Lesung Volker Kutscher & Kat Menschik

In the organizer's words:

Volker Kutscher's novels were successfully filmed as "Babylon Berlin". They end in 1938, but what happened to Gereon Rath, Charlotte Ritter and Wilhelm Böhm? In "Westend", Volker Kutscher tells how his characters fared during the war and in the years that followed. The book was illustrated by one of Germany's most popular illustrators, Kat Menschik. Both will be joining us in Nippes to talk about their work together and, of course, about the crime novels featuring Gereon Rath.

The book "Westend": Berlin-Westend, 1973 - a tape, an interview, a surprise: the private lecturer Hans Singer visits the 74-year-old retired detective inspector Gereon Rath in his retirement home because he is researching the work of the Berlin police during the change of political systems. The historian is particularly interested in the police murders at Bülowplatz in 1931 and two men who were wanted by the police at the time. This is because they later made a stellar career in the state apparatus of the GDR.

To the discomfort of the retired commissioner, the conversation takes a surprising turn. Singer knows all about Rath's past, he knows his old colleagues and even his ex-wife. And he is on the trail of something that Rath does not want to talk about under any circumstances: events that took place in East Berlin in 1953 and in which the murders of 1931 also played a role.

Ulrich Noller moderates the evening.