Präsentation der Graphic Novel „War doch alles schön“: Erkenntnisse zu transgenerationeller Weitergabe vonKriegserfahrungen

In the organizer's words:

In the graphic novel War doch alles schön , Susanne and Kilian Kuhlendahl look back on the lives of their mother and grandmother, who lived through the Second World War as a child. It is only while they are working on the book that they realize how much these events still influence their lives today and incorporate their reflections into the resulting book. In this way, War is about both: a childhood during the war and the traces and coming to terms with these stressful, sometimes traumatic experiences in subsequent generations.

Following the presentation of the graphic novel, Insa Fooken, Professor of Interdisciplinary Aging Studies and psychologist, will add to her input with findings on the transgenerational transmission of stressful war experiences and traumas. She will also discuss how to deal with early traumatic life experiences in (cultural) work with older people. This will be followed by an opportunity for discussion.

Prof. Dr. Insa Fooken is a developmental psychologist (University of Siegen, Goethe University Frankfurt) who studies lifelong development, i.e. both child development and ageing processes. Resilience, ambivalence and attachment are important theoretical references in her research, which includes female and male ageing, war children in old age, family relationships, late divorces and dolls as a cultural studies topic.

Kilian Kuhlendahl tells his stories in any medium that suits the respective story: Documentary film, audio book, screenplay, graphic novel. Before War doch alles schön , he completed the cinema documentary "Vergiss Meyn nicht" about activism, which was nominated for the German Film Award in the Best Documentary Film category at the Berlinale in 2023 and 2024, among others. The short story collection Großstadtgeister was published as a podcast at klappkatapult.de

Susanne Kuhlendahl is an illustrator, primarily of graphic novels. The biography Virginia Woolf and Death in Venice after Thomas Mann were published by Knesebeck Verlag, others such as Novecento after Alessandro Baricco, Das Brot after Wolfgang Borchert, Die Geigerin and Der Buhmann are self-published. In September, her graphic novel Orlando after Virginia Woolf was published by Helvetiq Verlag, Basel.

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