Wolfgang Koeppen
Wolfgang Arthur Reinhold Koeppen (23 June 1906 – 15 March 1996) was a German novelist and one of the best known German authors of the postwar period.
Life
Koeppen was born out of wedlock in Greifswald, Pomerania, to Marie Köppen, a seamstress who also worked as a prompter at the Greifswald theater. He did not have contact with his father, ophthalmologist Reinhold Halben, who never formally accepted the fatherhood. Wolfgang lived first in his grandmother's house on Bahnhofstrasse, but after her death in 1908 moved with his mother to her sister's in Ortelsburg (Szczytno), East Prussia, where Koeppen began attending the public school. He and his mother moved back to Greifswald in 1912, but only two years later returned to East Prussia. Koeppen returned to Greifswald after World War I, working as a delivery boy for a book dealer. During that time he volunteered at the theater and attended lectures at the University of Greifswald. Finally in 1920, Koeppen left Greifswald permanently, and after 20 years of moving about, settled in Munich, living there the remainder of his life.[1] Throughout the 1950s, Koeppen travelled extensively, to the U.S., the Soviet Union, London and Warsaw.
Koeppen's wife died in 1984, and he died in a nursing home in Munich in 1996.[2] In remembrance of the author and to archive his literary achievements and personal belongings, the Wolfgang Koeppen Foundation[3] (German: Stiftung) was founded upon the initiative of fellow authors Günter Grass and Peter Rühmkorf in Greifswald in 2000.
Writing
Several early Koeppen stories were published in left-leaning magazines, such as Die Rote Fahne.[4] In 1931, he began working as a journalist for the Berliner Börsen-Courier.[4] In 1934 his first novel, Eine unglückliche Liebe, was published by Bruno Cassirer while he was in the Netherlands. His second novel, called Die Mauer schwankt in the Netherlands and Die Pflicht in Germany, was published in 1935.[4] As noted by critic David Ward, neither novel addresses directly the Nazis' rise to power, but both "are marked by a sense of imminent danger: a precarious imbalance that cannot be sustained but is never resolved, hinting at the impossible position of the artist in Hitler's Germany" [5] Unable to secure a working permit in the Netherlands, in 1939 he returned to Germany, and from 1943 until his death he lived in Munich.
In 1947, Koeppen was asked to write the memoirs of the philatelist and Holocaust survivor Jakob Littner (born 1883 in Budapest, died 1950 in New York City). The resulting book was published in 1948 without mention of Koeppen's name. It caused some controversy based on whether Koeppen was given a written manuscript to guide his work on Littner, and the novel never sold well.[citation needed] In 1992, a new edition was published, acknowledging Koeppen's authorship. In 2000, Littner's original manuscript was published in English and in 2002, in German.
In 1951, Koeppen published his novel Tauben im Gras (Pigeons on the Grass), which used a stream of consciousness technique. It is considered a significant work of German-language literature by the literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Das Treibhaus (1953) was translated into English as The Hothouse (2001) and was named a Notable Book by the New York Times and one of the Best Books of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. Koeppen's last major novel Der Tod in Rom (Death in Rome) was published in 1954.
Gottlieb Judejahn, a character in Der Tod in Rom, is a former SS general condemned to death at the Nuremberg trials. He escaped to an Arab country whose military he is trying to build up. He is in Rome to buy weapons and to meet members of his family, including his wife Eva. Eva's sister is married to Friedrich Pfaffrath, who is now mayor of the same town where he was a senior administrator in Nazi Germany. Judejahn's son, Adolf, is also in Rome to be ordained into the priesthood. Pfaffrath's son, Siegfried, is a young composer, in Rome to hear the first performance of his symphony. Conductor Kürenberg is married to Ilse, who is Jewish and who survived the Holocaust as she and her Gentile husband could afford to live outside Germany during the war. Der Tod in Rom is an exploration of themes associated with the Holocaust, German guilt, conflict between generations and the silencing of the past.[6] The title clearly recalls Thoman Mann's Death in Venice, already a classic at the time of writing.
Awards
Between 1962 and 1987, Koeppen received numerous literary prizes in the Federal Republic of Germany.[citation needed] In 1962 he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize.[7]
Works
- Eine unglückliche Liebe (1934). A Sad Affair, trans. Michael Hofmann (2003)
- Die Mauer schwankt (1935)
- Jakob Littners Aufzeichnungen aus einem Erdloch (1948/1992)
- Tauben im Gras (1951). Pigeons on the Grass, trans. David Ward (1988) and Michael Hofmann (2020)
- Das Treibhaus (1953). The Hothouse, trans. Michael Hofmann (2001)
- Der Tod in Rom (1954). Death in Rome, trans. Mervyn Savill (1956) and Michael Hofmann (1992)
- Amerikafahrt (1959). Journey Through America, trans. Michael Kimmage (2012)
- Jugend (1976)
References
- ^ Theodore Ziolkowski. "Why Greifswald?" World Literature Today, vol. 81, no. 3 (May/Jun2007): 20-24.
