When does Crime Scene Franconia take place in Hof?

The event takes place on Sunday, November 22, 2026, as part of the reading festival THE DARK SIDE.

Where does the reading take place?

The venue is Mocky‘s Backstage Bistro located at Kulmbacher Straße 5, 95030 Hof.

Who reads at Crime Scene Franconia?

Krystyna Kuhn reads from Summer Days, Rolf Kemnitzer from THE, and Thomas Kastura from Enough is Enough.

What other program items are there?

The program includes a talk with Roland Spranger, where Hof celebrities present their favorite dark stories.

What is the entrance fee?

The entrance follows the principle Pay What You Worth. Visitors decide on their contribution.

To which reading festival does the event belong?

Crime Scene Franconia is part of the reading festival THE DARK SIDE, which takes place from November 18 to 22, 2026, in the Hof region.

Krystyna Kuhn reads in Hof 2026

Name: The Dark Side: Crime Scene Franconia
Start: 2026-11-22
End: 2026-11-22
Location: Mocky‘s Backstage Bistro

When Franconia tells its dark stories

On November 22, 2026, Mocky‘s Backstage Bistro in Hof will become a literary crime scene. As part of the reading festival THE DARK SIDE, crime literature, dark humor, and Franconian authors' voices will come together. The evening combines atmospheric readings with a discussion about the favorite dark stories of Hof personalities.

Family secrets, guilt, and repressed truths

Krystyna Kuhn reads from her novel Summer Days. At the center is Pauline, who discovers that her grandmother stole poems from a Jewish girl from Lviv in 1941. The search for truth leads into the abysses of a family and connects historical responsibility with a vividly narrated present. Since her debut Fish Can Be Silent, Kuhn has published 21 books; her series The Valley has been translated into 13 languages. For Monday Club, she received the Golden Leslie in 2016.

Dark humor and family abysses

Rolf Kemnitzer presents THE, a bitter tale about a destructive mother-son relationship. A destitute ex-punk visits his wealthy, demented mother, who once placed him in a home. Between institutionalization, inheritance, and repressed past, a grotesque family drama develops with theatrical sharpness. Kemnitzer is a playwright, director, and theater educator and has received the Döblin Scholarship from the Berlin Academy of Arts twice, among other awards.

The perfect murder in the library

Thomas Kastura reads his Glauser-awarded short story Enough is Enough. Fred Dennert, author of 30 unpublished novels, seemingly falls accidentally from a library ladder. But behind the accident lies a cold-blooded murder. Prosecutor Brandeisen, who is also the best friend of the deceased, follows a bizarre lead. Kastura combines classic crime tension with dark wit and precise observation.

Hof celebrities and their favorite dark stories

In the following talk, Roland Spranger speaks with Hof personalities about literary preferences, crime motives, and the fascination of the abyss. Spranger writes novels and plays and received the Friedrich-Glauser Prize for War Zones in the Best Novel category in 2013. Thus, the evening provides an additional cultural journalistic perspective on regional literature and the literary discourse on guilt, violence, and human border situations, alongside the readings.

A reading atmosphere between tension and dark humor

The event promises an intense literary experience: voices, stories, and figures explore familial upheavals, historical guilt, and criminal riddles. The intimate atmosphere of the bistro provides the suitable setting for an author encounter in which linguistic artistry, narrative tension, and Franconian humor come together.

Conclusion

The Dark Side: Crime Scene Franconia brings three distinctive literary voices and an evening of discussion to Hof. Visitors can expect a varied reading spanning crime novels, short crime stories, theatrical texts, and dark humor. Those who wish to not only read but live the dark side of literature will find a special evening in the Hof region here.