Writer inspires students in Weilheim: tears of laughter with Friedrich Ani

Created: 04/02/2022, 10:00 am

"It's a great adventure that characters change while writing": Friedrich Ani had a lot of interesting and amusing things to tell in Weilheim.

© Ralf Ruder

A writer, known to many as a crime writer, delighted the audience at the Weilheim high school.

Friedrich Ani connected further talents to an audience of around 200.

Weilheim

– The modified Latin saying suited Friedrich Ani: “He came, read, and conquered.” Because the Munich author took the audience of all ages with his warm voice, mixed with laconic humor, right away: “I get paid for that” , he said dryly as he lifted the mineral water with the legible label over the poet's table.

Ani already had the hearts and smiles on his side.

He rarely reads in schools, but that's not because he doesn't like being there, "really not," said the 63-year-old, who seemed downright cool with his disarming openness.

"Telling young people why reading is great, that seems important to me."

So we went straight to the first part of the lecture, a crime thriller passage from "Last Honor".

Above all, the dismissive, brash answers of the lady interviewed were amused.

The students in the audience were probably waiting more impatiently for the youth book.

However, when the excerpt from the 2009 publication “Wie Licht Tastes” was released, even the “big” listeners listened with increasing breathlessness.

Ani wove together the many thoughts and few words of his main character Lukas, just as briskly as flippantly, whose awkward encounter with the girl was amusingly and captivatingly reflected in short sentences, lively impressions and a lot of situational comedy.

Another highlight of the evening was the discussion, which is traditionally reserved for student questions.

How much of the plot is certain in advance was asked.

Ani's answer: "It's a great adventure

Ask about his favorite character

Ani's spontaneous answers were often sentences worth listening to, and so it was no wonder that the students were enthusiastic: "He reads well and his books are funny and exciting," said Linus Stangenberg (5th grade).

The texts are "refreshing", said Selma Heidorn from Q12.

And the many emotions that are described help you to put yourself in their shoes, says Maximilian Kohler (7th grade).

Johanna Sepp referred to an important aspect: "I think it's great that poetry readings like this are taking place again at all." And the 10th grader spokeswoman added with bright eyes: "It's the first reading I can go to .

It is a total enrichment!”

Of course, the landlady, the new headmistress Andrea Pauline Martin, and the hosts, the “editors of the Weilheimer Hefte”, were also pleased about the possibility of a cultural face-to-face event.

Representing her team, German teacher Piroschka Pongratz recalled: "The last poetry reading was actually in 2019."

With so much cultural exhaustion, Friedrich Ani put something on top for the text-hungry audience: a short, sensitive poem about Germany's heart, and a "strange text" (Ani about Ani), in which the author suddenly mutated into a voice imitator.

With the mumbling, stuttered staccato thoughts of an unsuccessful soccer coach, Ani sent the audience home with tears of laughter.

Andrew Bretting