In the organizer's words:

"D I E A B S C H I E D S F E I E R"
A story by Seep Jakobs
with illustrations by Bärbel Busch

Lost on retirement.

While Jakob Waldner, a civil servant, is saying a ceremonial farewell to his colleagues at the end of his career, he disappears without a trace. At least in their eyes. He reappears elsewhere: In the historic school building of an open-air museum, where a brusque director awaits him with an official notice of secondment and a new official assignment. He is to teach an experimental class with primary school children, just as he did in the old days, as if the world-shaping digitalization had never happened.

Waldner's appearance pleases the janitor, who recognizes the opportunity to use him as an assistant. Due to an epidemic raging outside, there is a strict ban on entering and going out in the museum village. Most of the staff are locked out and schoolchildren are not allowed in for the time being, but the entire grounds need to be maintained and the animals in the exhibition yards need to be looked after and fed. The newcomer, trained to adapt after many years of service, conceals the fact that he is pedagogically unqualified. He refrains from trying to break out and does his best to fulfill the functions assigned to him. At the same time, he knows he is under critical scrutiny, not only from the director, but also from the cook, a strangely charming woman who, as the janitor's wife, is also part of the skeleton crew at the museum.

This is the initial situation in Seep Jakobs' recently published story "The Farewell Party". Although the opening may seem like a piece from the genre of fantastic literature, the chamber play-like events unfold in the secluded rural setting as if it were absolutely out of this world. Suspicion and trust, dislike and sympathy, rules and disobedience, duty and freestyle, opposition and cooperation come together in a seriously funny adventure story with a surprising ending.

For this publication, the author, who lives in Laubach in Upper Hesse, has once again collaborated with the artist Bärbel Busch from Schwollen in the Hunsrück region, who designed the book and illustrated it with 13 watercolors. "Die Abschiedsfeier" has been published in hardcover by edition buschwerk, has 168 pages and will be available from February 1, 2026 at a price of 18 euros from the publisher and in bookshops.