WO DIE IRREN FLIRREN. F. K. Waechter. Unvergessen für immer

In the organizer's words:

F. K. Waechter's anarchic wit and penchant for weird nonsense not only influenced generations of illustrators. As he himself once said, he took great pleasure in "pushing the stupidest, most banal, weirdest, most outlandish (...) further" and going against rules, authorities and nonsense, was a leading member of the "Neue Frankfurter Schule" and co-founder of the definitive satirical magazine Titanic. With cartoons such as "Wahrscheinlich guckt wieder kein Schwein" (1971), he made his mark on the collective memory.

Waechter was at home on many stages, including - and this is generally less well known - those of the theater. He penned over 40 poetic plays, some of which he also staged on a wide variety of stages. In Hanover alone, six plays were premiered during Waechter's lifetime, all under the directorship of Ulrich Khuon. The first and most prominent play was "The Ice Princess", which was performed over 270 times between 1993 and 2000 in the famous staircase of the Cumberlandsche Galerie. "Off to the south! (...) where the lunatics shimmer ..." is the play's title. In hot Sicily, the emotionally cold but beautiful princess gradually sheds her coldness and discovers her feelings. A great narrative theater about love and the battle of the sexes. The situation was completely different with Waechter's play "Prince Hamlet", which was written as a play in 1995 but was never performed. Ten years later, shortly before his death, the artist transformed the dramatic content into a magnificent picture book. Beautifully illustrated in colorful, collaged drawings and staged in an artistically impressive way, a cycle of over 60 sheets was created.

In our special exhibition "WO DIE IRREN FLIRREN: F. K. Waechter. Unforgotten forever", we are showing both of Waechter's creative worlds: that of the draughtsman and that of the playwright. Both unite great themes such as happiness, love, betrayal, dreams and the end of life. In addition to hand drawings from our estate collection, we are also showing collages and prints by the artist. The theater chapter is illustrated with stage photographs by Mara Eggert, program booklets, archival material from the collection and from lenders. An extensive accompanying program, including a theatrical performance of "Der alberne Hans" (Christine Weghoff) at the Herrenhausen Gardens summer festival, complements the exhibition. In the guest rooms, we are also presenting some of Waechter's drawings for his witty picture and interactive books, which are aimed at both children and adults.