The Schinderhannes is barely known, perhaps from the subject matter lessons at elementary school. Probably the most in Hesse or around Mainz. But Abraham Picard? Never heard. The Jewish robber, born in Ghent in 1772 and died in custody in Marburg in 1807, was at times possibly even more famous than Schinderhannes. And he really ripped off Picard, the strategist, on joint raids. How, now tells a comic by the Berlin artist Tine Fetz. It is one of eleven comics about episodes of Jewish history in Germany, but mainly in Hesse and Darmstadt, which Ventil-Verlag has now published under the title "Next year in", alluding to the phrase "Next year in Jerusalem" , a wish formula that is pronounced at the end of the Seder evening.The title is unfinished - because of the protagonists of Jewish life in Germany whom the volume describes, very few have come to Jerusalem. And the present also plays a major role in the anthology.
Eva-Maria Magel
Head culture editor Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
Follow I follow
Even Moni Port could only vaguely remember the stories of Schinderhannes and the once so well-known Jewish robber gangs in the region, from their school days.
The Frankfurt illustrator, however, felt like many of those involved in the collection - and how the readers should feel now: She was surprised by some episodes and learned new things.
Hannah Brinkmann, for example, tells the short and remarkable story of the Jewish Masada vocational school, which trained young Jewish women and men in Darmstadt in 1947/48 in mainly manual professions.
Then literally build the new state of Israel with your own hands.
The building and traces of this little-known school can hardly be found, reports Jakob Hoffmann from the joint search in Darmstadt.
Otherwise, however, Jewish history and today's Jewish life in Darmstadt would come to light in the present and in everyday life.
Possibly one reason why the city was particularly involved in the campaigns around the anniversary of 1700 years of Jewish life in Germany.
The comic anthology is now a project that the city and the Kulturfonds Frankfurt Rhein-Main financed in the anniversary year, and a documentary film has also been made.
“No nursery rhyme” in pictures
Meike Heinigk, head of the Centralstation, where Hoffmann, the founder of the Frankfurt children's comic festival Yippie and co-editor of the children's comic magazine Polle, has often organized comic book readings, gave the impetus for the anthology, in which a particularly large number of local artists are involved are. Heinigk, along with Hoffmann, the Darmstadt author Antje Herden and Jonas Engelmann, is now the editor of the volume. The gathers of renowned illustrators, Barbara Yelin, for example, has put “No Children's Song” by Mascha Kaléko in gloomy, disturbing images.
Port feels it is an honor to be part of this group. Still, the job surprised her a little. “I come more from illustration, not from classic comics like the others.” However, she recently created a comic contribution for the Mainz-based Ventil-Verlag, for the anthology “They want to tell us” based on texts by Tocotronic. But the result is something completely different, an artistic collage.
Which also has to do with the fact that, as Hoffmann says, the artists all had freedom. In style, in length, in the choice of episodes. "I thought it was great that there were no content or design specifications," says Port, "that is unusual." Some authors worked in a team such as the Frankfurt-born draftsman Tobi Dahmen, who based on a text template by Christian Lamp from the Founding of the famous music label Blue Note Records by the two Berlin Jews Alfred Löw and Frank Wolff, who were able to emigrate to New York in the 1930s. Antje Herden from Darmstadt and Marie Hübner from Frankfurt have come up with their own story, they tell the story of a war veteran's encounter with a young non-Jewish mother who gave her baby a Jewish name.
Giving voice to current characters
The mixture is what makes the band so attractive, and you can tell that they worked together very personally.
What all contributions have in common is that the pages with the graphic narratives are followed by two to four pages of information on the biographies of those who are being told, on historical contexts, on terms from anti-Semitism to Zionism, not instructive but stimulating to think further.
“It makes sense to tell a historical figure. But I wanted to give a voice to a current character, ”says Port. She found it in her own circle of friends: Miriam Werner, who works for Hessischer Rundfunk, and they have been friends for 15 years. Their contributions, family history, reflections on their own life in the present and photos have inspired Port to drop the originally planned comic panels and find a free form.
It was through the children that the two women met.
Port knew that her friend came from a Jewish family, it was never a big issue, it “floated” with them, Port says, knowing that this family too had lost many members in the Holocaust.
Since both have a lot in common, up to the point that both Ports and Werner's grandfather were wine merchants, there were also personal points of contact that made it possible for Port to connect her story and that of her friend to a certain extent.
“When I asked Miriam to write a text, she first asked herself what she had to say.
But in the short, concise text, she got to the point: that we are all human, ”says Port.
Next year in Comics and Episodes of Jewish Life, Ventil Verlag, Mainz, 168 pages, 25 euros.