Achim Engstler
Achim Engstler (born March 14, 1959 in Wilhelmshaven ) is a German writer and philosopher .
Life
Engstler grew up on the North Sea coast. As a child he was involved in the stories and musings of his East Frisian relatives, the East Prussian narrators on his mother's side did the rest. After graduating from the Max-Planck-Gymnasium in Wilhelmshaven, he studied German , philosophy , pedagogy and journalism first in Göttingen , then in Münster . His most important academic teachers were Albrecht Schöne and Hans Blumenberg . In 1988 he received his doctorate in philosophy with a thesis on the Jewish Kantian Salomon Maimon . Until 1997, Engstler researched and taught at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster and various other universities, where his main interests were philosophical skepticism , the philosophy of life and Spinoza's philosophy . From 1996 to 2000 he was on the board of the Spinoza Society . Since 1997 he has been working as a freelance academic author and lecturer in adult education. In 2008 he began his literary study group with Astrid Dehe , which allowed him to tie the thread of childhood stories again. Engstler is a member of PEN Center Germany and VS . Together with Sabine Prilop, he is chairman of VS Lower Saxony / Bremen and, as successor to Johann-Günther König, chairman of the group of sponsors of German writers in Lower Saxony and Bremen. In 2019 he was artistic director of the 51st Lower Saxony State Literature Days in Varel and Dangast.
Literary work
In collaboration with Astrid Dehe, Engstler has so far published two volumes of essays on Franz Kafka and four works of fiction, including the novella Auflaufend Wasser , which tells the fate of the Baltrum sailor Tjark Evers , and the novel Nagar's Night , which focuses on Shalom Nagar, the prison guard , who was determined to be the executioner of Adolf Eichmann against his will . In her novel Unter Schwalbenzinnen. Florence, spring 1442 Dehe and Engstler invent the genesis of the legendary Voynich manuscript , in their photopoeia The Fleeting Glory of Mr. Neubronner they look at the world from a dove's perspective with the pharmacist and inventor Julius Neubronner . Although Dehes and Engstler's works of fiction all have historical subjects and are based on careful research, they would be misunderstood as historical literature. Rather, they try to use literary fiction to give current meaning to past events and fates.
Works
- Investigations into the idealism of Salomon Maimons. Frommann Holzboog, Stuttgart 1990.
- Philosophy and skepticism. FernUniversität-Vollthochschule Hagen, Hagen 2001.
- with Astrid Dehe: Kafka's comical pages. Essays. Steidl, Göttingen 2011.
- with Astrid Dehe: Auflaufend Wasser. Novella. Steidl, Göttingen 2013. Gutenberg Book Guild, Frankfurt a. M. 2014. dtv, Munich 2015.
- with Astrid Dehe: Nagar's night. Novel. Steidl, Göttingen 2014.
- with Astrid Dehe: Under swallow peaks. Florence, spring 1442. Roman. Steidl, Göttingen 2015.
- with Astrid Dehe: Kafka's dark eyes. Essays. Bernstein, Bonn 2015.
- with Astrid Dehe: The fleeting fame of Mr. Neubronner. dtv, Munich 2017.
- with Astrid Dehe: Eichmann's Executioner. A novel. Transl. by Helen MacCormac and Alyson Coombes. The New Press, New York 2017.
- Just scroll. Don't study. Epilogue in: Ernst Volland, burned-in pictures, posters, cartoons, colored pencil pictures, fakes, documents. Hirnkost, Berlin 2018.
- with Astrid Dehe: My life is a brutal anecdote. In: poetin no. 24 (2018), pp. 40-49.
- What's going on, Sophie? The novel of Count Aldenburg. Isensee, Oldenburg 2018.
- with Ernst Volland : It doesn't work without Dangast. Images & texts. profero, Varel 2019.
editor
- with Martin Schewe: Spinoza. Peter Lang, Bern 1990.
- with Hans-Dieter Klein : Perspectives and Problems of Systematic Philosophy. Peter Lang, Bern 1996.
- with Robert Schnepf: Affects and Ethics. Spinoza's teaching in context. Olms, Hildesheim 2002.
Awards
- In 2013, the East Frisian Landscape chose Achim Engstler and Astrid Dehes' novella Auflaufend Wasser as book of the month
- 2016 and 2018 invitation to the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung's authors' workshop in Cadenabbia
- 2017/18 work grant from the German Literature Fund (together with Astrid Dehe)
literature
- Alyson Coombes: Understanding the importance of Holocaust fiction for the future: Developing strategies for translating 'Nagars Nacht' . Dissertation, University of East Anglia 2015.
Web links
- Literature by and about Achim Engstler in the catalog of the German National Library
- KLG article Achim Engstler by Melanie Heusel , accessed on November 17, 2016.
- Lower Saxony literature database , accessed on September 10, 2018.
- Author Steidl , accessed on November 17, 2016.
- Author page dtv , accessed on November 17, 2016.
- Author page Bernstein-Verlag , accessed on November 17, 2016.
- Astrid Dehe and Achim Engstler about their novel Nagars Nacht , accessed on November 17, 2016.
- Astrid Dehe and Achim Engstler in conversation with Marija Bakker , accessed on November 17, 2016.
- Alois Köster's on Dehes and Engstler's novels and essays , accessed on July 2, 2017.
- Achim Engstler in conversation with Esther Willbrandt about the fleeting fame of Mr Neubronner , accessed on July 2, 2017.
- Agency website Günter Berg , accessed on July 2, 2017.
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Engstler, Achim |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 14, 1959 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wilhelmshaven |