Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature (University of London)

Austria’s contribution to modern German-language literature has been both rich and varied, embracing major novelists (Kafka, Musil, Zweig), dramatists (Schnitzler, Bernhard, Jelinek), as well as poets (Rilke, Celan, Bachmann) of international repute.

The Ingeborg Bachmann Centre, established at the then Institute of Germanic Studies in 2002 with the support of the Erste Bank, the Österreichische Nationalbank, the Austrian Cultural Forum, and the Österreich Kooperation, explores this contribution by means of a varied programme of events. The IBC supports and hosts collaborative and transnational conferences and events in the field of Austrian Studies and seeks to further cultural exchange between Austria and the UK by promoting the work of authors and translators.

The IBC takes as its figurehead Ingeborg Bachmann, whose poem ‘Abschied von England’ encapsulates the challenge presented by other cultures and the difficulties of comprehending them.