The old Bansin fire station was converted into a small literature house with a library and exhibition rooms in 2000.
With this building, the community honors its most famous son, the writer Hans Werner Richter. He was born on November 12, 1908 in Neu-Sallenthin, now a district of Bansin, and grew up on the Richter family's "farmstead" at Seestraße 68 in Bansin. Numerous of his novels ("Spuren im Sand", "Bansiner Geschichten", "Die Stunde der falschen Triumphe") depict the life of ordinary people in the first half of the last century on the Island of Usedom.Toni Richter, the widow of Hans Werner Richter, bequeathed substantial parts of his private estate to the municipality of Bansin after his death in 1993. Thus, Hans Werner Richter's study and library can be visited and used in the house. Special exhibits commemorate him as the initiator and leader of "Group 47", one of the most important literary associations for the history of the young Federal Republic of Germany.Visitors can also use the small public library and Internet access.
During the season, readings are held regularly on Friday evenings in the "Günter Grass Room," where a number of remarkable original prints by Günter Grass can be seen.Since the death of Ahlbeck-born writer and publicist Carola Stern in 2006, a small exhibition in the Hans Werner Richter House commemorates the important contemporary witness of the past century.
