Barbara Antkowiak

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Barbara Antkowiak (* 1933 in Berlin ; † early autumn 2004 in Berlin) was a Slavist , literary translator and editor who mainly translated from Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian into German. In 1995 Antkowiak received the Paul Celan Prize for her translation of The Book Blam by Aleksandar Tišma and in 2004 the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding for her complete works .

Life

Barbara Antkowiak was born Monika Barbara Sparing in Berlin in 1933 . From 1951 she studied Slavic Studies at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig, majoring in Bohemian Studies . In addition, she learned Bulgarian, Russian and Polish, while she was to acquire Serbo-Croatian with great commitment later after graduation.

On September 1, 1956, immediately after successfully passing her exam, Barbara Sparing was employed by the East Berlin publishing house Volk und Welt as a lecturer for the area of popular democracies . There they came up with the Yugoslavs, with the exception of the Mongols, to a certain extent. She later became deputy head of department and asserts herself as an indispensable force against the political management with her work ethic.

She published one of her first translations from Serbo-Croatian in 1959 under her maiden name Barbara Sparing by the Croatian author Mato Lovrak : The Train in the Snow ( Vlak us snijegu ) for the children's book publisher Berlin . In her work, she seamlessly combined her work as an editor and translator, whereby as a translator she usually identified with her maiden name until the time of her husband's death, and as an editor with her married name.

In 1962 she married the writer and translator Alfred Antkowiak (1925–1976), who brought two children into the marriage. Neither of them had children together, but their literary collaboration was extremely productive. While he mostly translated from Dutch , Flemish and Danish , she was the specialist for the Slavic language families.

On the one hand, it certainly fulfilled the "culturally and politically important reception lines of anti-fascist literature and the anti-fascist people's liberation struggle " in the GDR, for example with translations of Mihajlo Lalić's Der Berg der Klagen ( Lelejska gora ) (1967) or The Wedding ( Svadba ) (1972). In addition, she was primarily interested in current literary developments in Bulgaria and the then Yugoslavia, where she often found and promoted unknown talents. This quality should benefit her and many an author after the political change, especially Nenad Veličković with lodgers (1997). In 1966 she was able to leave the GDR for the first time to make direct contact with the Croatian writer Miroslav Krleža , who had to be translated and was one of her two favorite authors. The other was Aleksandar Tišma , who had made the flight with a Yugoslav airline possible for her in the first place and who was later to establish contact with Hanser Verlag . One of her favorite activities in the publishing house was the translation and editing of anthologies such as the well-known series of explorations .

When the Volk & Welt publishing house was sold and dismantled in 1990, she was dismissed at the age of 57 after 34 years of service.

In view of her early retirement and the impending war in Yugoslavia , she and others founded the South-East-Europe Cultural Association in Berlin-Kreuzberg and increasingly threw herself into the translation work, giving both the exiled Yugoslavs and the later judicial processing of war crimes a voice thanks to their diverse translations. In view of the dividing line discussions that ran through the whole of Yugoslavia, which also led to the separation of Serbo-Croatian into Serbian and Croatian , she insisted on the uniform designation “naski”, meaning “our language”.

In the acceptance speech for the European Understanding Prize , she described the work of the translator as “manual work in an I-AG”. Her usual understatement was mixed with sarcasm when she talked about her "terrible years" as a translator during the 1990s. As a bon mot about the usual problems of her trade, she spoke of a word from the science fiction writer Stanisław Lem , Przepustowosc . In the GDR times it was supposed to translate computers as “calculator”, but Przepustowosc couldn't find it in any dictionary . Only after studying a work by the language theorist and cyberneticist Georg Klaus did her find the right translation: storage capacity .

The heavy smoker suffered from osteoporosis and died of a pulmonary embolism in the hospital in early autumn 2004 after a complicated broken arm while working on Dubravka Ugrešić 's Ministry of Pain . This and another work by Ugrešić, the collection of essays Nobody at Home , appeared posthumously in 2005 and 2007.

In the obituary, Angela Richter praised the deceased as "one of the most deserving translators from the South Slavic languages." With this, the "German-speaking cult context has lost a mediator for whom the presentation of works and authors from Slavic languages ​​of Southeast Europe was a matter of heart."

plant

Barbara Antkowiak worked for decades as a translator and editor for literature from Polish , Czech , Bulgarian and especially Serbo-Croatian. She even translated Albanian and Mongolian literature. She was considered the most important translator of literature from the former Yugoslavia in German-speaking countries. She has translated works by Miroslav Krleža , Dubravka Ugresic and Aleksandar Tišma , among others . Tišma was the only one allowed to translate it.

