101 Frankfurt Faces

Die "Frankfurter Gesichter" belong to the oldest columns of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Since 1959, over four thousand of these portraits have been published, with the featured personalities never depicted with a staged photograph, but with a drawn likeness. Six illustrators have so far given this section their very special style. Since 1999, Oliver Sebel has regularly wielded his pencil to present the "Frankfurt faces". From the 600 or so portraits created between 1999 and 2011, Peter Lückemeier du Matthias Alexander have picked out those that they think might arouse the greatest interest among readers, and from them have put together the collection "101 Frankfurter Gesichter".

The section presents such personalities as are interesting, who shape Frankfurt in some way, or who are significant for the cultural or political goings-on in the Main metropolis. The "faces" gathered in this book are presented chronologically according to the date of their publication in the FAZ, which means that some of the portraits are already outdated. But this is not a bad thing, because the book is not only a good testimony to the versatility of the city, but also a kind of small chronicle of recent Frankfurt cultural and political history.

Whether Paolo Carignani, who was still conductor at the Frankfurt Opera at the time of his portrait, brother Paulus, actor Peter Lerchbaumer, Minister of the Interior Boris Rhein, theater maker Willy Praml, Alexandra Princess of Hanover, the President of the University of Music and Performing Arts Thomas Rietschel, architect Nikolaus Hirsch, author Constanze Kleis, singer and actress Sabine Fischmann or Achim Frenz, director of the caricatura Museum, they are all "Frankfurter Gesichter" who are introduced in short but concise portraits.

The texts are by no means dry biographies. Rather, the lives and work of the respective personalities are embedded in small snapshots. This never really goes into depth, but that is not the intention of these portraits. Rather, the intention is to give a brief impression of what makes these people a "Frankfurter Gesicht", regardless of whether those portrayed live in Frankfurt or not.

"101 Frankfurter Gesichter" is a beautiful collection that presents not only people who are known to the general public, but also those who move primarily behind the scenes, but from where they make an important contribution to culture, education, politics, entertainment, leisure or culinary delights. And quite incidentally, it also becomes clear how much life in a city like Frankfurt is constantly on the move. All this makes this collection of portraits then: absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp