Eckart Cordes

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Cordes Bookstore (1971)

Eckart Cordes (born March 24, 1933 in Kiel ) is a German bookseller .

Life

After completing secondary school , Eckart Cordes completed an apprenticeship as a bookseller in Hamburg from 1952 to 1954 . He then worked in his mother's bookstore in Kiel, which he took over in 1967. In 1958, Ernst Rowohlt advised him to organize readings by authors to improve book sales . The first reading took place in 1961, Uwe Johnson read from his newly published novel The Third Book about Achim . Since then Cordes has organized over 500 readings; Among the authors were Theodor W. Adorno , Miodrag Bulatović , Peter Härtling , Rolf Hochhuth , John Irving , Ephraim Kishon , Siegfried Lenz , Peter Ustinov and Martin Walser as well as the Nobel Prize winners Elias Canetti , Günter Grass , Halldór Laxness , Doris Lessing and Herta Müller .

Honors

In 1964, Cordes was named Amicus Poloniae (Friend of Poland) for his efforts to make Polish literature known . In 1994 he received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon . In 1996 he was honored with the Andreas Gayk Medal “for his personal commitment, with which he, as a pioneer and advocate of modern literature, made great literature at home in Kiel and brought many well-known writers to Kiel for readings” . In 2006 he received the cultural award of the city of Kiel endowed with 10,000 euros “for his top-class author readings which he has been organizing for 45 years” .

Miodrag Bulatović named in his novel The War Was Better (original title: Rat je bio bolji ) , published in 1968, a character after Eckart Cordes, the Swiss writer Peter Bichsel wrote his own short story about him.

Letters from and to Cordes with correspondence partners such as Paul Celan , Carl Zuckmayer , Peter Rühmkorf , Günter Kunert , Peter Handke or Johannes Bobrowski can be found in the German Literature Archive in Marbach and in the Schleswig-Holstein State Library .

literature

  • Torsten Stellmacher (Ed.): "It was always a festival". A birthday present for Eckart Cordes. Kiel 2003. (In it: Roger Willemsen interviews Eckart Cordes).
  • Peter Bichsel: My trip to Cordes. A Trans-Siberian Story. Book lobby Switzerland, Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-9523263-0-5 .
  • Jörg Meyer: Ambassador of the books. Bookseller Eckart Cordes turned 75 - and still does not rest when it comes to literature. In: Lifestyle in the North. 2008, June, pp. 94-95.
  • Erich Maletzke: The bottle is often in the pocket. What the Kiel bookseller Eckart Cordes experienced in three decades with prominent writers. In: Flensburger Tageblatt . 1995, No. 18 of January 21, 1995.

Web links

Commons : Eckart Cordes  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Culture Prize 2006: Eckart Cordes . In: www.kiel.de . City of Kiel. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b c d Adorno to Walser: Eckart Cordes lures famous writers to Kiel . In: Schwäbische Zeitung . Schwäbischer Verlag GmbH & Co. KG. April 24, 2006. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b Cordes, Eckart . In: www.wir-kieler.de . Kiel-Marketing GmbH and Kiel-Marketing e. V .. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  4. ↑ Holders of the Andreas Gayk Medal . In: www.kiel.de . City of Kiel. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Cordes, Eckart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bookseller
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiel