Christoph Hein

Christoph Hein at the Leipzig Book Fair 2016

Christoph Hein (2012)

Christoph Hein (born April 8, 1944 in Heinzendorf near Münsterberg , Lower Silesia Province ) is a German writer , translator and essayist .

Life

Christoph Hein grew up in the small town of Bad Düben north of Leipzig . In 1958 he was confirmed. As the son of a pastor he was not a working class child and he could not get a place at an extended high school , he went to a West Berlin high school until the Wall was built . After the wall was built, he worked as an assembly worker, bookseller, waiter, journalist, actor and assistant director. In 1964 he passed his A-levels at night school. Between 1967 and 1971 he studied philosophy and logic in Berlin and Leipzig . He then became a dramaturge and author at the Volksbühne in East Berlin . He has been working as a freelance writer since 1979.

Christoph Hein became famous for his novella The Foreign Friend , which was published in the GDR in 1982 and appeared in West Germany in 1983 as a dragon's blood due to its title protection . His play The True Story of Ah Q was published in 1983. As a translator, he worked on works by Jean Racine and Molière . From 1998 to 2000, Christoph Hein was the first President of the all-German PEN Club , of which he has been Honorary President since May 2014. Until July 2006 he was co-editor of the weekly newspaper Freitag .

Christoph Hein has two sons with his wife, the film director Christiane Hein, who died in 2002; the younger one is the writer and doctor Jakob Hein . Christoph Hein has been married to the opera singer Maria Husmann since 2011 and lives in Havelberg .

Hein is a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry and the Saxon Academy of the Arts .

On October 8, 2004, the Berlin Senator for Culture, Thomas Flierl , confirmed that contract negotiations were being held with Christoph Hein on the management of the Deutsches Theater . Hein was to take over the theater from the 2006/2007 season and thus succeed Bernd Wilms , whose contract was not extended. On December 29, 2004, after numerous reviews from the theater world and the press, Hein announced at a press conference that he would not take up the post of artistic director in 2006.

Christoph Hein's novel Willenbrock was filmed in 2005 by Andreas Dresen under the same title . Lyrical works by Christoph Hein were set to music in 2009 by Hans-Eckardt Wenzel , with whom Hein had stood in front of the camera in the 1990 film Last from Da Da eR .

Christoph Hein supports the collection movement Stand Up .

According to Hein, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's award-winning film The Lives of Others is based in part on his life story; he interviewed him in 2002 for this purpose. After the premiere, however, he asked Donnersmarck to delete his name from the opening credits, because his life was "completely different"; the film "does not describe the 1980s in the GDR", but is a "horror tale".

reception

The German scholar Hannes Krauss wrote in Kindler's literary dictionary : "Although Christoph Hein claims to be a playwright who occasionally writes prose as a 'finger exercise', it is precisely this prose that has made him internationally known." Since the publication of his novella The Stranger Freund is one of the most important contemporary authors in Germany. Before that, Hein mainly published stories that take place in different centuries. Many of these narratives dealt with the story from the perspective of marginal characters. A large number of his prose is about love, but his lovers are rarely happy, as their everyday life, their origins or their upbringing make it difficult for them to access themselves or others.

In his dramatic works, Hein mainly deals with the driving forces of history and failed revolutions. However, "Hein's historical pieces [...] are not historical pieces" because specific events or the fates of 'great men' in world history are irrelevant to him. In all of his pieces he always refers to the present by raising fundamental questions.

Works

Hein speaks at the large demonstration in Berlin on November 4, 1989

Pieces

• 1974: Schlötel or whatever . A comedy.
• 1974: From the hungry Hennecke. Child's play.
• 1979: Sir John D.'s Businesses Review for Actors.
• 1980: Cromwell . A play.
• 1980: Lassalle asks Mr. Herbert about Sonja. The scene a salon . Play in three acts.
• 1982: The New Menoza, or Tale of the Colombian Prince Tandi. Comedy based on Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz.
• 1983: The True Story of Ah Q .
• 1987: passage . A chamber play in three acts.
• 1989: The Knights of the Round Table .
• 1989: the tango player
• 1994: Randow. A comedy.
• 1999: break . Play in four acts.
• 1999: In eight and under . Comedy in one act.
• 1999: onlookers. Comedy.
• 1999: Heaven on Earth . Comedy.
• 2000: Mother's Day.
• 2002: On the history of the human heart or Mr. Schubart, Mr. Lenz tells a novel that happened among us. Comedy.

