Since July 2025, a new poem in bright pink letters has adorned the south façade of the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin. The literary design is by Maxi Obexer, winner of the Alice Salomon Poetry Prize 2023. Her poem "von den dächern", written especially for the university, addresses central questions of belonging, vulnerability and communal action - themes that not only permeate the author's poetry, but also resonate with the university's self-image.
The (translated) poem "von den dächern" by Maxi Obexer...
they are all here, we
can be, threatened
affected, called, immediately
become others
alone, how to find
and not forget
that we are loverswhere is the outside when we seek it
who is the outside when we love it
The façade was inaugurated on July 17, 2025 in the presence of the artist. With Obexer's work, a new poetic text replaces the previous design by Barbara Köhler - as part of an ongoing project that gives the winners of the Poetry Prize visibility in public space. Obexer's contribution marks not only an artistic, but also a socio-political positioning: a we that manages without exclusion, demarcation or hierarchy.
Here is her acceptance speech, which Obexer addressed to the guests on the day of the inauguration:
Dear staff, dear professors and lecturers,
dear students of Alice Salomon University,
Dear President, Ms. Bettina Völter!
I would like to address my first words to you this time: when my successor Yevgenia Belorusets was recently awarded the Poetry Prize and the ceremony was followed by the summer party, you and the professors at this university were faced with a few challenges in quick succession. There was the solidarity rally for Gaza, and immediately afterwards a storm arose that literally threatened to twirl the sausages around.
I saw you, Ms. Völter, walking up to the students and talking to them; I wasn't there at that moment, but I was sure you found a good tone - an appropriate tone that respected and honored their protest. I saw you a short time later securing the courtyard: with full hands and arms you carried glasses, plates, food and all sorts of items inside. You took care of everything where you could: you were "shirt-sleeved" in the best sense of the word. I was very touched by this moment.
You weren't the only one who immediately felt responsible: I saw the professors I was sitting with at the table observing the situation closely and how they almost imperceptibly got up from their seats and took care of things too. They all looked like professionals to me. Even the students.
Since I got to know the ASH about two and a half years ago and was able to experience some of the staff, lecturers, the content and the intellectual life at this university with its students over the years, in literary workshops or as an assessor of my or Christoph Szalay's texts, I have been very impressed by their alert minds and the lively atmosphere here.
I got to know you, Ms. Völter, after the pandemic, a time that brought you almost all to your knees. Then the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, then the Hamas attack on the Israeli population, and since then the Israeli government's never-ending counterattack on Gaza and the Palestinian population. Wars and violence that we would never have thought possible. The re-election of Trump and his attacks on all culture, teaching, research and shared world knowledge. And I ask myself more and more whether every war is not aimed at culture and the refinement of thought, action and social and societal behavior.
The struggle for this occurs here - must occur here. The social, societal, political and artistic discourses conducted here are unparalleled. This meeting brings together the most important things that make a society mature, responsible and active.
I experience this university as a very lively island with a pronounced diversity, and I am happy, I am proud to be able to hang here with a text that is supposed to radiate something of this.
It all started when your call came, Ms. Völter, I had just unhooked myself when I left the wall while climbing a mountain and lay down on a meadow of flowers.
Thank you very much
Maxi Obexer
