Hannah Arendt: a contentious thinker of the century, too soon, too angry, dauntingly intelligent, too Jewish, not Jewish enough. In 1933, she escaped to her first exile from Nazi-Germany in Paris, via Czechia, Italy and Switzerland. Later she moved on to New York. From there, she went on to become one of the great icons of our times.

Ken Krimstein, cartoonist and author for the New Yorker Magazine, sketched the life and thinking of the 20^th century’s great political theoretician with a witty lightness in his graphic novel Die drei Leben der Hannah Arendt (The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt), making it accessible for our present times. Since its publication, the book has received several renowned awards and has become an international bestseller.

Director Claudia Bossard, who most recently staged the world premiere of Rainald Goetz’ play Baracke at Deutsches Theater, was inspired by Ken Krimstein’s graphic novel to explore the great maverick of the past century in the form of a theatre mockumentary. Hannah Arendt’s biography has sparked off the ideas, the failure and the hopes of both past and present.