With a ceremony at the Evangelische Akademie, Achim Frenz was bidden farewell from his active service as director of the Caricatura Museum Frankfurt. In her speech, Ina Hartwig, Head of the Department of Culture, paid tribute to Achim Frenz's great and persistent commitment to comic art: "The Caricatura Museum Frankfurt is a great fortune for our city, which is now inscribed in the collective memory as the capital of satire. The museum, a magnet for the public, enjoys a nationwide reputation as a center of excellence for comic art. These successes can be attributed to the passionate commitment of Achim Frenz, who turned his idea into reality and founded the museum in Frankfurt. Not least, it has contributed to comic art becoming a genre concept to be taken seriously." In his witty laudatory speech, Pit Knorr evoked the glorious future of comic art in Frankfurt based on the work of Achim Frenz. The farewell ceremony was accompanied musically by Frank Wolff.
Frenz directed the Caricatura Museum Frankfurt - Museum für Komische Kunst since its founding in 2008 in the Leinwandhaus on Weckmarkt. The idea of the museum can be traced back to him: Back at the turn of the millennium, he was entrusted with the development of a museum concept by the then head of the department of culture, Hans-Bernhard Nordhoff. Frenz had previously advocated building up a collection of the "New Frankfurt School" and making it permanently accessible to the public. Under the motto "Show what is possible," he spent eight years campaigning for an independent museum with 20 successful exhibitions. Initially still a branch of the Historical Museum, and since 2019 directly subordinate to the Cultural Office, it was ceremoniously opened in 2008 in the Leinwandhaus at Weckmarkt 17.
During his time as museum director, Frenz was responsible for building up and expanding the museum's collection, which now includes well over 8,000 originals by the draftsmen of the "New Frankfurt School" as well as some 6,500 drawings by other cartoonists. Under his aegis, the regular rehangings of the permanent exhibitions on the "Neue Frankfurter Schule" and 42 special exhibitions were curated, most recently the current exhibition "Ach was. Loriot zum Hundertsten" in the anniversary year of probably the most important German humorist. As editor of the Caricatura Museum Edition, which is produced in cooperation with various publishers, books are regularly published on the diverse exhibitions. In addition, Frenz and his team established the Festival of Comedy, which annually presents satirical stage art during the Museumsuferfest as a complement to the exhibitions at the Weckmarkt. In 2020, the Caricatura Museum and the Caricatura Galerie Kassel were honored with the Hessian Culture Award. It was the first time that a museum and a gallery received this award.
Since 2006, Frenz has been co-editor of the satirical magazine Titanic. He imparted his expertise with young artists as a lecturer at the Gesamthochschule Kassel. In the Summer Academies for Comic Art, organized by the Caricatura Museum Frankfurt - Museum für Komische Kunst and the Caricatura - Galerie für Komische Kunst Kassel, Frenz has been involved in the training of young cartoonists since 2007. His expertise was and is also in demand as a jury member, for example, the Göttingen Elk, German Caricature Prize, Wilhelm Busch Prize and the Ludwig-Emil Grimm Prize.
