Book Fairs, Publishers and Institutions in Germany

"It pains me to walk up Kaiserstrasse from the railway station. Despite its width and beautiful old buildings, it is a street that is unable to make anything of itself, that prefers plastic seats and sex cinemas to small theatres and speciality bars. I miss all that, I miss it physically, as though the city were a woman who goes to bed in her shoes and coat so that she can get up at any time. [...] The only places that quicken the heartbeat are the Paulskirche, where nobody normally goes in, and the Book Fair, from which nothing normally comes out, as well as the airport and the Opernplatz; yet aeroplanes are of no interest to me, and while I grant that a walk across the Opernplatz offers a certain thrill on summer nights, its sole message to people like me is that they earn too little and should really be dead." (An excerpt from Bodo Kirchhoff's novel Wo das Meer beginnt (Where the Sea Begins), FVA 2004)

Mr Kirchhoff, some of your books are set in Frankfurt am Main, including your most recent work, Wo das Meer beginnt. In chapter 15, one of your characters, the old teacher Dr. Branzger, paints a picture of the city that is not exactly positive. Do you share your protagonist's view?

It is a picture of certain parts of Frankfurt, not the whole city. He is referring to his immediate surroundings and the street leading from the railway station (Kaiserstrasse). At the same time, there is something I would like to make clear, and it is true of all my writings about Frankfurt: Frankfurt is a good example of a city that suffered badly in the war and where mistakes were made after the war. There are now attempts to iron out some of these mistakes, such as the modern town hall for example. Kaiserstrasse could be one of the most beautiful streets in Germany – a boulevard par excellence – yet it remains down at heel. And it's not the brothels that are the problem; it's the street itself that is so awful. It ought to be possible to make more of it. When a city finds itself with a district like this, you have to try and break up the monoculture; what this area needs are really exciting theatres and good bars.

Photo Gallery Frankfurt

Many of Frankfurt's buildings are currently under threat of demolition, including the town hall you just mentioned, a concrete colossus built in 1972 near the cathedral. Do you not think that Frankfurt might be in danger of losing important and memorable landmarks in its city centre?

That always depends on whose memories you're talking about. My memories go back to a time before many of these buildings even existed. People have different memories. I think it is crucial that the remodelling of this city is not half-hearted. If something is reconstructed around the Römer , for example, then you have to tackle the whole area. You can't have the Historisches Museum in concrete and a few other buildings from the 1950s. What we want to avoid are compromises; anything that is done half-heartedly ends up looking small-minded. And that is what hurts.

Do you regret that one of the buildings slated for demolition is the Rundschauhaus, built in 1953 by Wilhelm Berentzen and home to the editorial offices and publishing operations of the Frankfurter Rundschau until July 2005?

I'm sad about everything that I've got used to seeing in the course of the last decades. In Frankfurt you can have the illusion that you're not growing older because you're not ageing along with the buildings, or most of them at least. Everything is always new, and this gives people the feeling that they, too, are always new, which isn't the case. In fact you are the only one growing older, while everything else is somehow magically renewed.

Frankfurt is home to the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (presented in the Paulskirche) and now the German Book Prize, which was presented for the first time this autumn. In fact, you were a member of the jury...

I have been strongly advocating the creation of this prize for almost four years, and its existence is due in no small measure to my efforts. I think it's great that the prize is in Frankfurt; it has immediately proved to be very popular and has really produced results, namely in terms of book sales. That is what is most important: The first winning novel, Es geht uns gut (We're Doing Fine) by Arno Geiger, which recounts the story of an Austrian family, suddenly leapt on to the bestseller list. This would certainly not have happened otherwise and is a real success for a prize.

This lends a lot of glamour to Frankfurt, and although the shine quickly fades it can give the impression of a metropolis.

No, without a doubt Frankfurt is no metropolis. Frankfurt makes an appearance on the world stage once a year – when it hosts the Book Fair.

Do you see Frankfurt as a poster city for Germany?

I certainly think that Frankfurt is a very forward-looking city. Without wishing to make any value judgements, it is a very modern city, and this also applies to the pace of life and the speed with which things change. Frankfurt is an important financial centre, but its main attribute is the airport, which is why I would always fight for it to stay at its current size or even to be expanded; there would just have to be some sort of accommodation with those affected. What Frankfurt is lacking is a certain glamour. After all, it's a centre of publishing, even though this still does not figure prominently in the city's image. And of course it ought to be even more of a media city. Thank God that the Hesse Film Prize , which has grown significantly in stature in recent years, is now awarded at the Book Fair. This is what the city needs. I know how difficult it is to obtain permission to film here, yet this shouldn't be so: Frankfurt makes a great backdrop and should be used much more in German films. And it should also be photographed with much more variety and complexity than has been the case in the past. I believe that there is an awful lot that can be done.

You have lived in Frankfurt since 1970 and once described your bond with the city as a love-hate relationship. Yet even though you spend part of the year at Lake Garda, you still haven't turned your back on Frankfurt.

Yes, this is also connected to the fact that, since having children, I have got used to glimpsing the city through the eyes and souls of these children. For them it is simply home, just as the Black Forest was my home when I was growing up, including everything that goes with it: The seasons, the beauty, even the harshness – however you want to describe it. And, in a different way, Frankfurt is home to my children, and I completely accept that.

Bodo Kirchhoff, author and screenwriter, was born in 1948 in Hamburg and grew up in southern Germany. He studied education at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and today writes plays, essays, reports, stories and novels. He achieved international prominence thanks in part to two best-selling novels: Infanta (1990) and Parlando (2001). Bodo Kirchhoff also wrote the screenplay for Die Konferenz (The Meeting), a local TV production with a high-calibre cast that won the Hessian TV Award in 2005. He returned to the same story in his 2004 novel Wo das Meer beginnt (Where the Sea Begins). His most recent work is Der Sommer nach dem Jahrhundertsommer. Die Erzählungen aus 25 Jahren (The Summer after the Summer of the Century. Twenty-Five Years of Stories). Bodo Kirchhoff is married and has two children. He lives in Frankfurt am Main and at Lake Garda.