HAUS FÜR POESIE

Dr. Thomas Wohlfahrt, born in Eisenach in 1956, served as Director of Haus für Poesie until 2022. He founded the institution in 1991 under its original name, LiteraturWERKstatt Berlin. He studied German Literature and Musicology at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and was awarded a doctorate (Dr. phil.) in 1985. From 1983 to 1988, he worked as a researcher at the Central Institute for Literary History of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in East Berlin. After leaving East Germany, he worked as a freelance writer and broadcaster in West Berlin. In 1989–1990, he held a research fellowship from the Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung, and from 1990 to 1991 served as Artistic Director of Theaterhaus Berlin. As Director of Haus für Poesie, he oversaw around 100 events annually dedicated to contemporary German and international poetry, including the Poesiefestival Berlin, the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, and the Open Mike competition. He also initiated and directed the major international project Literature Express Europa 2000. The globally oriented poetry website lyrikline.org, which today presents more than 16,000 poems in 96 languages and over 26,000 translations, was likewise developed under his leadership. Thomas Wohlfahrt has served on numerous international advisory and jury boards and has consulted a wide range of literary and arts programmes worldwide. He was a member of the German Commission for UNESCO, is a member of PEN Berlin, and founded the nationwide poetry network Lyrik e.V. in 2018, serving as its first chair. Since 2021, he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kulturstiftung Thüringen. He has edited numerous publications, including the anthology series VERSschmuggel (Das Wunderhorn) and the Berliner Rede zur Poesie lecture series (Wallstein Verlag). In 2005, he received the Grimme Online Award, and in 2021 the Rahel Varnhagen von Ense Medal. In 2023, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstorden). Since 2025, he has curated the concert and reading series "Organ & Poetry" (Orgel & Lyrik) at the Luisenkirche in Berlin-Charlottenburg.