For roughly two decades now, an unmistakable intercultural diversity has been leaving its mark also on contemporary German-language literature. By Klaus Hübner...
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Bookseller and editor Bettina Wassmann has been at the heart of the German book trade for almost forty-five years. She talks with Gabriele Goettle about her apprenticeship in Berlin and the heyday of the political bookstore, her philosopher husband Alfred Sohn-Rethel and making literary history.
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On Christmas Eve Joshka, a demolition contractor, takes a stroll round the old theme park in the woods which he has been hired to tear down... A short story by Georg Klein
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Fifteen years after reunification, Christa Wolf, a prominent German writer who chose to remain in East Germany and who was later branded a "state poet", talks with Hanns-Bruno Kammertöns and Stephan Lebert about private chats with Honecker, a German society in check mate, the influence of Goethe, the shortcomings of Brecht, and the lasting effects of Utopia.
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Gingerbread hearts, 4711, the lovely Petra and appalling paintings. Author Feridun Zaimoglu describes how growing up on a German diet eventually bore literary fruit.
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We present the books that shaped Germany's literary world this autumn, with futuristic novels about clones and time standing still, two major tomes on the fall of the Wall, and a sampling of bookish delights from around the globe.
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A monumental Mao biography, an essay on hate, a book about a 1969 failed bomb attack in Berlin's Jewish Community Centre, and a study of "mental capitalism" on the pervasiveness of advertising.
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Essays by Karl Schlögel and Andrzej Stasiuk, memoirs by Martin Walser and Luc Bondy, histories of German fascination for Russia and a friendship with Hitler, a Weber biography and a book on painter Gerhard Richter.
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Joachim Radkau has written a monumental biography of Max Weber, the father of sociology. Relying heavily on private letters, he draws close parallels between Weber's intellectual and erotic life - which was at first unfulfilled and then both uninhibitied and extra-marital. All very interesting, but does it help us understand Weber's work? By Robert Leicht
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Austrian poet Friederike Mayröcker has written a new book of prose, "And I shook a darling", haunted by the ghost of her life-long companion Ernst Jandl, who died in 2000. By Christina Weiss
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On August 1, we launched a poetry translation competition to celebrate what would have been Austrian poet Ernst Jandl's 80th birthday. Entries poured in from around the world, a jury headed by poet Barbara Köhler deliberated long and hard. Now the long-awaited moment has arrived. And the winner is ...
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Marcel Reich-Ranicki is known as the Pope of literature – that's dumb.
Because the Pope is not interested in erotica and his language is
rarely juicy. Better: Marcel Reich-Ranicki is an 85-year-old pop star
who entertains his audience with book reviews. A conversation with weak
knees.
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American author Jonathan Franzen discusses his German literary influences, American playfulness and his "moral mission". An
interview with Bernadette Conrad
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The reading race is on to see who will take home this year's Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. Awarded as part of the German Literature Days in Klagenfurt, this is Austria's most prestigious literary award, which lauches careers and lines the winner's pocket with a substantial 22,500 euros. We provide some background on the prize and a host of useful links.
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Germany's national poet and dramatist, Friedrich Schiller, died 200 years ago today. Since then he has been adulated by generations of Germans. Both the Nazis and the East German communist regime celebrated him as one of their own. But what relevance does Schiller have today? By George Steiner
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Thirty years after his premature death, new CDs document readings
and recitals by the poet Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. They demonstrate even more clearly than the collected texts and letters that Brinkmann's form of production was avantgarde. Listeners now accustomed to pop sounds will feel at home. Wasn't that an interesting noise? Doesn't a lot of this remind you of later low-fi albums and bootlegs? Brinkmann's breathless speaking takes up the "howl" of the beat generation, his lust for the loud is like concrete poetry. By Thomas
Groß
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