prose

• A mason's widow. 1980.
• Frank, a childhood with fathers. Short story. 1980.
• Invitation to the Lever Bourgeois. Stories. Structure, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-518-45578-8 or (later - minus a narrative - published under the title Nachtfahrt and early morning .)
• The strange friend . Novella. Structure, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-518-18869-0 . (Publishedoutside the GDR under the title Dragon's Blood .)
• The wild horse under the tiled stove. Children's book. With illustrations by Manfred Bofinger . Altberliner Verlag, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-86730-001-1 . ("A nice, thick book by Jakob Borg and his friends.")
• Horn's end . Novel. Structure, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-518-39979-9 .
• Work in public. Essays and conversations. Structure, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-518-45590-7 .
• The tango player . Narrative. Structure, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-518-39977-2 . As a paperback: Aufbau Taschenbuch, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-7466-1025-7 .
• As a child I saw Stalin. Essays and speeches. Structure, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-518-45624-5 .
• The Napoleon game . Novel. Structure, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-518-39980-2 .
• Execution of a Calf and Other Tales. Short stories. Structure, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-518-41388-0 .
• From the very beginning . Autobiography. Structure, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-518-45634-2
• Willenbrock. Novel. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-518-39796-6 . ( Filmed in 2005 under the title Willenbrock .)
• Mom left Novel for children, with vignettes by Rotraut Susanne Berner. Beltz and Gelberg, Weinheim 2003, ISBN 3-407-78678-6 (deals with the death of his wife Christiane).
• Land grab . Novel. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-518-45729-2 .
• A garden in his early childhood . Novel. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-518-45773-X .
• The golden fleece . Narrative. Faber & Faber, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936618-73-9 .
• Mrs. Paula Trousseau . Novel. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-518-41878-9 .
• About the harmfulness of tobacco. Speech to the high school graduates of the year 2009. Gollenstein, Merzig 2009, ISBN 978-3-938823-60-6 .
• Weiskern's estate . Novel. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-42241-0 .
• Ahead of time: corrections. Stories. Insel, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-458-17570-4 , most recently as Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-46504-2 .
• Lucky child with father. Roman, Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-518-42517-6 .
• Defiance. Roman, Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-518-42585-5 .
• Confusion , Roman, Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-518-42822-1 .
• Counter-listening attack - anecdotes from the last German-German war , autobiographical stories, Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-518-46993-4 .
• Everything you need, the 20 most important things in life , children's book, illustrations by Rotraut Susanne Berner , Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-446-26273-7 .
• One word just for Amalia , illustrations by Rotraut Susanne Berner , Insel-Verlag Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-458-19479-8 .

Hein's works were u. a. translated into Danish, English, Finnish, French, Georgian, Greek, Italian, Catalan, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Swedish, Czech and Hungarian m

Translations

• Philipp Lyonel Russell: At the end a view of the sea , from the American English by Christoph Hein, Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-458-17784-5 .

items

• We are afraid of becoming poor. In: Der Spiegel , December 1991.
• From unhappy awareness. In: Friday , August 19, 2005.

Edits

Settings

• Masks - Wenzel sings Christoph Hein. 2009, singer: Hans-Eckardt Wenzel . Sailor blue , EAN 4047173278126.
• Homer's first book (corrections). 2013, reading: Christoph Hein, musical accompaniment: Hans-Eckardt Wenzel. 2 CDs, 127 min. Sailor Blue, ISBN 978-3-941155-36-7 .

Audio books

• From the very beginning , reading with Ulrich Mühe , director: Petra Meyenburg , 346 min., 1 mp3 CD. MDR Figaro 1998 / Der Audio Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86231-563-5 .
• Weiskern's estate , unabridged reading with Götz Schubert , director: Rainer Schwarz , 420 min., 1 mp3 CD. MDR Figaro 2013 / Der Audio Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86231-562-8 .
• The Stranger Friend / Dragon's Blood , unabridged author reading, 322 min. 1 mp3 CD / Saarländischer Rundfunk / Der Audio Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86231-713-4
• Glückskind with father , reading with Ulrich Matthes , director: Matthias Thalheim, 720 min, 10 CDs, MDR Figaro / BR 2016 / Der Audio Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86231-695-3 .
• Confusion Unabridged reading with Sylvester Groth , director: Matthias Thalheim, 413 min, 6 CDs, MDR Kultur 2018 / Der Audio Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-7424-0731-3 .
• Everything you need, The 20 most important things in life, unabridged reading with Thomas Quasthoff , approx. 83 min., USM Audio, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-8032-9212-4 .

Radio plays

• Jakob Borg's stories . 1981, directed by Flora Hoffmann , (children's radio play series in 5 episodes, GDR radio )
• Horn's end . 1987, direction and adaptation: Horst H. Vollmer, 6 parts, SDR
• Passage . 1988, director: Achim Scholz , adaptation: Heide Böwe , Rundfunk der DDR
• Passage . 1988, directed by Otto Düben, SDR
• The king now wanted to see with his own eyes what has been created here . 1989, based on Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim and Theodor Fontane , director: Fritz Göhler , production: Rundfunk der DDR
• Ma ... Ma ... Marlene . 1990, directed by Angelika Perl, Funkhaus Berlin
• It freezes first on the bridges - Bridge freezes before roadway . 1992, directed by Lutz Hochstraate, ORF / SFB
• Dragon's Blood or The Strange Friend . 1993, directed by Götz Fritsch , ORF / DS-Kultur / SWF
• It freezes first on the bridges - Bridge freezes before roadway . 1993, directed by Jörg Jannings , MDR / hr / NDR
• Break . 1994, directed by Jörg Jannings, MDR
• Randow . 1995, directed by Jörg Jannings, DLR / NDR
• Onlookers . 1999, directed by Walter Niklaus, MDR
• Heaven on earth . 1999, directed by Jürgen Dluzniewski, MDR
• Mother's day . 2001, directed by Jörg Jannings, MDR
• Willenbrock. 2002, directed by Leonhard Koppelmann , NDR .
• Jannings. 2004, directed by Jörg Jannings, DLR

Film adaptations

• Passage . 1988, directed by Fritz Bornemann .
• The Knights of the Round Table. 1990, directed by Fritz Bornemann, TV-DFF2
• The Tango Player 1991, directed by Roland Gräf .
• Willenbrock . 2005, directed by Andreas Dresen .

Awards

• 1982: Heinrich Mann Prize from the GDR Academy of Arts
• 1983: German Critics' Prize
• 1986: Mara Cassens Prize of the Hamburger Literaturhaus for the first novel
• 1989: Stefan Andres Prize (City of Schweich on the Moselle)
• 1989: Lessing Prize of the GDR (Ministry of Culture)
• 1990: Erich Fried Prize (Vienna)
• 1992: Ludwig Mülheims Theater Prize for religious drama
• 1992: Berlin Literature Prize from the Prussian Sea Trade Foundation
• 1994: Large Federal Cross of Merit (October 5, 1994)
• 1998: Peter Weiss Prize of the City of Bochum
• 2000: Solothurn Literature Prize
• 2000: Zons Radio Play Prize
• 2002: Brothers Grimm Professorship
• 2002: Austrian State Prize for European Literature
• 2003: Calwer Hermann Hesse scholarship
• 2004: Schiller Memorial Prize of the State of Baden-Württemberg
• 2004: Ver.di Literature Prize Berlin-Brandenburg
• 2008: Walter Hasenclever Literature Prize
• 2010: Eichendorff Literature Prize
• 2011: Gerty Spies Literature Prize
• 2011: Honorary citizenship of the city of Bad Düben
• 2012: Uwe Johnson Prize
• 2013: International Stefan Heym Prize
• 2017: Grimmelshausen Prize for lucky child with father

literature

• Gottfried Fischborn : Christoph Hein. In: Alo Allkemper, Norbert Otto Eke (Ed.), German dramatists of the 20th century. Erich Schmidt, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-503-04975-4 , pp. 683-691.
• Bernd Fischer: Christoph Hein. Drama and prose in the last decade of the GDR. Heidelberg 1990, ISBN 3-533-04275-8 .
• Peter Hacks : laudation for Christoph Hein. In: Neue Deutsche Literatur (ndl) , 1982, No. 6, pp. 159-163.
• Klaus Hammer (Ed.): Chronicler without a message. Christoph Hein. A work book. 1992, ISBN 3-351-02152-6 .
• Frank Hörnigk : History in Drama. 2 volumes, habilitation thesis , Berlin, Humboldt University, volume 2, pp. 156–221.
• Boris Hoge: “Everything will be Asia” - culturalism and cultural indifference in Christoph Heins “Willenbrock” . In: Ders .: Writing about Russia. The construction of space, history and cultural identity in German narrative texts since 1989. Winter, Heidelberg 2012, pp. 346–367.
• Therese Hörnigk, Andreas Herbst :  Hein, Christoph . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Graham Jackman (Ed.): Christoph Hein in Perspective (= German monitor. No. 51). Editions Rodopi, Amsterdam, Atlanta 2000, ISBN 90-420-1492-X .
• Antje Janssen-Zimmermann: alternative designs. Research on dramas by Christoph Heins. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-631-40377-1 (= literary historical research , volume 13).
• Hannes Krauss: Christoph Hein. In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.): Kindlers literature dictionary . Metzler, Stuttgart 2009, 3rd, completely revised edition, Volume 7: Hai – Hyr, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , pp. 273-277.
• Rudolf Münz: Afterword. In: Christoph Hein: Cromwell and other pieces. Structure, Berlin, Weimar 1981.
• Ralph Schock : Conversation with Christoph Hein. In: Sense and Form. 2009, No. 5, pp. 628-639 (online) .
• Fabian Thomas: New lives, new writing? The "turning point" in 1989/90 with Jana Hensel , Ingo Schulze and Christoph Hein. Meidenbauer, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-89975-948-8 .
• Ines Zekert: Investigations into poetological and historical philosophical positions of Christoph Hein with special consideration of his Walter Benjamin reception. Dissertation, University of Leipzig, 1991, DNB 920062695 .