Editor and translator

together with Alfred Antkowiak

  • The murder in Via Belpoggio. Detective and crime stories from foreign countries. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1965.
  • The case with the twisted scarf. Detective and crime stories from foreign countries. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1969.
  • The beautiful lady. Samples and examples of espionage literature. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1969.
  • For example love. International love stories. 2 vols. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1971.
  • The beautiful lady. Samples and examples of espionage literature. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1971.

sole editor

  • Explorations . 18 Bulgarian storytellers. With an afterword by Barbara Antkowiak. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1974.
  • Explorations. 28 Yugoslav narrators. With an afterword by Barbara Antkowiak. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1979.
  • The photographer of the invisible and other fantastic stories. Book Club 65, Berlin 1979.
  • The St. Christopher Chapel. Stories. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1982.
  • The dance of the bats. Animal stories. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1985.
  • Elegy. Young Bulgarian prose. Translated by Hartmut Herboth. Selected by Barbara Antkowiak. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin / Weimar 1986.

Translations

as Barbara Sparing

  • Janina Skowrońska-Feldmanova : How Jan became a theater director: The history of the creation of a shadow theater with construction drawings, figures, stage sets and a scenario. ( Jak Wojtek zostal dyrektorem teatru. ) German from. Ruth Nagel and Barbara Sparing. Text illustrations, drafts for figures and decorations by Anna Sayfertowa, Hofmeister, Leipzig 1956.
  • Mato Lovrak : The Train in the Snow ( Vlak us snijegu ) Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1959.
  • Aleksandar Vučo : Time for reflection. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1962.
  • Emilijan Stanev : Hot summer. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1963.
  • Ivajlo Petrov : And if I have to force you . Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1964.
  • Vjekoslav Kaleb : The dancing sun. New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1965.
  • Beno Zupančič : Greetings for Maria. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1965.
  • Blaga Dimitrova : experiment with love. Universitas, Berlin 1967.
  • Mihailo Lalić : The Mountain of Lamentations. Publishing house Volk und Welt 1967.
  • Andrzej Piwowarczyk : The murderer is still alive. German military publisher, Berlin 1967.
  • Per Wahlöö : The truck. ( Lastbilen ) Translated from the Swedish by Michael O. Güsten with the assistance of Barbara Sparing. With an afterword by Alfred Antkowiak, Volk und Welt Verlag, Berlin 1969.
  • Timothy Tatcher : No entry for dead. ( Mrtvacima ulaz zabranjen. ) Eulenspiegel-Verlag, Berlin 1969.
  • Aleksandar Vojinović : Mines and Wolves. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1970.
  • Jara Ribnikar : The calling. The life of the pianist Jan Nepomuk. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1971.
  • Miroslav Krleža : The Glembays . Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1972.
  • Mihailo Lalić: The wedding. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1972.
  • Stanisław Lem : The hunt. New stories from the pilot Pirx. Translated from Polish by Roswitha Buschmann, Kurt Kelm and Barbara Sparing. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1972.
  • Timothy Tatcher : Hollywood versus me. ( Hollywood protiv mene. ) Translated from the Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Sparing. Eulenspiegel-Verlag, Berlin 1973.
  • Bogomil Nikolov Rainov : The great boredom. Book Club 65, Berlin 1973.
  • Ranko Marinković : Carnival. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Angelika Schulz and Barbara Sparing. With an afterword by Barbara Antkowiak, Volk und Welt Verlag, Berlin 1973.
  • Miroslav Krleža: Essays. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1974.
  • Miroslav Krleža: burial in Theresienburg. ( Sprovod u Teresienburgu. ) Story. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1977.

