Birgid Hanke

Birgid Hanke (* 1952 ) is a German journalist and non-fiction author .

life and work

Birgid Hanke was born in North Rhine-Westphalia and grew up in Hessen . After graduating from high school, she studied German , political science and law at the Philipps University of Marburg . For several years she worked as a tour guide and translator , from 1980 she lived in Hamburg for a decade , where she finally started her own business in 1988 as a freelance writer and journalist. Travel journalism was a focus of her work. Her contributions have appeared in a wide range of publications from the Berliner Morgenpost to Das Beste . In 1990 Birgid Hanke moved to Bremen , where she lives with her husband Günther and their two daughters in the Steintor district . In Bremen she published in the Weser-Kurier, among other things, and from the end of 2001 she was on the editorial staff of the city magazine Brillant , where she published her “Bremensien”. Hanke was also the editor in charge of the city images Bremen-Danzig-Riga , an intercultural project funded by the Bremen cultural authority.

Since 1991 Birgid Hanke has made a name for herself throughout Germany as a non-fiction author, especially with travel books about northern Germany . Beginning with walks through the Mark Brandenburg (1991) on the trail of Theodor Fontane 's work of the same name , she created several “picture journeys” for Ellert & Richter Verlag in the following years , with one exception always working with the photographer Toma Babovic . Last but not least, with these illustrated books in the years after reunification, she contributed to bringing the new federal states closer to the West German public as worthwhile travel destinations. In addition to the repeated hikes, the trilingual volume Schöne Bremen , which appeared for the first time in 1995 and also had several editions up to 2012, was particularly successful .

In the course of researching her illustrated books, it was essential for Hanke to deal with the life stories and works of well-known historical personalities. That eventually led them to write biographies . So far, she has provided biographies of the writer Fritz Reuter (2010), the automobile designer Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Borgward (2010), the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel (2012) and the costume designer Ingrid Zoré (2016).

In the summer of 2013 she published her first historical novel , Die Flamme der Freiheit . Against the background of the Napoleonic Wars of Liberation , she tells the story of Eleonore Prochaska .

Occasionally, Hanke also writes children's books . Her first with the title Malinda, the rainbow cuddly toy, was published by Geest in 2003 . A chapter from it was choreographed and performed as a children's ballet.

In addition to her work as an author, Birgid Hanke worked, among other things, as a director of studies at a distance learning institute and as a lecturer at the Evangelical Education Center in Bremen and at the Economic and Social Academy of the Bremen Chamber of Labor .

Fonts (selection)

• Apulia , DuMont, Cologne 1991, ISBN 978-3-7701-2511-1 .
• with Toma Babovic (photos): Walks through the Mark Brandenburg , Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 1991, ISBN 978-3-89234-272-4 .
• with Toma Babovic (photos): Ostfriesland and his islands , Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 1992, ISBN 978-3-89234-305-9 .
• with Toma Babovic (photos): On Schinkel's footsteps , Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 1993 (new edition there in 2002 with ISBN 978-3-8319-0082-4 ).
• with Toma Babovic (photos): Schöne Bremen , Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 978-3-89234-522-0 (several editions there, most recently in 2012 with ISBN 978-3-8319-0494-5 ).
• with Walter Mayr (photos): Beautiful Baltic Sea coast from Flensburg to Kiel , Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 978-3-89234-628-9 .
• with Toma Babovic (photos): The Baltic Sea coast from Wismar to Rostock , Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 978-3-89234-596-1 .
• with Toma Babovic (photos): In Fritz Reuter's footsteps , Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 978-3-89234-812-2 1.
• with Anne Rieken (illustrations): Malinda, the rainbow cuddly toy, Geest-Verlag, Vechta-Langförden 2003, ISBN 978-3-936389-59-3 .
• with Inge Buck , Wolfgang Schlott: City images: Bremen - Danzig - Riga. edition lumière, Bremen 2008, ISBN 978-3-934686-62-5 .
• Reformer, democrat, writer - on Fritz Reuter's footsteps , Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8319-0414-3 .
• Carl FW Borgward - Entrepreneur and car designer , Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-7688-3145-1 .
• as editor: For me it is! Young poetry - poems and illustrations from Bremen schools , Donat, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-938275-92-4 .
• The king's builder. In the footsteps of Karl Friedrich Schinkel , Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-8319-0415-0 .
• Flame of freedom. Roman , Knaur, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-426-50877-0 (as an e-book under ISBN 978-3-426-41291-6 ).
• “It has to be right” - the costume designer Ingrid Zoré , Edition Linie, Bremen 2016, ISBN 978-3-00-052167-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Birgid Hanke in the catalog of the German National Library
• Birgid Hanke's website
• Biography at Geest-Verlag

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} entry on literaturkritik.de ; accessed on January 13, 2019
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} biography in the online presence of Geest-Verlag; accessed on January 13, 2019
3. ↑ ^{a b} Erika Thies: Eleonore went to the Lützowern. Birgid Hanke from the Steintor will present her novel "Flammen der Freiheit" (Flames of Freedom) tomorrow in the Villa Sponte . In: Weser-Kurier , online version from October 31, 2013 ; accessed on January 13, 2019
4. ↑ ^{a b c} portrait at the Literaturhaus Bremen ; accessed on January 13, 2019