Learn German with Graphic Novels

Cultural Clashes, classics of European literature and German history in pictures
Graphic novels – or comics – have become quite famous over the past few years. Especially for those starting to learn German, graphic novels offer complex storylines and characters with minimal text, led by vibrant imagery. The marrying of text and image also supports the understanding of unknown or otherwise confusing vocabulary or grammatical structures.
Berlin itself seems to be a very popular setting for cartoonists and graphic novel authors, especially over the past couple of decades. What’s so special about the setting of Berlin? These novels are all set during the 20th century and link personal/biographical experiences with historical events, so if you’ve ever wondered about what life in Berlin was like during the roaring twenties, the fascist regime, or when Berlin was divided and later reunited, the following pics will give you some interesting insights and share what those days were like from a personal point of view.
Find below our list of recommendations:
Jason Lutes‘ triology 'Berlin'
Jason Lutes‘ triology Berlin: Steinerne Stadt / Berlin: Bleierne Stadt / Berlin: Flirrende Stadt is a historical novel in images. Set in Berlin from 1928 to 1933, his precisely researched city views create an impressive panoramic milieu study of the time. Lutes presents the story of the student Marthe Müller and the journalist Kurt Severing, during the Weimar republic to the dawn of the Third Reich.
'Der Nasse Fisch'
Der Nasse Fisch is another graphic novel set in the 1920s. The adaption of the eponymous novel – which was also the model for the famous German series Babylon Berlin – tells the story of police detective Gereon Rath from Cologne, who discovers Berlin’s dark side while solving a crime his father is involved in.
'Maus' by Spiegelman
Maus is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman. Maus depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. The graphic novel represents Jewish people as mice, Germans as cats, and Polish people as pigs. The book uses a minimalist drawing style in black and white.
'Kinderland' by Mawil
The Berlin-based cartoonist Mawil published two graphic novels about his childhood and teenager years in East Berlin. In Kinderland, we follow Mirko through his everyday life in East Berlin and the historic events of November, 9th 1989.
"Wir können ja Freunde bleiben"
In Wir können ja Freunde bleiben, the protagonist remembers the stories of his first loves – first in a separated, then in a newly-reunited Germany.
'Drüben!' and 'Grenzfall'
Various other graphic novels are set in the time of German separation and portray especially the Eastern German perspective. While Mawil’s work has a humorous tone and is affected by his personal experiences, the novels Drüben! and Grenzfall have a more political angle on the time period.
'Berliner Mythen' by Reinhardt Kleist
If you’re happy to learn about a Berlin from any period of time, Berliner Mythen by Reinhardt Kleist offers many different stories about Berlin’s historic epochs or famous people, told by passengers to the taxi driver Ozan.
In addition to our recommendations on graphic novels dealing specifically with Berlin and its eventful history in the 20th century, there are many other graphic novel scenes which are just as exciting and ambitious. The following stories and characters not only convey words, but also captivate the reader, especially on a visual level.
Marjani Satrapi’s series 'Persepolis'
Marjani Satrapi’s series Persepolis (Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood / Persepolis: The Story of a Return) tells, as auto fiction, the story of the author, who lived through the Islamic Revolution in Iran as a child and was finally exiled to Austria by her parents. There, Satrapi is confronted by big cultural differences and by the search for her own identity. The Persepolis series was published in France in 2000, and later released as a comic-style film in 2007.
Goethe’s 'Faust'
German-language literary classics from various eras have also been reissued as graphic novels. The illustrator Flix, for example, tried his hand at Goethe’s Faust: the background story of the rivalry between God and Mephisto has remained, but Heinrich Faust is a student of many subject, jack of all trades and a taxi driver in Berlin. As such, the graphic novel contains the complete story, albeit in a revised form.
Franz Kafka’s 'Metamorphosis'
Somewhat gloomier – and thus also remaining true to the tone of the original – is the comic adaptation of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Eric Corbeyran and Richard Horne have adapted this equally famous and timeless classic of Austrian literature as a graphic novel. The narrative adheres closely to Kafka’s original text, and the drawings illustrate his sad metaphor on the essence of humanity in an atmospheric and innovative manner.
Barbara Yelin's 'Gift'
German history can also be retraced beyond the Berlin context in graphic novels – for example, in Peer Meters and Barbara Yelin’s comic novel Gift about Gesche Gottfried, Germany’s first known poisoner. Gottfried poisoned fifteen people – including her husbands, her parents and her children – between 1813 and 1827. Meter and Yelin took up this story and tell, from the perspective of a young writer, the fate of Gesche Gottfried and the circumstances to which women were subjected in the 19th century.
'The Diary of Anne Frank' and 'Sophie Scholl'
The graphic novels The Diary of Anne Frank; Graphic Diary by Ari Folman and David Polonsky and Sophie Scholl; The Comic Biography by Heiner Lünstedt and Ingrid Sabisch tell the stories of German fascism and the cruelty of the Third Reich from the perspective of two girls who were both victims of National Socialism.