as Barbara Antkowiak

  • Modern Yugoslav prose. From Vladan Desnica u. a. Authors. With an afterword by Barbara Antkowiak. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1969.
  • Beno Zupančič : Storm bells. Translated from the Slovenian by Barbara Antkowiak. Book Club 65, Berlin 1975.
  • Louis Paul Boon : Minuet. A publication by the Bureau de Cologne. Translated from the Dutch by Barbara and Alfred Antkowiak. With e. Nachw. By Alfred Antkowiak. 1st edition. 1975, Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin / Weimar / Hanser license edition, Munich / Vienna 1977 / With an afterword by Carel ter Haar . Alexander-Verlag, NA Berlin / Cologne 2011.
  • Petur Nesnakomow : The mysterious ship and other humoresques. Translated from Bulgarian by Barbara Antkowiak and Wolfgang Köppe . Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1975.
  • Leopold Suhodolčan : The Hidden Diary. ( Skriti dnevnik ) Translated from the Slovenian by Barbara Antkowiak. Illustrations by Volker Pfüller , children's book publisher, Berlin 1976.
  • Vasil Conev : How the devil reads mass. Humoresques. Selected and translated from Bulgarian by Barbara Antkowiak. Eulenspiegel-Verlag, Berlin 1977.
  • Meša Selimović : The fortress. Historical novel. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1977.
  • Momo Kapor : Scenes from the youth of a star reporter. Novel. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1978.
  • Blaga Dimitrova : love in a roundabout way. Novel. Translated from Bulgarian by Barbara Antkowiak. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1980.
  • Miroslav Krleža : childhood. Memories. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1981.
  • The tamed water devil. Stories from Yugoslavia. Edited by Astrid Philippsen. Translated from Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian by Barbara Antkowiak. Children's book publisher, Berlin 1981.
  • Roses and thorns from Bulgaria. Edited by Tenju Pindarew . Translated from Bulgarian by Barbara Antkowiak. Eulenspiegelverlag, Berlin 1982.
  • Ljubiša Djokić : Knight monster. Play in four acts. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1982.
  • Jara Ribnikar : Life and Legend. Memories. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1982.
  • Branimir Sćepanović : The ransom . ( Iskupljenje ) Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1983.
  • Grozdana Olujić : The moon flower and other fairy tales. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Illustrations by Uwe Häntsch . Children's book publisher, Berlin 1984.
  • Dubravka Ugrešić : Tired of being alone ... ( Štefica Cvek and raljama života. ) Roman. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1984.
  • Blaga Dimitrova : In a roundabout way. ( Otklonenie. ) Roman. Translated from Bulgarian by Barbara Antkowiak. Reclam, Leipzig 1985.
  • Veljko Barbieri : epitaph of a royal gourmet. ( Epitaf carskog gurmana. ) Roman. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1986.
  • Miroslav Krleža : A childhood in Agram. Memories. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. With an introduction by Reinhard Lauer . Athenaeum, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-7610-8407-2 .
  • Five spoons of elixir and other fantastic tales. Translated by Barbara Antkowiak. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1986.
  • Ivan Ivanji : Emperor Constantine. Historical novel. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1988.
  • Miloš Crnjanski : Bora. ( Seobe ) novel. Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Reinhold Fischer and Barbara Antkowiak. Limes, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-8090-2260-8 .
  • Fani Pejčeva : The Prince and the Star Maiden. Magic fairy tale. Translated by Barbara Antkowiak, Swjat, Sofia 1989.
  • Vasko Popa : The message of the blackbird. Adaptations from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1989.
  • Grozdana Olujić : The Sky River . Translated by Barbara Antkowiak, illustrations by Klaus Müller, Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-358-00469-4 .
  • Aleksandar Tišma : The use of man. ( Upotreba čoveka. ) Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-446-15752-2 .
  • Rajko Djurić / Andreas Bertolt Bengsch : The disintegration of Yugoslavia. With an exclusive interview with Milovan Djilas . Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak and Angela Richter . Morgenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-371-00325-6 .
  • Aleksandar Tišma: The school of godlessness. ( Škola bezbožništva ) Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-446-17042-1 .
  • Hugo Claus : The people next door. Translated from the Dutch by Barbara Antkowiak. Alano, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-89399-187-5 .
  • Rada Iveković : Letters from women about war and nationalism. With a contribution by Duška Perišeć-Osti . Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak and from Slovenian by Marina Einspiel . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-518-11811-0 .
  • Dubravka Ugrešić : My American fictionary. ( Američki fikcionar ) Translated from Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-518-11895-1 .
  • Bora Ćosić : Interview on Lake Zurich. ( Intervju na ciriškom jezeru. ) Translated from the Serbian by Barbara Antkowiak. Rowohlt Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-87134-237-8 .
  • Dubravka Ugrešić: The Culture of Lies. ( Kultura laži. ) Translated from the Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-518-11963-X .
  • Aleksandar Tišma: The book Blam. ( Knjiga o Blamu. ) Translated from the Serbian by Barbara Antkowiak. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-446-17822-8 .
  • Aleksandar Tišma: Who we love. ( Koje volimo. ) Translated from the Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-446-17823-6 .
  • Vladimir Arsenijević : Cloaca Maxima. A soap opera. Translated from the Serbian by Barbara Antkowiak. Rowohlt, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-87134-267-X .
  • Stevan Tontić : My psalm. Paraphrase to the 90th Psalm. German by Barbara Antkowiak. Edition New Paths, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-88348-141-6 .
  • Nenad Veličković : Overnight guests. Translated from the Bosnian by Barbara Antkowiak. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-353-01108-0 .
  • Aleksandar Tišma: Kapo. Translated from the Serbian by Barbara Antkowiak. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-446-19134-8 .
  • Bora Ćosić: The baroque eye. Essays. Translated from the Serbian by Barbara Antkowiak, with an afterword by Karl-Markus Gauß . Babel-Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-928551-23-X .
  • Maruša Krese : Gone by the bora. Ljubljana - Beograd - Sarajevo. A feature. Translated from Slovenian, Serbian and Bosnian by Barbara Antkowiak. Drava-Verlag, Klagenfurt 1998, ISBN 3-85435-283-2 .
  • Dubravka Ugrešić: The Museum of Unconditional Surrender. ( Muzej bezuvjetne predaje. ) Translated from the Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-40973-5 .
  • Aleksandar Tišma: loyalty and betrayal. ( Vere i zavere. ) Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-446-19667-6 .
  • Biljana Srbljanović : Belgrade Trilogy (Two plays, Beogradska trilogija. ) Translated from Serbian by Barbara Antkowiak. Publishing house of the authors, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-88661-218-X .
  • Julijana Matanović : Why I lied to you. ( Zašto sam vam lagala. ) Translated from the Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Frankfurter Verlags-Anstalt, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-627-00078-1 .
  • Dževad Karahasan : Sara and Serafina. ( Sara i Serafina. ) German by Barbara Antkowiak. Rowohlt, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-87134-409-5 .
  • Aleksandar Tišma: Without a scream. Stories ( Bez krika. ) From the Serbian by Barbara Antkowiak. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-446-19981-0 .
  • Bogdan Bogdanović : About happiness in the cities. With 25 sketches by the author. Translated from the Serbian by Barbara Antkowiak. Zsolnay, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-552-05178-3 .
  • Julija Bogoeva / Caroline Fetscher (eds.): Srebrenica. A process. Documents from the proceedings against General Radislav Krstić before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. German by Barbara Antkowiak, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-518-12275-4 .
  • Dubravka Ugrešić : Reading prohibited. ( Zabranjeno čitanje. ) From the Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-518-41315-5 .
  • Aleksandar Tišma: Journey into my forgotten self. Translated from the Serbian by Barbara Antkowiak. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-446-20359-1 .
  • Slavenka Drakulić : Nobody was there. War crimes on trial in the Balkans. ( They would never hurt a fly. ) German by Barbara Antkowiak. Zsolnay, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-552-05290-9 .
  • Stevan Tontić : On behalf of the word: texts from exile. German by Barbara Antkowiak. Landpresse, Weilerswist 2004, ISBN 3-935221-39-8 .
  • Dubravka Ugresic: The Ministry of Pain. ( Ministarstvo Boli. ) Translated from the Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-8270-0562-0 .
  • Dubravka Ugresic: Nobody at home. Essays ( Nikog nema doma. ) Translated from the Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak. Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-8270-0707-0 .

