Grenzgebiete - drüben!
Childhood memories between East and West Germany
23 May to 11 July 2010
Opening hours: Tue/Wed 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Thu 9 a.m.–1 p.m. and 5–8 p.m, Fri 9 a.m.–1 p.m., Sat/Sun 11 a.m.–5 p.m. (closed on Whit Monday, 24 May and on „Erlangen Day“, 25 May) Special opening hours 3 to 6 June 2010: Thu/Fri/Sat 11 a.m.–7 p.m., Sun 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Stadtmuseum Erlangen

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall claire Lenkova and Simon Schwartz published their respective comics “Grenzgebiete – Eine Kindheit zwischen Ost und West” and “drüben!“. Both artists share the experience of having lived in both German states as children. And both of them tell very personal stories of fates and memories related to the division of Germany. claire Lenkova describes what everyday life in the GDR and the new beginning in the FRG felt like for a child in her “non-fiction comic” that came out in 2009. She is from Zwickau and came to Bavaria in 1989 shortly before the Wall came down with her brother and her parents. Simon Schwartz was born in Erfurt in the early 1980s and left the GDR with his parents at age one and a half. In his autobiographically motivated debut he especially tells his parents’ life stories. The story of the Schwartz family is told in flashbacks and, as in Lenkova’s comic, from the viewpoint of a child. Both artists meet their young readers at eye level and encourage them to think, ask questions and discuss.

An exhibition of the City Museum Erlangen and the Erlangen International Comic Salon.

The exhibition „What was the GDR? - A historic adventure for children and adolescents“ – a production of the Children’s Museum in the FEZ Berlin – can also be visited in the City Museum Erlangen until 1 August 2010.