Im Morgen wächst ein Birnbaum
Fikri Anıl Altıntaş presents his autobiographical debut. The author grows up as the son of Turkish parents in a small town in Hesse. His father works as a teacher of Turkish, his mother as a cleaner. It is a childhood amid council housing, marked by an urgent aspiration to be ‘German’ and the bitter disillusionment with reality in Germany. The desire to be seen and to find his own way as a Turkish-Muslim man keeps growing. Above all, the relationship with his father is what ultimately makes him ponder questions like: What does masculinity even mean? How to understand and live it beyond the associated clichés? Fikri Anıl Altıntaş searches for the nuances amid bogged-down narratives. He looks back on himself and his family history to better understand the present in a radically honest manner. The author will be reading from his novel and talking to Anahita Neghabat. Those participating in the event get the opportunity to strike up conversations with each other and with the author.
Curated and hosted by Anahita Neghabat
Within the scope of
is a political educator and independent author. He studied political science, ethnology, and Eastern European studies. In his work (including for taz, ZDF and Berliner Ensemble), he explores masculinity(s), anti-feminism and the (de)construction of masculinities that are read as Muslim. He is a volunteer #HeForShe ambassador for UN Women Germany; he shares his work on Instagram at @_faanil. His debut novel, Im Morgen wächst ein Birnbaum, was published by btb Verlag in 2023.
is a social anthropologist, artist, and activist with a focus on critical education, intersectional feminism and (anti-Muslim) racism. She is a researcher-in-residence at KinderKunstLabor, an exhibition centre for contemporary art. She has been commenting on Austrian domestic politics as @ibiza_austrian_memes with satirical images since 2019 and was elected Young European of the Year by the Schwarzkopf Foundation for this work in 2022.
In German