15 March 2024 press release

Pictures for listeners – "AugenRausch", the new podcast by the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library, will be launched on 16 March 2024.

The podcast focuses on images as a source of knowledge. Comics, manga, picture stories, illustrations, infographics, icons – the world is full of image-based knowledge. Images have been meaningful since the beginning of media history, for example in cave paintings and hieroglyphic script. Modern-day visual worlds are omnipresent, whether in books, on posters, in films, in apps or online. "AugenRausch" shows the richness of contemporary comic and illustration as an art form.

The first episode will be released on 16 March 2024 and introduces two of the best-known representatives of the comic and illustrator scene, Armin Abmeier and Rotraut Susanne Berner. The release of the second episode will coincide with the milestone birthday of Leipzig-based graphic artist Egbert Herfurth on 5 April 2024. Subsequent episodes will feature talented young artists as well as well-known exponents in this field.

Illustrators and comic artists move between free and applied art, between service and a need for self-realisation. This is particularly true in times of digital reproducibility and production. The podcast features artists talking from their studios and homes about their work and what drives them. The subjects it addresses include the current social relevance of images as a resource, the economic aspects of image creation, and the call for graphic novels to be accorded the same recognition as literature or fine art.

People interested in the world of comics can immerse themselves in this medium not only online, but also at the German Museum of Books and Writing. The Museum will be hosting the exhibition "Nice to meet me. Comic and autobiography. Netherlands/Flanders" from 20 March 2024 to 5 January 2025. The podcast is an example of how the German Museum of Books and Writing is reorienting its collection policy: images will be a key topic in the future – in terms of acquisitions as well as exhibitions and events.

Further information about the podcast AugenRausch
dnb.de/augenrausch
Available in Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Background

The book has shaped our culture and civilisation like no other medium. For centuries our knowledge about the world and its peoples has been stored in books. The task of the German National Library’s German Museum of Books and Writing is to collect, exhibit and process evidence of book and media history. Founded in 1884 in Leipzig as the Deutsches Buchgewerbemuseum (German Book Trade Museum), it is the oldest museum in the world in the field of book culture, and also one of the most important with regard to the scope and quality of its holdings.

Alongside manuscripts, historical prints, coloured papers and modern book art, its collections contain archive materials and estates on the history of writing and typography. Together with the world’s largest watermark collection and a host of writing implements and machines for producing books and paper, the museum’s collections facilitate an interdisciplinary approach to issues in cultural and media studies.

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