Hans Wollschläger

Hans Wollschläger (March 17, 1935, Minden - May 19, 2007, Bamberg) was a German writer, translator, historian, and editor of German literature.

Biography

Wollschläger is widely known as the translator of Ulysses by James Joyce. He also translated the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe (together with Arno Schmidt), and novels by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. He was vice chairman of the Karl May society and was one of the editors of the historical critical edition of this author.

He wrote several books, including a history of the Crusades which has a polemical aspect (at the close of the book he suggests the Catholic Church be declared a criminal organisation) but also contains excerpts from several Arabic sources never previously translated into German.

Originally Hans Wollschläger had studied music. He wrote three symphonies which however have never been performed in public. He also made a performing edition of the draft of Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony. This edition appears to have been completed around 1959 (and thus pre-dates Deryck Cooke's similar project); however, under the influence of Erwin Ratz, Wollschläger came to the conclusion that an unfinished masterwork should not be touched, and publicly withdrew his edition.

Selected works

• Karl May (1965, 1976, 2004)
• Die bewaffneten Wallfahrten gen Jerusalem (1970, 1973)
• Nacht-Stücke (1974)
• Die Gegenwart einer Illusion (1978)
• Herzgewächse oder Der Fall Adams (1982)
• Von Sternen und Schnuppen (1984)
• In diesen geistfernen Zeiten (1986)
• «Tiere sehen dich an» oder das Potential Mengele[1] (1987).
• Bannkreis der Besseren Heimat (1990)
• Denn es gehet dem Menschen wie dem Vieh: Wie dies stirbt, so stirbt er auch (2001)
• Moments musicaux. (2005)