- ^ Abschnitt nach: Wolfgang Koeppen – Sein Leben, Seite der Wolfgang-Koeppen-Stiftung, und Zeittafel zu Leben und Werk Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine vom Wolfgang-Koeppen-Archiv der Universität Greifswald.
- ^ Ingo Schramm. "Wolfgang-Koeppen-Stiftung". Wolfgang-koeppen-stiftung.de. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
- ^ a b c Basker, David (July 1993). ""Fur einen werdenden Schriftsteller keine schlechte Lehre": Wolfgang Koeppen's Literary Career pre-1945". The Modern Language Review. 88 (3): 666. doi:10.2307/3734933.
- ^ David Ward, Introduction to Koeppen's Pigeons on the Grass", A Portico Paperback, , Holms & Meier, New Yorl and London, 1991
- ^ Schlant, Ernestine (1999). The Language of Silence: West German Literature and the Holocaust. Routledge. pp. 36–50. ISBN 978-0415922203.
- ^ "Wolfgang Koeppen". Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- v
- t
- e
- 1923 Adam Karrillon and Arnold Mendelssohn
- 1924 Alfred Bock and Paul Thesing
- 1925 Wilhelm Michel and Rudolf Koch
- 1926 Christian Heinrich Kleukens and Wilhelm Petersen
- 1927 Kasimir Edschmid and Johannes Bischoff
- 1928 Richard Hoelscher and Well Habicht
- 1929 Carl Zuckmayer and Adam Antes
- 1930 Nikolaus Schwarzkopf and Johannes Lippmann
- 1931 Alexander Posch and Hans Simon
- 1932 Albert H. Rausch and Adolf Bode
- 1933–1944 not given
- 1945 Hans Schiebelhuth
- 1946 Fritz Usinger
- 1947 Anna Seghers
- 1948 Hermann Heiss
- 1949 Carl Gunschmann
- 1950 Elisabeth Langgässer
- 1951 Gottfried Benn
- 1952 not given
- 1953 Ernst Kreuder
- 1954 Martin Kessel
- 1955 Marie Luise Kaschnitz
- 1956 Karl Krolow
- 1957 Erich Kästner
- 1958 Max Frisch
- 1959 Günter Eich
- 1960 Paul Celan
- 1961 Hans Erich Nossack
- 1962 Wolfgang Koeppen
- 1963 Hans Magnus Enzensberger
- 1964 Ingeborg Bachmann
- 1965 Günter Grass
- 1966 Wolfgang Hildesheimer
- 1967 Heinrich Böll
- 1968 Golo Mann
- 1969 Helmut Heißenbüttel
- 1970 Thomas Bernhard
- 1971 Uwe Johnson
- 1972 Elias Canetti
- 1973 Peter Handke
- 1974 Hermann Kesten
- 1975 Manès Sperber
- 1976 Heinz Piontek
- 1977 Reiner Kunze
- 1978 Hermann Lenz
- 1979 Ernst Meister
- 1980 Christa Wolf
- 1981 Martin Walser
- 1982 Peter Weiss
- 1983 Wolfdietrich Schnurre
- 1984 Ernst Jandl
- 1985 Heiner Müller
- 1986 Friedrich Dürrenmatt
- 1987 Erich Fried
- 1988 Albert Drach
- 1989 Botho Strauß
- 1990 Tankred Dorst
- 1991 Wolf Biermann
- 1992 George Tabori
- 1993 Peter Rühmkorf
- 1994 Adolf Muschg
- 1995 Durs Grünbein
- 1996 Sarah Kirsch
- 1997 H. C. Artmann
- 1998 Elfriede Jelinek
- 1999 Arnold Stadler
- 2000 Volker Braun
- 2001 Friederike Mayröcker
- 2002 Wolfgang Hilbig
- 2003 Alexander Kluge
- 2004 Wilhelm Genazino
- 2005 Brigitte Kronauer
- 2006 Oskar Pastior
- 2007 Martin Mosebach
- 2008 Josef Winkler
- 2009 Walter Kappacher
- 2010 Reinhard Jirgl
- 2011 Friedrich Christian Delius
- 2012 Felicitas Hoppe
- 2013 Sibylle Lewitscharoff
- 2014 Jürgen Becker
- 2015 Rainald Goetz
- 2016 Marcel Beyer
- 2017 Jan Wagner
- 2018 Terézia Mora
- 2019 Lukas Bärfuss
- 2020 Elke Erb
- 2021 Clemens J. Setz
- 2022 Emine Sevgi Özdamar
- 2023: Lutz Seiler