TEXTOR

TEXTOR is an independent, non-profit online portal founded in Frankfurt am Main in 2024. It presents German and international cultural events through original literary and essayistic texts, interviews, and videos.¹ ²

History and Founding

The roots of the TEXTOR portal go back to 2008, when the Frankfurt cultural magazine 069 could no longer continue in print because of the advertising crisis.³ This gave rise to the online platform Faust-Kultur, whose website was registered in September 2009 and went online with contributions at the beginning of 2010, launched by the founding team of Ulla Bayerl, Isa Bickmann, Werner Ost (died 2022), and Andrea Pollmeier. Bernd Leukert joined the editorial team in 2011 and, alongside Ulla Bayerl (responsible under press law) and Werner Ost, served for many years as an editor. After the non-consensual change of editorship in April 2024 and the announcement of a conceptual realignment, the previous editors and editorial team decided to establish the cultural portal TEXTOR.⁴ ⁵

The name of the new online portal TEXTOR alludes to the Latin term for the profession of weaver, who can also be seen as a networker; to the words “text” and “gate”; and to Goethe’s mother, Catharina Elisabeth, née Textor.⁶ The portal went online in August 2024.

Areas of Work, Offerings and Content

TEXTOR has set itself the task of presenting German, European, and international cultural events through original texts in the form of poems, essays, or prose, as well as through interviews and audio and video recordings. Around 120 authors from German-speaking countries currently contribute to the platform to varying degrees (as of July 2025).

The platform features reviews of film premieres and exhibition openings, as well as new productions in opera, dance, and drama. The focus is intended to be on sustainable, enduring culture as a reflection of its time.⁷ It also presents poems by German-language poets such as Safiye Can, Silke Scheuermann, Andreas Altmann, and Tom Schulz.⁸ There are essays on art, music, the stage, politics, and society, as well as “current debates on pluralistic civil society and reflections on the diverse cultural landscape.”⁹ The “Cultural Tips” section draws attention to media and events in German-speaking countries and internationally, including the comic Die Frau als Mensch by Ulli Lust, which won the German Non-Fiction Prize in 2025; the African Book Festival in Berlin; and the exhibition of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome.¹⁰

Various series present video interviews with numerous artists (Textland); poetry by women from Central and Eastern Europe, read by Birgitta Assheuer (Handverlesen); notebook excerpts by the literary mediator, translator, and author Eldad Stobezki; a serial novel by the author Jamal Tuschik; and the series Eigene Wege, in which young migrants describe how they succeeded in gaining a foothold in Germany’s working world.¹¹

TEXTOR also publishes a weekly newsletter featuring editorial contributions and cultural tips, which has so far been subscribed to by around 5,000 people interested in culture.¹²

Organisational Structure / Funding

TEXTOR is an independent, non-profit online cultural magazine. Its authors, all members of the editorial team, and its two editors work on a voluntary and unpaid basis. TEXTOR is a project of the non-profit association Förderkreis Frankfurt e. V. – Kultur & Diskurs and is supported by it. The platform is also financed through donations.¹³ ¹⁴

Team

TEXTOR’s editors are the author Bernd Leukert and the freelance author and cultural journalist Andrea Pollmeier. The editorial team consists of Ulla Bayerl, Isa Bickmann, Alexandru Bulucz, Alexander Paul Englert, Barbara Englert, Riccarda Gleichauf, Bernd Leukert, Andrea Pollmeier, Andrea Richter, and Cornelia Wilß. Regular contributors are Ursula Benedict, Matthias Buth, Barbara Ernzerhoff-Snow, Ursula Grünenwald, Walter H. Krämer, Jutta Roitsch, Doris Stickler, Walter Welker, and Nina Wood.¹⁵

Web Links

Platform website: TEXTOR

Machine translation: This article was translated automatically from the German original.

1
Förderkreis Frankfurt (n.d.): Projekte – TEXTOR.online. In: Website des Förderkreises Frankfurt. Available online at: https://foerderkreis-frankfurt.de/de/projekte/diskurs/textoronline/ (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎
2
Balke, Florian (2024): Nach dem Faustkampf. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, article of 21 August, p. 10. Available online at: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/kultur/neues-kulturjournal-im-netz-textor-ist-online-19931977.html (accessed 02.07.2025). ↩︎
3
jg (2019): Kulturmagazin „069“ soll wieder erscheinen. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, article of 26 January. Available online at: https://www.fr.de/rhein-main/kulturmagazin-069-soll-wieder-erscheinen-11500116.html (accessed 08.07.2025). ↩︎
4
Balke, Florian (2024): Zerwürfnis bei Online-Portal Faust-Kultur. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, article of 24 April. Available online at: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/kultur/michele-sciurba-reisst-das-onlineportal-faust-kultur-an-sich-19676429.html (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎
5
Sternburg, Judith von (2024): Spaltet sich das Faust-Portal? In: Frankfurter Rundschau, article of 25 April. Available online at: https://www.fr.de/kultur/gesellschaft/spaltet-sich-das-faust-portal-93033887.html (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎
6
Balke, Florian (2024): Nach dem Faustkampf. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, article of 21 August, p. 10. Available online at: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/kultur/neues-kulturjournal-im-netz-textor-ist-online-19931977.html (accessed 02.07.2025). ↩︎
7
TEXTOR (n.d.): Über uns. In: Website of TEXTOR. Available online at: https://textor.online/de/ueber-uns/ (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎
8
TEXTOR (n.d.): Gedichte. In: Website of TEXTOR. Available online at: https://textor.online/de/gedichte/ (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎
9
TEXTOR (n.d.): Über uns. In: Website of TEXTOR. Available online at: https://textor.online/de/ueber-uns/ (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎
10
TEXTOR (n.d.): Kulturtipps. In: Website of TEXTOR. Available online at: https://textor.online/de/kulturtipps/ (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎
11
TEXTOR (n.d.): Serien. In: Website of TEXTOR. Available online at: https://textor.online/de/serien/ (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎
12
Förderkreis Frankfurt (n.d.): Projekte – TEXTOR.online. In: Website des Förderkreises Frankfurt. Available online at: https://foerderkreis-frankfurt.de/de/projekte/diskurs/textoronline/ (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎
13
Förderkreis Frankfurt (n.d.): Projekte. In: Website des Förderkreises Frankfurt. Available online at: https://foerderkreis-frankfurt.de/de/projekte/ (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎
14
TEXTOR (n.d.): Über uns. In: Website of TEXTOR. Available online at: https://textor.online/de/ueber-uns/ (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎
15
TEXTOR (n.d.): Über uns. In: Website of TEXTOR. Available online at: https://textor.online/de/ueber-uns/ (accessed 05.07.2025). ↩︎

Acting, Art, Culture, Dance, Film, Institution, Literature, Music, Online portal, Photography, Theatre

Empfohlene Zitierweise

Jessica Zeltner
: TEXTOR. In: Equalpedia.

Online unter:

https://www.equalpedia.org/en/textor-2/

(Zugriff am 26. September 2026).

Erstellt am: 21. September 2026
Verfasser*in: Jessica Zeltner
Zuletzt bearbeitet am: 24. September 2026
Acting, Art, Culture, Dance and choreography, Digital, Film, Institutions, Journalism, Literature, Music, Photography, Publishing, Theatre, Variety
Acting, Art, Culture, Dance, Film, Institution, Literature, Music, Online portal, Photography, Theatre