Six Characters of Hotel W.: A Case Study from Never Again Peace

The 2025 edition of steirischer herbst festival responded to a world in which wars are spreading and democracies are faltering. Six Characters of Hotel W. revisits the time in which the crumbling order seemingly emerged: the aftermath of World War II. Six writers created a diverse cast of characters orbiting one of the Graz grand hotels in the autumn of 1945. The reader presents these texts next to essays exploring their relation to reality and how the memory of World War II is used today.