Movies

• The writer Christoph Hein - from the very beginning. Documentary film, Germany, 2014, 29:40 min., Script and direction: Leonore Brandt, production: MDR , series: CVs, first broadcast: April 3, 2014 on MDR, synopsis from MDR ( memento from September 3, 2014 in the web archive archive. today ).
• Christoph Hein - A childhood in Germany. Documentary, Germany, 2000, 43:13 min., Script and director: Raimund Koplin, production: Bayerischer Rundfunk , series: Childhood Stories, synopsis on ARD , video on YouTube .
• About the person: Günter Gaus in conversation with Christoph Hein. Conversation, GDR, 1990, 45 min., Director: Harald Becker, production: DFF , series: Zur Person, first broadcast: 13 March 1990 by DFF, film data from Deutsche Kinemathek , printed in: Günter Gaus: Zur Person - Six portraits in Question and answer. Volk und Welt, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-353-00766-0 , pp. 95-114.
• Germany by Christoph Hein, Wladimir Kaminer , Emine Sevgi Özdamar and Bernhard Schlink ( Europe and its writers ). Documentary, Germany and France, 2013, 55 min., Director: Olivier Morel , production: Seconde Vague Productions, ARTE , 2013. [1]

Web links

Commons : Christoph Hein  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Christoph Hein in the catalog of the German National Library
• Christoph Hein in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• University library of the FU Berlin ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the web archive archive.today ) - a commented collection of links
• Short biography and information on the work of Christoph Hein at Literaturport
• Short biography and reviews of works by Christoph Hein at perlentaucher.de
• Christoph Hein at the Academy of Arts
• Portrait feature on Christoph Hein by Steffen Lüddemann, 60 min., MDR KULTUR
• "Lucky child with father" by Christoph Hein. Reading and conversation with the author, in the radio show 52 best books on SRF 2 Kultur , June 2016

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dieter Jost: Want to know more - An obituary for Christiane Hein. In: der Freitag , No. 6 from February 1, 2002.
2. ↑ cf. Christoph Hein: The Negro, in: Christoph Hein: Counter-eavesdropping, anecdotes from the last German-German war, Berlin 2019, 107–121.
3. ↑ stand up The collection movement: supporters
4. ↑ Christoph Hein: Why I had my name deleted from "The Lives of Others". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 24, 2019
5. ↑ Christoph Hein: My life, slightly revised, in: Christoph Hein: Gegen-Lauschangriff, anecdotes from the last German-German war, Berlin 2019, 102-106, 104.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Hannes Krauss: Christoph Hein. In: Arnold, Heinz Ludwig (Hrsg.): Kindlers literature dictionary . Metzler, Stuttgart 2009, 3rd, completely revised edition, Volume 7: Hai – Hyr, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , pp. 273-277.
7. ↑ Christoph Hein "The East Germans accept themselves more today than East Germans" , Berliner Zeitung of March 9, 2019, accessed March 13, 2019
8. ↑ The translator's name is explicitly on the book cover. See the review in the Berliner Zeitung on March 9, 2019.
9. ↑ "At the end a view of the sea" , Suhrkamp, ​​accessed March 13, 2019
10. ↑ Office of the Federal President
11. ^ Jörg Uhle-Wettler: Laudation for Mr. Christoph Hein for being an honorary citizen of Bad Düben. In: Bad Düben city administration, April 13, 2011, accessed December 30, 2017.