Empires Rose and Fell
Graphic novel, Anna Faroqhi
Original Title: Weltreiche erblühten und fielen, Editor: Dorothea Kolland
Paperback 120 pages, Dagyeli, J & D; Edition: 1st, (June 21, 2010), Language: German, ISBN-10: 3935597827, ISBN-13: 978-3935597821
In 15 episodes, the filmmaker, illustrator and author Anna Faroqhi tells the story of 650 years of Neukölln's history. Stories about lazy electoral princes and emperors who did not want to make an effort when going on a hunt are being told as well as what might have happened when a German farmhand fell for a Bohemian girl, or how the poor lived in workers’ housing erected on and with sand. The lifes of children at the schools of the Weimar period are made tangible, those of brave men and women who became opponents of the Nazi regime, who had to die because of their conviction, and those of many people throughout history, who found a home in Berlin-Neukölln.
A family from the present – the author’s family - leads with their story and their conversations through the episodes. The protagonists Anna, Haim, Prosper, Emily and Sita reflect the (sometimes complicated) multi-ethnicity of Neukölln. In small episodes and side characters it becomes clear that Neukölln is a district that to a large extent is inhabited by non-Germans. That Neukölln is a district of the "little people" who may not have shaped world affairs, but have taken part in them from their marginal spaces.
Initiated and edited by Dorothea Kolland, Kulturamt Neukölln.
