Comic Interview
Birgit Weyhe on inspiration, protest – and France

With her “Madgermanes”, Birgit Weyhe has revisited Afro-German history, and in a certain way a part of her very own biography. The comic book tells the story of Mozambican guest workers in Communist east Germany in the 1980s. On the occasion of the Frankfurt Book Fair, in our Comic Interview she responds to questions about her work and about France, this year’s Book Fair Guest of Honour.

Birgit Weyhe grew up in Kenya and Uganda. After graduating from high school she returned to Germany. She studied History and Literature and later Illustration at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, and today lives in that city. 

Where do you get the inspiration for your comics?

Photo (detail): © Birgit Weyhe

What German personality should be immortalized in a comic of their own?

Photo (detail): © Birgit Weyhe

What image of Germany would you like to convey outside the country?

Photo (detail): © Birgit Weyhe

France is this year’s Book Fair Guest of Honour: Please show us one of your figures in the French version.

Photo (detail): © Birgit Weyhe

Liberté, égalité, fraternité – and what would you go on the streets to protest about?

Photo (detail): © Birgit Weyhe