Overview
- Organizers reported more than one million readers and listeners nationwide, noting many activities were not officially registered.
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz canceled a planned Berlin school visit due to Ukraine-related government duties, and Kanzleramtschef Thorsten Frei read at Robert-Reinick-Grundschule from Klaus Kordon’s Die Flaschenpost.
- Deutsche Bahn used AI to create condensed versions of literary works for posters at 13 stations, offering 5‑, 10‑, 20‑ or 30‑minute reads, with additional live readings at 37 stations.
- This year’s motto, “Vorlesen spricht Deine Sprache,” featured multilingual digital readings with contributors including Özcan Cosar, Florian Sump, Susanne Daubner and TV host Julian Janssen, alongside participation by Education Minister Karin Prien.
- Research cited by organizers highlights ongoing concerns, with IGLU showing about one in four pupils lacks adequate reading skills by the end of primary school and the Vorlesemonitor indicating many children are seldom read to.