Axel Kahrs

Axel Kahrs (born March 6, 1950 in Wustrow (Wendland) ) is a German writer .

Life

Kahrs studied German and history at the Georg August University in Göttingen . From 1979 to 2013 he was a senior teacher at the Lüchow grammar school . From 1991 he was also a lecturer at Leuphana University Lüneburg in the field of applied cultural studies . His work focuses on the following topics: contemporary literature, book market, literary criticism, mediation of literature, state funding for literature, current trends in literature and cultural tourism.

From 2005 to 2007 he headed the Elbe Literature Room (LRE) project at the Northern German Literature Center, an exhibition and research facility for literature in Northern Germany and the Elbe region .

From 1981 to 2013 (32 years) he worked as the scientific and artistic director of the Lower Saxony scholarship institution Künstlerhof Schreyahn , initially on a voluntary basis, from 1997 as a freelance worker. Since 1991 he has also directed various events and exhibitions, such as the Lüchow-Dannenberger book spring event series . From 2000 to 2017 he was CEO of the Nicolas Born Foundation based in Lüchow (Wendland) . From 2000 to 2003 he was on the editorial board of the book on demand edition "erst @ now" at the Revonnah publishing house in Hanover .

Kahrs has been a member of the PEN Center Germany since 2007 . He is also a member of the Association of German Writers . In 2015, Axel Kahrs was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon . In 2019 he received the Johannes Gillhoff Prize of the Gillhoff Society in Ludwigslust.

He is married and lives in Lüchow (Wendland).

Works

Monographs

• Elections and seizure of power in Lüchow-Dannenberg. Hitzacker 1983
• Wendland literary. A journey through the literary history of the Lüchow-Dannenberg district. Göttingen 1985
• Poets travel. Literary forays through Mecklenburg, Altmark and Prignitz. Lüchow 1990
• Arno Schmidt in Hitzacker and on the Elbe. Literary explorations. Lüchow 2018

Editions

• "... in the middle of Germany ..." The opening of the border in 1989 as reflected by the EJZ. Ed. together with Ch. Beyer, Lüchow 1992
• The surveyor. Memorial book for Nicolas Born. Ed. together with Ch. Beyer, Lüneburg 1999
• “The clocks tick differently” - notes in Schreyahn. (Diary texts by A. Stadler, U. Friesel, K. Höcker, T. Stroheker) , Hannover 2001
• "Gewitterlicht" by Reinhard Jirgl , 2002, editor (editing and epilogue)
• “In Wendland you are closer to the truth” - classic reports about Lüchow-Dannenberg from four decades. Lüchow 2007
• “Luchovia - Lüchow - Lutschou” A literary-historical city portrait in twenty sketches. , Lüchow 2008
• "Literary Leader Germany" , ed. together with Fred Oberhauser , 2008 at Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt
• Border inscriptions - texts about escapes and expulsions, recovery and new beginnings on the inner-German border. Edited together with Constanze Neuling , Lüchow 2009
• “Dichters Rundling - Wendland's unique villages in the mirror of literature” , edited by Axel Kahrs. Lüchow 2014
• "Among friends - Nicolas Born. Life, work and impact." Published by Axel Kahrs, Göttingen 2017

Co-author / collaboration

• Die Gruppe 47 (co-author), Edition Text & Criticism, Munich, 1980, 3rd ed. 2004
• Handbook "Literature in Lower Saxony" , ed. from the Lower Saxony Literature Council (member of the Advisory Board), Göttingen 2000

Articles, contributions

• “The intellectuals in the green” - observations on a cultural history of the Wendland after 1945. In: Hannoversches Wendland, 12th annual issue 1987/88, also as a feature on Deutschlandfunk
• "Grete Minden's Disappearance and Reversal" - Literature and Tourism in the Altmark. In: IFKA Institute, Altmark 2000, Bielefeld 1993
• “So only Group 47 meets” - Group 47 and its autumn conference in the Jagdschloss Göhrde 1961. In: Mare Baltikum 1998, with illustrations, reprinted in Das Face der Göhrde , 2006
• “What I know has more than two sides” - Flight and displacement in Mecklenburg as reflected in literature. In: Political Memorials. Schwerin 1999
• “Model city for a novella” - Theodor Fontanes Tangermünde and “Between ridicule and frustration” - Otto Reutter's villa in Gardelegen. In: Poet houses in Saxony-Anhalt. Bucha 1999
• "So so, very well, but damaged here and there" - Johann Peter Eckermann and "you walk as if you were walking among friends" - Nicolas Born two portraits, In: Poet, thinker, loner. Thirty Lower Saxon classics. Edited by Klaus Seehafer, Leer 2003
• “A few thoughts on Born's Elbholz poem” In: Text + Criticism. Journal for literature, issue 170/2006
• “From knife cut to lifeline - the Elbe literally sighted” In: Lebendige Elbe. ElbeForum 2006, ed. DUH, Radolfzell 2007
• Ceremonial speech on the presentation of the Gleim Literature Prize to Günter de Bruyn. In: Non-profit sheets. Förderkreis Gleimhaus, year 16, issue 33/34 2007
• “Crazy!” November 9, 1989 and the opening of the border in Lüchow. In: Festschrift on the occasion of the Lüchow (Wendland) city anniversary 1158–2008, Lüchow 2008
• “This morning was the purest Emil Nolde” - Elbe valley and north German lowlands in Arnold Stadler's novel “Sehnsucht”. In: As if he had been someone else - On the work of Arnold Stadler. Ed. V. Pia Reinacher, Frankfurt a. M. 2009
• Lexicon entry "Wolfgang Eschker" , In: Critical lexicon for contemporary German literature. Edited by Heinz Ludwig Arnold, 2009
• Literary Guide Germany - A workshop report. In: The Heidewanderer. Supplement to the general Zeitung, Uelzen (also in: Altmarkblätter) 2009
• Crackling sleep in the silence - The Dömitzer Bridge is a first-class cultural monument. In: Frankfurter Rundschau from 27./28. March 2010.
• Boundaries and delimitation in literature: division - fall of the wall - unification. in drawing boundaries - border experiences - border crossings. The inner German border 1945–1990. Ed. Th. Schwark et al., Darmstadt 2011
• “A sleep that crackles into silence” - The bridges near Dömitz in literature. in S. Kramer (Ed.), Traces of Contemporary History in the Elbe Cultural Area, Springe 2012
• From cobbler boy to godly darling - Johann Joachim Winckelmann from Stendal. In: Altmark-Blätter, supplement of the Altmark-Zeitung, No. 49/2017
• Aspects of a literary history of the Elbe. Considerations based on the extreme example of the divided Elbe (1945 - 1990) . In: Andreas Martin (ed.), The Elbe. About the change of a river. Stade and Leipzig 2018
• Lower Saxony's literature after 1945: Imprints and perspectives. An essayistic overview . In: H. Küster and N. Fischer (eds.), Lower Saxony. Building blocks of a country studies. Kiel 2018

literature

• Author lexicon PEN Center Germany , edition 2015/2016
• Kürschner's German Literature Calendar 2004/2005 , Munich 2005
• Literature in Lower Saxony. A manual , Göttingen 2000
• Kai Hermann : Portrait of Axel Kahrs, in: Landluft - Wendland Magazin. 2016, No. 7, pp. 80–86.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung: “All-round excellent care” ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , from April 27, 2013, accessed on July 19, 2013. (fee required) or Google Catch from September 25, 2014 
2. ↑ Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung: Axel Kahrs received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon , EJZ September 5, 2015.