No other literary character accompanied Thomas Mann for as long as the impostor Felix Krull. He worked on this popular rogue novel for over 50 years, and it still captivates readers today with its charm and wit.
After his father’s bankruptcy, Felix Krull finds himself working as a bellboy in a Parisian hotel. Through deception and masterful self-presentation, he wins the favor of his superiors, amasses a fortune, and befriends a marquis who, out of love-driven desperation, asks him to become his double. Eager to climb the social ladder, Felix accepts the offer and embarks on a journey around the world—starting in Lisbon, where it unexpectedly halts. There, he falls in love with a professor’s daughter, who, however, does not return his affections. But the ever-successful Felix is determined to win her over with his unique talents...
Actor Sebastian Schneider will read from the novel. He played the lead role in the recently released film The Confessions of the Impostor Thomas Mann, directed by André Schäfer, who will also be present. Following the reading, the two will discuss the film and its making.
The evening’s host is Jan Kath Design, an opulent venue where Felix Krull would have felt quite at home.
Sebastian Schneider, born in 1991 in Vorwerk, Lower Saxony, began taking on major theater roles as a teenager at the Bremen Theater. He trained at the renowned Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin and later joined the Theater Bern ensemble. Schneider has appeared in numerous film and television productions, including Til Schweiger’s Die Rettung der uns bekannten Welt and the recent Cologne Tatort episode Colonius. In André Schäfer’s documentary-fictional film The Confessions of the Impostor Thomas Mann, he plays the lead role.
André Schäfer, born in 1966, is an author, director, and producer at Florianfilm GmbH in Cologne and Tetenbüll. His first feature documentary Lenin Only Got as Far as Lüdenscheid was nominated for the German Film Award in 2008. His films Look Me in the Eye, Little One and Rock Hudson – Dark And Handsome Stranger premiered at the Berlinale. Willy Brandt – Memories of a Political Life won the Bavarian Television Award in 2014, and Deutschboden received the German Film Critics Award for Best Documentary in 2015. His documentary Everything About Martin Suter. Except the Truth premiered as the closing film of the 2022 Locarno Film Festival on Piazza Grande. Schäfer lives in Cologne and on the North Sea peninsula of Eiderstedt.An impostor, a classic novel, a film: On February 4, 2025, actor Sebastian Schneider reads from The Confessions of the Impostor Felix Krull and discusses its adaptation with director André Schäfer.