Detlev Meyer

Detlev Meyer (early 1970s)

Detlev Meyer (born February 12, 1948 in Berlin ; † October 30, 1999 there ) was a German writer and poet.

Meyer studied library and information science in Berlin and Cleveland , was a librarian in Toronto and a development worker in Jamaica . He was a PEN member and received numerous literary grants.

Detlev Meyer was one of the few openly gay authors in Germany. His subjects were life in and with the scene as well as the threat of AIDS , the disease, the consequences of which he succumbed in the end. But he did not remain an “author of the scene”, but found an audience far beyond that, was discussed in the literature departments of FAZ and DIE ZEIT and was considered the “only dandy of contemporary German literature” ( DIE ZEIT ). He became known through the biography of Dismay with the parts An angel reaches for me in the steam bath , David gets on the Ferris wheel and one last thank you to the athletes (1985 to 1989). His last work, Das Sonnenkind , an autobiographical childhood novel in Berlin in the 1950s and 1960s, was published posthumously in 2001.

plant

Gravestone in the Schöneberg III cemetery, Dept. 20-21

Lyric:

Tonight in the jungle. 50 poems . Oberbaumverlag, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-87628-192-X .
Men stand on the canals. Fifty poems . Eremiten-Presse publishing house, Düsseldorf 1990, ISBN 3-87365-254-4 .
Promise of a miracle worker. Fifty poems . MännerschwarmSkript-Verlag, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-928983-13-X .
Star in sight. Poems . MännerschwarmSkript-Verlag, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-928983-62-8 .
Correct pick-up. Love poems . MännerschwarmSkript-Verlag, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-935596-61-8 . (Selection from the four volumes of poetry and two unpublished poems from the estate)

Novels:

Biography of dismay (trilogy):
- Volume 1: An angel is reaching for me in the steam room . Eremiten-Presse publishing house, Düsseldorf 1985, ISBN 3-87365-216-1 .
- Volume 2: David gets on the Ferris wheel . Eremiten-Presse publishing house, Düsseldorf 1987, ISBN 3-87365-231-5 .
- Volume 3: One last thank you to the athletes . Eremiten-Presse publishing house, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-87365-247-1 .
Autumn is already in my soul. A high school student's love . MännerschwarmSkript-Verlag, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-928983-33-4 .
The sun child . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-351-02900-4 .

Features and short prose:

Dear friends. Ten portraits . Eremiten-Presse publishing house, Düsseldorf 1993, ISBN 3-87365-283-8 .
The pc whore and the sultan. Stories 1986 to 1996 . MännerschwarmSkript-Verlag, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-928983-41-5 .
Are you Miss Riefenstahl? Short prose . Eremiten-Presse publishing house, Düsseldorf 1997, ISBN 3-87365-310-9 .

Web links

Literature by and about Detlev Meyer in the catalog of the German National Library
Detlef Grumbach: Biographer of consternation (obituary in the Tagesspiegel, November 1, 1999) and the virtuoso of recklessness. A portrait of Detlev Meyers ( Memento from May 2, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
http://www.rosarauschen.de/archiv/lösungen/detlev_meyer.html
The Voices of the Poets - Detlev Meyer with a selection of his poems can be heard on lyrikline.org
Detlev Meyer: How do you recognize a gay book? ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

↑ The correct year of birth 1948 can be found on Meyer's tombstone in the Schöneberg III cemetery . In many biographical sources, however, the wrong year of birth 1950 is given.

personal data
SURNAME	Meyer, Detlev
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German poet and writer
DATE OF BIRTH	February 12, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	October 30, 1999
Place of death	Berlin

[1] The correct year of birth 1948 can be found on Meyer's tombstone in the Schöneberg III cemetery . In many biographical sources, however, the wrong year of birth 1950 is given.