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F.W. Bernstein (c) Verlag Antje Kunstmann
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F. W. Bernstein, born as Fritz Weigle in 1938 in Göppingen, lives in Berlin. He draws, writes poetry and short prose and is Professor Emeritus for Caricature and the History of Pictures at the Berlin University of the Arts. Together with Robert Gernhardt, Eckhard Henscheid, Friedrich Karl Waechter, Pit Knorr, Chlodwig Poth and Hans Traxler he is a founder member and Grand Master of the New Frankfurt School. He has contributed for many years to the satirical magazine Pardon and winner of among other things the Göttingen Elk, the Kassel Literature Prize for grotesque Humour and the Wilhelm Busch Prize. He created the legendary couplet, “Die schärfsten Kritiker der Elche / waren früher selber welche” (the strongest critics of the elk / were formerly elks themselves), which raised the elk up as the heraldic beast of the New Frankfurt School. Peter Köhler has said of him, “Bernstein’s production is thoroughly incalculable, even incommensurable.”
Book recommendations: Richard Wagners Fahrt ins Glück. Sein Leben in Bildern und Versen, Berlin: Fest 2002; Die Gedichte. Munich: Kunstmann 2003; Die Superfusseldüse. 19 Dramen in unordentlichem Zustand. Munich: Antje Kunstmann Verlag 2006; Meister der komischen Kunst: F.W. Bernstein. München: Antje Kunstmann 2012