Gesine Schwan as guest at the vernissage "Drawn city views"

For the book "An Impossible University" about the adventurous founding period of the new Viadrina, Berlin artist Christian Rothenhagen drew 30 views of the city. They show Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice in the early 1990s, as seen by those who came to study or work at the nascent European University at the time.

At the vernissage on April 17 at 6 pm at the Kleist Forum Frankfurt (Oder), the book's editors will speak with Gesine Schwan, who played a key role in shaping the university as president from 1999–2008. Admission is free.
Christian Rothenhagen's minimalistically drawn views of the city will be on display at the Kleist Forum until May 19 and at the Collegium Polonicum in Słubice from June 20 to July 20, 2024. His gaze creates unusual perspectives that document a greatly changed cityscape and places that have in part disappeared.
The book, edited by Stephan Felsberg, Tim Köhler and Uwe Rada, tells of the people and their stories who believed in the success of the Viadrina "experiment" and whose commitment ultimately made the impossible possible. It looks at the 1990s up to the arrival of Gesine Schwan, with whose presidency the founding phase ended.