• Berlin
  • “Bei Renate” Comic Library

Berlin

“Bei Renate” Comic Library

Forget Superman! Discover a universe of GDR comics, tough girl tales and legitimate dirty mags. Step out of that closet where you hide your dusty old Donald Ducks and into a world beyond Disney, DC and manga.

Forget Superman! Discover a universe of GDR comics, tough girl tales and legitimate dirty mags. Step out of that closet where you hide your dusty old Donald Ducks and into a world beyond Disney, DC and manga. At the “Bei Renate” Comicbibliothek, an outgrowth of Berlin’s vibrant post-1989 squat scene, you’ll encounter an assortment of around 15,000 comic books and related reference works. The bottom line at Bei Renate is that they are a medium in need of protection – no one cares whether comics are visual art or literature, only for children or just someone’s sick habit.

A whole wall of the library is devoted to original titles, most of which are in English. The rest are in German, but the combination of text and images makes them an ideal learning aid for those Anglos who finally want to pick up the dang language. Brilliant full length stories by authors like Mawil and Reinhard Kleist will make even the freshest faced expat feel like a true Berliner, while Fil’s local classic Didi & Stulle proves once and for all that the old myth about Germans not having a sense of humour is, well … Nothing but an old myth. Membership costs €2.50, plus another €2.50 for every month you actually borrow books. Visit the website to find out about workshops for kids and adults. Every first Monday of the month is the Stammtisch: have a beer, hang out with the other nerds, trade and talk comics.