Hannah Brinkmann, born in Hamburg in 1990, studied Graphic Narrative in Hamburg, Tel Aviv, and Angoulême and completed a Master’s degree in Fine Arts & Humanities at the Royal College of Arts in London. In 2017, she created her first graphic novel “Gegen mein Gewissen” (Against My Conscience) in the Sitka Fellows program in Alaska and continued her research at Harvard Law School with a fellowship in 2018. Her comic debut was nominated for the Berthold Leibinger Foundation Comic Book Award. She has had drawings published in Strapazin Magazin, taz, and Tagesspiegel, and was featured in “Alphabet of Arrival” by Germany’s Federal Agency for Civic Education. In 2024, she initiated the project “Wie geht es dir? Zeichner*innen gegen Antisemitismus, Hass und Rassismus” (How are you? Illustrators Against Anti-Semitism, Hatred and Racism). Her graphic novel “Zeit heilt keine Wunden” (Time Heals No Wounds) about Shoah survivor Ernst Grube will be published by Avant Verlag in fall 2024, and is a finalist for the 2024 Berthold Leibinger Prize. Hannah Brinkmann is also a holder of a 2024 comic scholarship from the German Literature Fund.
© Heike Steinweg
In January 2024, Hannah Brinkmann, Nathalie Frank, Michael Jordan, Moritz Stetter, Birgit Weyhe and Barbara Yelin launched the project “Wie geht es dir? Zeichner*innen gegen Antisemitismus, Hass und Rassismus” (“How are you? Illustrators Against Anti-Semitism, Hatred and Racism”). They received support from Dr. Véronique Sina (Goethe University Frankfurt) and the Erlangen International Comic Salon team. The initiators felt deeply shaken by the brutal Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent terrible events in Gaza. They were concerned that Jewish people in Germany were once again feeling anxious, isolated, and threatened. At the same time, they witnessed an increase in hostility towards Muslims and racist discrimination. Right-wing extremism, hatred, and hate speech were becoming increasingly visible. With their campaign, the artists seek to give visibility to those affected, express their compassion through art, break the silence, and contribute to dialog. Drawings and comics tell individual stories, clarify and create closeness without exposing people and their fates. At www.wiegehtesdir-comics.de and on Instagram @wiegehtesdir_comics, the initiators tell new short stories every week about people who have been affected by anti-Semitism and discrimination or who address misanthropic ideologies.