Motto : „Scene of the Crime : Future – SF Thrillers and Anti-heroes” (Tatort: Zukunft – SF-Krimis und Antihelden).
“It should be noted that anti-heroes are not to be confused with a villain,” said Manfred Orlowski, one Elstercon organizer. “Only in the performance is showed the strength of character of anti-heroes, these heroes stand out and are interesting, but are also more difficult to create. Particularly evident in the comics.”
Elstercon is the National German Science Fiction (and a festival of the fantastic literature), the Elstercons are held only in the even years.
It’s organized in Leipzig (Eastern Germany, Saxony/Sachsen) every two years since 1992.
Leipzig (population of 543,629 inhabitants) is located about 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Berlin at the confluence of the White Elster, Pleisse, and Parthe rivers at the southerly end of the North German Plain.
Thomas Braatz and Manfred Orlowski
This Elstercon edition is being held in the Haus des Buches/House of Books, Gerichtsweg 28, Ecke Prager Straße, Leipzig. The organizer of the Elstercons is the FKSFL – eV, the Science Fiction Friends from Leipzig Association, which was founded in 1985 : the actual board consists of Thomas Braatz, Mario Franke, Manfred Orlowski, René Meyer, Siegfried Breuer.
In the odd-numbered years, the german SF fans are organizing the DORT.cons (Dortmund’s Science Fiction Convention), always held in Dortmund (West Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia/Nordrhein Westfalen). The next DORT.con will take place during 21st-22nd of March 2015.
Elstercon is a tipical science fiction convention with lectures, conferences, panels readings and discussions during three days, on the areas of science fiction , plus fantasy and horror. There is also a book market and various stalls of publishers.
Due to its continuity and its high-profile international and german invited authors and artists, Elstercon became one of the most important science fiction conventions from Germany.
The 2014 Elstercon’s Guests of Honor are Jean-Marc Rochette (France), Philip Kerr (GB), Lavie Tidhar (GB), Ian Tregillis (US), Edward Lee (US), Julie Phillips (US), and the germans Robert Corvus (Bernd-Otto Robker, author of fantasy and science fiction), Christian v. Ditfurth (Wolf-Christian von Ditfurth), Boris Koch, Miriam Pharo, Uwe Schimunek, Karlheinz Steinmüller, Dirk van den Boom, Christian von Aster, Michael Marrak, Margo Jane Warnken.
During Elstercon (and of course, DORT.con) the two most prestigious German prizes for science fiction, the Kurd-Laßwitz Prize (since 1981) and the the (by the Science Fiction Club Deutschland, the Science Fiction Club Germany; SFCD was founded on the 4th August 1955 by the science fiction author Walter Ernsting (aka Clark Dalton) and Raymond Zinke Gallun, the publishing editor Walter Spiegl and Julian Parr in Frankfurt am Main, Western Germany. The SFCD seat is Hanover and SFCD is Germany’s oldest and largest independent association of this kind.)
The Deutscher Science Fiction Preis/German Science Fiction Prize is annually awarded since 1985 in the two categories, “Best German-language Novel” and “Best German-language Short Story”, the prizes’ value being of 1,000 euros for each category, the competitions being open to all germanophone authors.
During it’s existence Elstercon had as guests the german SF writers Andreas Eschbach , Wolfgang Jeschke , Erik Simon, Kai Meyer and Michael Marrak, the US writers Tim Powers, Vernor Vinge, Norman Spinrad, Mary Doria Russell, the british Brian Lumley and the canadian origin artist John Howe.
The first German Science Fiction Convention was held in West Germany in 1956. (02.09.1956, Deutscher Science Fiction Konvent, erster SF-Con in Deutschland), in Bayrisch-Zell : http://www.charlys-phantastik-cafe.de/fandom/SFCD-history/SFCD-cons.htm
“Dschiheads” (Jiheads) by Wolfgang Jeschke (Kurd Lasswitz Prize for The Best SF German language Novel)
Best German SF Short Story :
“Coen Sloterdykes Diametral Levitierendes Chronoversum” (Coen Sloterdyke’s Diametral Levitated Chronoverse) by Michael Marrak (Nova 05/13)
Best German SF Graphical Art 2013 :
Pierangelo Boog for the cover of „Exodus” 30
Special Achievement Award For Longtime Activities :
Martin Kempf and his team of Fandom Observer for publishing 300 issues in 25 years
http://www.fksfl.de/resources/Programm/Flyer-Con-EC-2014-11.09.2014.pdf
