display

When the word “blog” didn't even exist, Sven Lager and Elke Naters had already invented one of the first.

That was in 1999, the supposedly particularly well-functioning search engine “Google” was still an insider tip, and the world was just about to find out what could be done with the Internet.

Was it also a place where you could write more freely, more uncontrollably and wildly than before?

To find out, Elke and Sven gathered young writers like themselves on the “ampool.de” site: Christian Kracht, Eckart Nickel, Carmen von Samson, Rainald Goetz, Rebecca Cassati, Moritz von Uslar, Andrian Kreye as well visual artists such as Martin Fengel and Andreas Neumeister.

They all met there as one used to meet at a pool at that time: in a relaxed mood and with the desire to entertain each other for a few hours.

display

There was also a so-called guest book in which, for example, Thomas Melle wrote.

It wasn't until years later that we found out that ampool.de was a dramatic turning point in his life from his book “The World at Your Back”, for which he received the German Book Prize.

Laughter resounded by the pool

The whole thing drew a puzzling amount of attention in the feature sections.

The fear that this would be the downfall of literature was in the room.

There was roaring laughter at the pool.

The website in its simple, red and white design was elegant and pretty to look at.

Sven was talented enough to teach himself how to program something like that, and he thought up small changes at pleasant intervals that stimulated the play instinct of his guests.

But at some point even the greatest party wears itself out, and it is a mark of good hosts to declare it over at the appropriate moment.

In June 2001 Elke and Sven wrote the last entry: "It was nice that way, good and completely unimportant."

display

Who today has so much sovereignty to say something like that about himself and his work in a good mood?

Personally, I haven't met Sven that often, but whenever I saw him, he seemed to me to be the friendliest, most balanced person you can imagine.

"More than anything"

Like almost everyone who had been by the pool, he wrote books.

Around this time his novels "Phosphorus" and "Im Gras" appeared.

But here too: it was not a matter of striving for some dubious large-scale writing, such self-importance was alien to him.

He and Elke went to South Africa with their children and lived there for many years.

As their lives changed, so did the subjects of their books, which they now always wrote together: “Thirst - hunger - tired.

Management report from the children's room battle zone "," What we understand about love "- a topic that you, as successful WELT columnists, took up - and" There has to be more than everything in life! "

Tips for a better partnership

display

Especially this last book, which is about how the two discovered the faith for themselves in South Africa, yes, quite rightly, the Christian faith, initially alienated me when I heard about it.

One of the most casual world travelers I knew, shod in all fields of pop culture, stylish, casual, endowed with a good portion of hedonism, had found Jesus?

I had my doubts.

Mind-blowing simple

I am glad that I met Sven and Elke again a few years ago when they came back to Berlin.

I loved the way they told me about their discovery of the faith.

Incredibly simple above all.

Because the conversation did not go on, as so often on this subject.

No complicated discussions, nourished by theological half-knowledge, about whether there could be a God or not, always associated with the embarrassment that one even talks about this possibility.

"Nice like that": Elke Naters and Sven Lager

Source: via Sven Lager

No, instead they just told me about how they found their faith, even though they hadn't really looked for it.

They talked about it like something they had experienced.

So the question of whether that could really be the case no longer arose.

“This is church,” it says in her book.

“The community with friends, eating, drinking, being there for one another, encouraging one another, celebrating life, enjoying the beauty and being grateful.

All that and nothing else. ”Back in Berlin, they founded the Sharehaus, creating a meeting place for refugees.

Inexplicably, Sven has now died.

And, quite differently from what he himself wrote at the end of Pool, one can say: What he did was fine and good, and anything but unimportant.

Georg M. Oswald lives as a writer and editor in Munich.

Most recently, Piper published his novel "Vorleben".

More from Elke Naters and Sven Lager