Image: Günter Grass-Haus, Lübeck
‘Helme Heine – Es war einmal …’ is on view at the Günter Grass-Haus in Lübeck, Germany, from 26 April 2026 to 10 January 2027. The museum presents it as the first retrospective since the picture-book artist’s death in November 2025, staged to show the breadth of his output.
Heine is best known for the ‘Freunde’ of Mullewapp and the small green dragon Tabaluga. Alongside those characters the exhibition takes up subjects the artist returned to late in life: the consequences of the climate catastrophe, the risks of artificial intelligence and continuing gender inequality. The museum describes the result as a lament for a civilisation in decline, offset by Heine’s characteristic understated humour.
The show also includes works Heine made specifically for the Günter Grass-Haus, referring both to the Nobel laureate and to the city of Lübeck. They are shown with documentation of the curators’ final visit to the artist at Prutting in Bavaria shortly before his death, numerous original sketches, and a walk-in wooden Mullewapp village open to visitors of all ages.
The exhibition was curated by Carl Manzey, with exhibition design by Berit Reutershan. It opened on Sunday, 26 April 2026 in the museum garden in the presence of Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister-President Daniel Günther, Heine’s son Christoph von Radowitz and the children’s author Cornelia Funke. Photographs of the opening and of the installation are by Thorsten Wulff.
Public programming continues through the run. The interactive tour ‘Was ist Freundschaft?’ (‘What Is Friendship?’), for children aged four to ten, uses Heine’s characters Franz von Hahn, Johnny Mauser and the portly Waldemar as a starting point for reflecting on friendship; the next sessions fall on Sunday 27 September, Sunday 25 October and Sunday 22 November 2026, each 2pm to 3pm, with tickets required. The Junges Schauspiel Lübeck separately tours a stage version of ‘Freunde’, directed by Sven Niemeyer, to kindergartens and primary schools, with a theatre-education workshop bookable through the company.
The Günter Grass-Haus is one of the sites of Die Lübecker Museen, the municipal museum organisation run by the Kulturstiftung Hansestadt Lübeck. The museum has also offered a 60-minute public tour taking in both its permanent display ‘Das ist Grass’ and the Heine exhibition.
