"Mein Kircher..."

With exclusive film and audio clips, personal insights and fascinating discoveries from his research, he offers a refreshing perspective on the life and work of the Expressionist.

An evening full of surprising discoveries that regularly captivates his audience

Franz Dinda (born 1983) has been exploring the life and work of the Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) since 2019. Building on his own collecting activities, he has developed – alongside his work as an actor – a research focus on the artist’s biography, oeuvre and source material. His interdisciplinary approach combines art-historical, literary and contemporary historical perspectives.

His work centres on the analysis of previously neglected sources, the re-examination of established research findings and the reconstruction of historical contexts. His contributions include the identification and cataloguing of previously unknown documents, the reconstruction of Kirchner’s most comprehensive sketchbook, and the cataloguing of the artist’s library collection. His research has contributed to the expansion of the available source material and to new perspectives on the context of Kirchner’s life and work.

Dinda is one of the few younger researchers today who are continuing the great research traditions of Kirchner studies. His work combines the meticulousness of classical source research with the possibilities offered by contemporary research methods and the public dissemination of knowledge. In doing so, he embodies both the preservation and the further development of a research tradition that has been shaped over decades by figures such as Eberhard W. Kornfeld (1923–2023) and Karlheinz Gabler (1920–1985). In 2026, he was appointed as the youngest member of the Board of Trustees of the KirchnerHAUS Aschaffenburg e. V.