“Oh god…” 83-year-old Klaus Willbrand smiles when he is asked the question in a short video on TikTok: “What does a young person have to have read?” He thinks that a young person doesn’t have to have read anything at all. “You can survive without reading.”
This statement does not apply to the Cologne book antiquarian himself. Reading is a kind of staple for him. The knowledge he acquired has made him a social media star since spring 2024.
Perhaps in the general chatter of news streams, comment columns, between food photography, cosmetics and self-care influencers, there is now actually a longing for depth and substance. At least that’s how Daria Razumovych, who is 50 years her junior, explains why her accounts with Klaus Willbrand as the protagonist are so incredibly successful: He soon has 150,000 followers on Instagram, and there are also around 50,000 on TikTok – although individual videos have already been streamed millions of times. For example, the one in which he declares Hermann Hesse to be “clearly overrated”.
The good news that literature is a topic on TikTok made the rounds last year. However, one suspects that this is mainly due to new genres (or new genre names for old content). This is how the book fairs also reacted and, in addition to fantasy, thrillers and crime novels, which have long been expected to have a young readership active on social media, they also included New Adult, Young Adult and New Romance in their program.
For Klaus Willbrand, however, these genres are not an issue at all. In his small antiquarian bookstore in Cologne’s Lindenthal district near the university, he stocks German and international literature, books on theater, philosophy, sociology, politics and art, hardcovers, paperbacks, bargains and valuable first editions – all selected by the bookseller for their quality can vouch.
Klaus Willbrand can explain literature
This is also how the frequently viewed videos work: Klaus Willbrand recommends world literature, talks about its content, its editions, encounters with authors, publishing decisions, the paper, the writing. If you visit him in the store, you only need to give him a keyword and he will gladly open the box of his wealth of experience in a long chain of associations. He likes long sentences, even if he sits down and reads between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. like he does every night.
Then it can also be Faulkner and especially Proust. The new translation of “In Search of Lost Time” was an opportunity to study the seven volumes for the third time. “I read the 4,500 pages in 47 days, you could say in an act of violence.” He reads with concentration, paying attention to the details, “that’s work too.” This is the only way to see what Kafka meant when he said: “A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.”
Behind the 83-year-old antiquarian’s success on social media is also the story of a wonderful friendship that led to the saving of his shop: three years ago, Daria Razumovych discovered Klaus Willbrand’s stand at the antique book market on Cologne’s Neumarkt.
The 30-year-old, who was still working as an editor for the art book publisher Taschen at the time, got stuck on a Marcel Proust edition in a beautiful linen binding and soon started talking to the dealer. Later she also visited him in the store, the two had many topics in common and over time they became friends.
Sometimes the antiquarian would say to her, even if she wasn’t there early: “You’re the first customer today.” At some point, Daria Razumovych quit her job with the plan to start her own business as a freelance editor, social media and SEO expert and went on a trip to Asia for a few months. Klaus Willbrand’s situation worsened dramatically: “Sometimes not a single customer came for two days,” he remembers. That’s why, after her return, the young friend hit open doors when she expressed the idea of putting it on social media
Try media.
A book of your own is a must
It was clear to the bookseller: either that – or close. Daria Razumovych is now also a business partner, customers are flocking in again and are also buying online offers such as the “mystery boxes” with individually compiled books on a topic. In 2025, Klaus Willbrand will even become an author himself. The Fischer publishing house approached him with the desire for a book project – no matter the topic.
“Just literature. An Invitation” will be published in June and, with a foreword and a concluding chapter by Daria Razumovych, tells, among other things, how the antiquarian, as a five-year-old, lay in a hospital in his homeland in the war-torn Ruhr area and teaches himself to read – and thus gains access to his world which he prefers to stay in to this day.