes in the center of Frankfurt", tour guide Dr. Martin Schieck leads the participants around the town hall and St. Mary's Church.

Why start from scratch when you can take over an existing, successful company and develop it further with new ideas? This is exactly what the BPW Succession Week from 16 to 20 February 2026 is all about. In the free webinars, experienced experts will provide valuable insights into all key topics of company succession – from initial orientation to concrete implementation.

On February 15, 2026 it will be sporty! The Wintersportverein 1923 Bad Freienwalde e.V. 1923 invites you to the 24th Märkischer Wintersporttag at the ski jumping facility in Papengrund. With an extensive program for the whole family, winter sports in Bad Freienwalde can be experienced up close.

Experience a completely new world full of magic and movement with "On Fire"! The shadow dancers take you on an adventurous journey and present a breathtaking spectacle in which light, shadow and movement merge in thrilling harmony.

The experience portal of the non-profit Fördergemeinschaft Ökologischer Landbau Berlin-Brandenburg (FÖL) e.V. invites you to discover the organic diversity of the region. They provide recommendations for addresses of direct-marketing farms for organic meat, organic farm stores and solidarity farms as well as event tips for farm festivals, workshops and self-harvesting.

With "Eduard's Dream", actor Dominique Horwitz will take on one of Wilhelm Busch's lesser-known texts from 1891 at Frankfurt's Theaterhaus Kleist Forum on 14 February. In the story by the poet and illustrator, who became famous for his humorous picture stories ("Max and Moritz"), the protagonist experiences a surrealistic dream journey. He is accompanied by two virtuoso musicians: classical percussionist Lukas Böhm and jazz trombonist Hansjörg Fink.

"Best of Poetry Slam" is back at Frankfurt's Theaterhaus Kleist Forum on February 13. The popular poetry slam will take place twice on this day: At 10 a.m. for school classes and at 7:30 p.m. as usual in the evening program. The procedure is the same: Five top poets compete against each other with texts they have written themselves.

Those who visit the German-Polish Tourist Information Office in Frankfurt (Oder) on "Fetter Donnerstag", February 12, and purchase a souvenir or event tickets will receive a free Pfannkuchen. Similar to "Weiberfastnacht" in Germany, "Fat Thursday" marks the highlight of the carnival season in Poland.

On the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on February 11, 2026, the Leibniz Institute for Innovative Microelectronics (IHP) invites you to a public afternoon event. The aim is to celebrate the day visibly and to put a stronger focus on women in science at IHP with their fields of work and career paths.

The Austrian historian Prof. Dr. Oliver Jens Schmitt will be presenting his book "Moskaus westliche Rivalen – Eine europäische Geschichte vom Nordkap bis zum Schwarzen Meer" at the European University Viadrina on Tuesday, February 3 at 6 p.m. At the invitation of Viadrina law professor Prof. Dr. Markus Beham, the expert on Eastern Europe will read from his award-winning book, in which he explores the question of what distinguishes Russia's political culture from its western neighbors.

On Friday, January 30, 2026 at 3 p.m., there will be a curator's tour of the exhibition "Franz von Gaudy aus/in Frankfurt an der Oder – Zum 225. Geburtstag des Frankfurter Dichters" with Berlin literary historian Dr. Doris Fouquet-Plümacher at Museum Viadrina. The exhibition shows the work of the poet Franz von Gaudy, who stood between late Romanticism and Vormärz, in words and pictures as well as numerous original prints.

"Messeschlager Gisela", a jewel of the GDR's light-hearted musical theater, is coming to the Theaterhaus Kleist Forum in Frankfurt (Oder). The production by Staatstheater Cottbus can be seen on January 30 and 31. The new production is not a nostalgia show, but a rousing mixture of operetta and musical, with extravagant costumes, a large stage set, slapstick interludes, elaborate choreography and snappy melodies.

What does the Oder sound like? What do aquatic animals perceive and how does the river change human sensory perceptions? The intermedia performance "OderHive – a multisensory river journey to hear, see and feel" will get to the bottom of these questions on Thursday, January 29, from 5 p.m. at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder).

On Thursday, January 29, at 6 p.m., the Chairs of Popular Cultures and Social Philosophy at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) invite you to a filmosophy entitled "Lachrevue". This time the focus is on a rather ephemeral form of film: funny clips. In order to provide a diverse basis for discussion, the Filmosophy team is asking for support: they are looking for short clips with a length of one to five minutes.

The Frankfurt (Oder) Music School invites you to two public preparatory concerts for the "Jugend musiziert" competition. The concerts will take place on Thursday, January 29 and Tuesday, February 10, both at 6 p.m. at the music school. Pupils from the music school who are taking part in this year's competition will present their program in front of an audience and gain important performance experience in the process.

The project "Community for Knowledge Transfer OER: Network of Educational Stakeholders (Co-WOERK)" invites you to a workshop day on Thursday, January 29, between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. The hybrid event entitled "Shaping education together with OER" is aimed at teachers, teaching staff, students and anyone interested in the creation and use of freely accessible teaching materials.

What happens when people can no longer manage their own affairs – be it in old age, after an accident or in a personal crisis? This question will be addressed on Wednesday, 28 January at 2:15 p.m. in a special public, practical event on guardianship law as part of a lecture on family law by Viadrina lawyer Prof. Dr. Ulla Gläßer.

At the end of the lecture series "How to deal with right-wing extremism?" at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), practical workshop discussions on dealing with right-wing extremism in Frankfurt (Oder) and the region will take place on Tuesday, January 27 from 4:15 to 6:45 p.m. Experts from the fields of civil society and local politics, journalism and media as well as democratic conflict management in the community will present their experiences and approaches from their practice in dealing with right-wing extremism.

Literary scholar and opera dramaturge Prof. Dr. Tina Hartmann (University of Bayreuth) will give a lecture entitled “Patriarchy and the Triumph of the Female Voice: Ingeborg Bachmann's Novel ‘Malina’ – an Opera Libretto for the Bachmann Year” on Tuesday, January 27, at 6:00 p.m.