The Bertelsmann literature stipends and literature prizes, which were awarded between 1993 and 1996 at the German Literature Days, can be regarded as "forerunners" to the present-day Literature Course.

A Project with Bertelsmann Publishing House

The idea for the Literature Course originated with Karin Graf, who was working at the time for Bertelsmann Publishing House as a cultural consultant. She envisioned it as being a joint project between the organizers of the German Literature Days and Bertelsmann Buch AG (today: Random House).

The first two Literature Courses took place in 1997 and in 1998 and were run by Karin Graf, her colleague Elisabeth Stein as well as Doris Moser (the organizer of the German Literature Days from 1997 to 2001).

After Bertelsmann withdrew its support for the project, ("Bertelsmann says Goodbye”, Abendzeitung, Munich) , the Robert Musil Literature Museum, as an institution belonging to the city of Klagenfurt's culture department, became responsible for organizing the annual Literature Course.

Heimo Strmpfl is the contact person for this event. The Musil House in Klagenfurt, which the city renovated at a cost of twenty million Austrian Schillings, has provided suitable spaces for the various events constituting the Literature Course since November 1997.

Determining the Course in the Literature Industry

The podium discussions that take place as part of the Literature Course should focus on "determining the course" in the literature industry as well as on the description and analysis of current trends. Past themes have included:

• 1998: Markets and Opinions with Barbara Stang (Aufbau Verlag), Volker Neumann (Bertelsmann Buch AG), Gerhard Ruiss, (IG Autoren), Thomas Wohlfahrt (Literaturwerkstatt Berlin) and K.D. Wolff (stroemfeld/Roter Stern-Verlag) and Ways of Literary Criticism with Andreas Isenschmid (Tagesanzeiger Zurich), Andrea Köhler (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), Sigrid Löffler (formerly Die Zeit, now: Literaturen), Klaus Nüchtern (Falter/Vienna), Denis Scheck (German National Radio Cologne), Gustav Seibt (Berliner Zeitung).
• 1999: Literature o the Web - the End o Literature? With the author Walter Grond, Iris Radisch (Die Zeit), the media theoretician Martin Burckhardt and Gerald Giesecke (ZDF).
• 2000: Literature and Politics with the authors Milo Dor, Eva Demski, Norbert Niemann and Hugo Loetscher.
• 2001: Klagenfurt and n End - Literature and the Public: the Case o the Bachmann Prize with Klaus Amann (Director o the Robert Musil Institute), Karin Graf (literary agent, Graf&Graf), the authors Reto Hänny, Thomas Hettche and Uwe Wittstock (Die Welt). Gert Scobel (3sat) has been i charge o the discussion since 1999.

Podium Discussion a