Detlef Bluhm

Detlef Bluhm

Detlef Bluhm (born January 15, 1954 in Berlin ) is a German writer, bookseller and publisher.

Life

After completing a degree in religious education and theology, he completed various professional positions in Berlin bookshops and publishing houses.

In 1989, together with his business partner Rolf-Peter Baacke, he founded the small publishing house Silver & Goldstein , which had to cease operations at the beginning of 1992 because Detlef Bluhm was at that time managing director of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels Landesverband Berlin-Brandenburg e. V. has taken over.

From 1993 to 1998 he worked as an honorary labor judge at the labor court in Berlin . Since 1996 he has also been managing director of the employers' association of publishers and bookshops e. V., in 2003 he took over the chairmanship of the sponsoring association Literaturhaus Berlin e. V. and since 2006 he has been chairman of the advisory board of the Central and State Library Berlin Foundation .

Alter ego tomcat Paul

Cat Paul

In February 2010 Detlef Bluhm acquired the alter ego Kater Paul . The model was his real tomcat of the same name, with whom he had lived since 2001 and who died on March 18, 2011. As Paul the tomcat , Detlef Bluhm runs a Facebook profile and a blog in which he publishes articles on the cultural history of cats .

In November 2010 the 1st Berlin Cat Crime Night took place as part of the reading marathon STADT LAND BUCH organized by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels , at which the 1st German Cat Crime Prize was awarded. Both activities were initiated by Detlef Bluhm and he acted as their official patron under the pseudonym Kater Paul .

Artemis & Winkler published the title Kater Paul - Das Facebook-Tagebuch for the Leipzig Book Fair in March 2011 , a book project that is taking an anti-cyclical path against the backdrop of the current development of the book market: digital communication becomes an analog product.

Works

Detlef Bluhm's works have been translated into six different languages. Books and articles on the cultural history of the cat are a focal point of his writing . As editor and series editor, he was involved in a further 14 works.

Books (selection)

• On light wings into the land of the imagination. Tobacco and Culture from Columbus to Davidoff. Transit Buchverlag , Berlin 1997.
• The court jester's secret. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig 1999.
• The train to Vienna. Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig 2001.
• Cat tracks. From the cat's path through the world. Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 2004.
• The cat who loved anchovies. Ehrenwirth Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 2004.
• The big cat lexicon. Schöffling & Co., Frankfurt am Main 2007.
• The cat that reached for the stars. Surprising announcements for incorrigible cat lovers . Ehrenwirth Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 2008.
• About authors, books and pirates. Little history of book culture. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2009.
• Kater Paul - The Facebook Diary. Artemis & Winkler, Mannheim 2011.
• Everything you always wanted to know about cats . Insel Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-45835-945-6 .
• Ship cats , Insel Verlag GmbH (2014), ISBN 978-3-458360117 .

Anthologies

• Von Katzen und Frauen , Insel Taschenbuch, Berlin 2013, published by Detlef Bluhm

Radio plays

• The court jester's secret. Editing: Andrea Czesienski , director: Ulrike Brinkmann , speaker: Wolfgang Böck , Hans-Werner Bussinger , Claudia Hübbecker , Christoph Quest , Michael Kind , Martin Engler , Klaus Herm , Gerd Grasse , 51 min., DeutschlandRadio Berlin 2001. First broadcast on 23. July 2001.
• The black paw I - Murderous cat stories , Argon audio book, Berlin 2011, edited by Detlef Bluhm and Christiane Gass
• The black paw II - Unheimliche Katzengeschichten , Argon audio book, Berlin 2012 (to appear in October), edited by Detlef Bluhm and Christiane Gass

Audio books

• The language of cats. In: Velvet paws and sharp claws. Headroom Sound Production , Cologne 2006.

calendar

• Artists and their cats. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2010.
• With cats all year round. A perpetual calendar (with photographs by Isolde Ohlbaum ). Insel Taschenbuch, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-458-35950-0 .

Contributions

• No coal for the office - the founding history of the association 1946–1947. In: Mixed game 1946–1996. Association of Publishers and Bookstores Berlin-Brandenburg e. V., Berlin 1996.
• The successful synthesis between culture and commerce. Preface in: Chronik der Buchhandlung Kiepert 1897–1997. Bookstore Kiepert, Berlin 1997.
• A miracle of beauty in its own right - ETA Hoffmann and his cat Murr. In: The big cats reading book. Schöffling & Co., Frankfurt am Main 2004.
• In the next life I want to be a tomcat - Charles Bukowski and nine cats. In: The yearbook of the Charles Bukowski Society 2008. Ariel Verlag, Riedstadt 2008.
• The history of book culture. In: How are books made? Kulturkind, Berlin 2010.
• Kater Tiger, Detective against will , In: Sonnenkitten - Summer cat stories, Piper Verlag, Munich 2012
• Kater Tiger, Reluctant Detective - An incredibly true drama in five acts , published as single-sheet print no.36, PalmArtPress, Berlin 2012
• Brother Medardus, In: Christmas cats , Insel Taschenbuch, Berlin 2012 (to be published in October)

portrait

• Detlef Bluhm shouldered the muse. In: Cats and their writers. Published by Jürgen Christen, Authors House Verlag, Berlin 2008.

Web links

• Literature by and about Detlef Bluhm in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography and information on the work of Detlef Bluhm at Literaturport
• Homepage of Detlef Bluhm
• Detlef Bluhm's blog under his pseudonym Kater Paul
• Bluhm reads the chapter Visiting Patricia Highsmith from The Cat Who Loved Anchovies

Individual evidence

1. ^ Overview in the German National Library