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Angela Richter: In memoriam Barbara Antkowiak In: Zeitschrift für Balkanologie Vol. 42, No. 1 + 2, 2006, pp. 287–290, here p. 290.
  2. ↑ a b Angela Richter: In memoriam Barbara Antkowiak . In: Journal of Balkanology. Vol. 42, No. 1 + 2, 2006, p. 287.
  3. ↑ Christina Links: A censor in Ulan Bator. In: Window to the World. A history of the GDR publishing house Volk & Welt . Edited by Simone Barck and Siegfried Lokatis, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2003.
  4. ↑ Angela Richter: In memoriam Barbara Antkowiak. P. 288.
  5. ↑ LEIPZIG BOOK PRIZE FOR THE EUROPEAN UNDERSTANDING 2003 - RECOGNITION PRIZE FOR BARBARA ANTKOWIAK - THANK YOU. Retrieved February 22, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b c d e f Thomas Loy : Barbara Antkowiak. Born in 1933 . In: Der Tagesspiegel . November 15, 2004. Accessed November 17, 2012.
  7. ↑ Angela Richter: In memoriam Barbara Antkowiak . P. 289.
  8. ^ Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding - Reasons for the Prize 2003 ( Memento of March 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed November 17, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Antkowiak, Barbara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Antkowiak, Barbara; Sparing, Barbara (pseudonym); Sparing, Monika Barbara (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Slavist, literary translator and translator
DATE OF BIRTH 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 2004
Place of death Berlin