In "Herbert", Mark Christoph Klee examines the biography of his gay great-grand-uncle (1924 - 2012), who was imprisoned under Paragraph 175 during the Nazi dictatorship. Using historical facts about Germany's homophobic history, queer music from the 50s and 60s and archive material from his family, Klee draws parallels between his life as a homosexual man today and that of Herbert back then. "Herbert" is not a completed performance but an ongoing research project. The intimate scenes of text and movement speak of experiences of discrimination, allowing space for anger, sadness but also for queer joy. "Herbert" makes it emotionally tangible what democracy and diversity mean, how young and fragile rights are for queer people and how right-wing extremism today and then are similar.

Thanks to the ATLAS scholarship at the IMPULSTANZ Festival in Vienna, Klee was able to present a first version of this lecture-performance to an international audience. The project was accompanied by the mentors Angelique Willkie and Guy Cools.