Drüben
Simon Schwartz was born in 1982 in Erfürt, part of the former DDR, the Eastern part of Germany that was under socialist regime until the reunion with West Germany in 1989. His parents applied for a pass to travel to the West before he was born, and had to wait four years before passage was granted. Simon Schwartz told their story in his graduation project from the Art Academy of Hamburg, the acclaimed graphic novel 'Drüben', which was published in 2009. This book was nominated for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2010 and awarded the ICOM Independent Comic Award for Outstanding Scenario in 2010.
comic in Die Zeit, 2010
Simon Schwartz has been working as a freelance illustrator since 2006. He has also worked for two years for famous German comic magazine Mosaik. In September 2011, he started teaching illustration at the Faculty of Design at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. He is also working on the comic 'Packeis', which appears at Avant Verlag in early 2012.
Packeis