On November 21, 2025, the nationwide Reading Aloud Day of the Reading Foundation took place. For the third time in a row, the university took part in Germany’s largest reading festival. Business Psychology students – Annabell Mundra, Natalie Ziegs, Hannah Müller and Elina Scholle – as well as Florian Gießler from the Master’s degree program in Applied Psychology made Reading Aloud Day in the student café “Zur Auszeit” a special experience for children and their companions.
In front of packed rows of seats, the young and old listeners immersed themselves in the world of “Pettersson and Findus”. The well-known story “A Birthday Cake for the Cat” by Sven Nordqvist was read aloud. It raises the question of whether old Pettersson is really as crazy as the people in the village claim. After all, he has conversations with his cat Findus – and many in the audience couldn’t help but smile. Because let’s be honest: who doesn’t talk to their cat from time to time?
The story developed into a turbulent adventure about the preparation of a pancake cake for Findus’ birthday – or to be more precise: one of his three birthdays a year. When Pettersson and Findus discover that the flour is missing, an adventurous odyssey begins, which quickly develops into a humorous problem-solving course.
Musical accompaniment and a surprising mountain of books
The musical atmosphere was provided by the children’s band “Blue Sky”, taught by Ewa Margareta Cyran of the Hofer Symphoniker music school. Their performances once again gave the reading evening a particularly lively setting.
Another highlight followed afterwards: a large rummage table – or rather several tables and boxes – full of children’s books invited visitors to browse and take home. The response to the previous appeal for donations from members of the university was overwhelming. A total of five moving boxes full of books were collected. The bookshops Rupprecht and Thalia also generously supported the campaign.
An afternoon full of joy
The reading day in the café “Zur Auszeit” ended with many smiling faces, curiously filled university bags and the great wish for a repeat next year. The organizers would like to thank the university for its financial support and the communications and events team for actively promoting the event.
“Special thanks also go to the student café “Zur Auszeit” for once again providing a great venue – and of course to all the book donors who enriched this evening,” said organizer Prof. Dr. Viktoria Bachmann.
