About the work
Ein Sommer in Niendorf (A Summer in Niendorf) is a novel by Heinz Strunk, published by Rowohlt in June 2022, which reached number one on the bestseller list. The stage version was created by Studio Braun, the trio of Strunk, Rocko Schamoni and Jacques Palminger, who also directed it. It premiered on 29 March 2025 at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg as a musical revue with a live band, with Charly Hübner as Roth and the three members of Studio Braun in the cast.
Plot
Dr Georg Roth, a 51-year-old lawyer from Hamburg, rents a flat in the Baltic seaside resort of Niendorf for three months to write a book about his family that is also meant to settle old scores. Instead of making progress, he falls increasingly under the spell of the pushy Markus Breda, who rents out beach chairs and runs a liquor shop; before long Breda's girlfriend Simone joins this accidental community. Roth starts drinking, gradually loses his old world and ends up a different person who stays on in Niendorf.
Cultural significance
The novel was longlisted for the German Book Prize in 2022 and was read as a tragicomic study of self-deception and social decline. The Hamburg stage version departs noticeably from its source and turns the material into a playful revue.