Feridun Zaimoglu

Feridun Zaimoglu at an exhibition of his pictures in Kiel (2013)

Feridun Zaimoglu , Turkish spelling Feridun Zaimoğlu [ zaiˈmoːlu ] (born December 4, 1964 in Bolu , Turkey ), is a German writer and visual artist of Turkish origin .

Origin and studies

Feridun Zaimoglu is the son of Turkish guest workers and came to Germany with his parents in 1965. He lived in West Berlin and Munich until 1985 . After passing high school, Zaimoglu dropped out of medical studies and has been working as a freelance writer in Kiel since the late 1980s .

He is a member of the PEN Center Germany and has been a member of the Free Academy of the Arts in Hamburg since 2011 .

Artistic creation

As a journalist he wrote literary reviews and essays, a. a. for Die Zeit , Die Welt , SPEX and the Tagesspiegel . In 1999/2000 he was employed as a theater poet at the National Theater Mannheim while Bruno Klimek was in charge of acting .

In 2000, Lars Becker made the socially critical film Kanak Attack , for which Zaimoglu provided the book. In 2003 he was an island writer on Sylt , and in the 2004 summer semester he held a visiting professorship at the Free University of Berlin , where he gave the lecture series Literature to go . In 2005 Zaimoglu received a scholarship at Villa Massimo . In the Book of Rome, he worked intensively on the experiences of this stay in Rome . On August 11, 2006, Zaimoglu was in Turkey among the occupants of a bus that crashed. Twelve passengers were killed and 21 were seriously injured, Zaimoglu and his mother accompanying him suffered no major injuries. This was thanks to his mother, who had pushed for a place swap before setting off. In November 2007, Zaimoglu held the Tübingen poetics lectureship at the University of Tübingen .

In his literary works, the excluded become subjects of culture. In his first book Kanak Sprak , Zaimoglu tries to authentically portray the subversive power of the language of young men of Turkish origin in Germany. With this he turns against a romantic multiculturalism . 1997 Kanak Sprak in a free Hamburg theater production at Kampnagel and shortly afterwards the boy Theater Bremen adapted for the theater - this monologues were also made Zaimoglu's third book Koppstoff used that as a counterpart to Kanak Sprak portrays young women of Turkish origin. Also in 1997 a radio play version by the author was produced, in which Zaimoglu himself participated.

His second book, the novel Scum - The True Story of Ertan Ongun (1997), was filmed in 2000 by Lars Becker as Kanak Attack . Then the perhaps best-known novels Leyla and Liebesbrand appeared . The story Skins received the jury award at the Ingeborg Bachmann Competition in 2003. In 2006, Zaimoglu received the Schleswig-Holstein art award as “one of the most important young contemporary German-speaking authors” . On April 17, 2007 he was awarded the Carl Amery Literature Prize in Munich . In 2008 his novel Liebesbrand , in which he a. a. the bus accident he had experienced himself in Turkey was processed in a literary way, nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize, which was awarded on March 13, 2008 at the Leipzig Book Fair. Most recently, the novel Hinterland (2009), the novel Ruß (2011), The Rental Painter: A Love Story (2013) and the novel Isabel (2014) were published.

Zaimoglu, who received the Schleswig-Holstein State Screenwriting Prize in 1998, writes theatrical versions and scripts, mostly with his co-author Günter Senkel . In 2003 the season of the Münchner Kammerspiele opened with the Zaimoglu / Senkel arrangement by Othello . This was followed by the world premieres of Casino Leger in Frankfurt am Main , Yes. Do it. Now. in Bremen at the Junge Theater Bremen and in June 2004 the world premiere of the commissioned work Halb so wild in the studio of the Schauspielhaus Kiel . As a continuation of the collaboration with the team of authors from Kiel, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet was premiered on the big stage of the Schauspielhaus. In March 2006, the play Black Virgins by Zaimoglu / Senkel was premiered in Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin . The piece takes the form of literary condensed interviews and statements from real people - here: young women in Germany who have converted to Islam - with whom Zaimoglu's literary work in Germany began with Kanak Sprak and Koppstoff . Pieces by Zaimoglu and his co-author Günter Senkel have been published in book form.

In addition to his work as a writer, Zaimoglu works as a visual artist and curator. Under the title Kanak Attack. Zaimoglu carried out a flag installation for the third Turkish siege from March 7th to 28th, 2005 in the Kunsthalle Wien .

In May / June 2006, a literary scholar who remained anonymous insinuated that Zaimoglu had plagiarized large parts of Emine Sevgi Özdamar's novel Life is a Caravanserai with his novel Leyla . This was justified with parallels in the plot and comparable metaphors. Zaimoglu denied having "ever read a line" from Özdamar's novel. Özdamar also acquitted the author of the plagiarism allegation.

Zaimoglu's works have been translated into English, Italian, Spanish, Slovenian, Bulgarian and Turkish.

In 2008, the draftsman and painter Hans-Ruprecht Leiß paraphrased 30 lithographs for a new version of the fairy tale Vom Fischer and his wife created by Zaimoglu .

Participation in political discourse

Zaimoglu takes part in political debates. In the first half of 2006, the co-founder of Kanak Attak (e.g. in the cultural program polylux and in an editorial for the weekly newspaper Die Zeit ) massively opposed what he saw as one-sided negative reporting by broad sections of the German media about one alleged poor integration of immigrants in Germany, which had been triggered , among other things, by the events at the Rütli School and the Mohammed cartoons .

Zaimoglu took part in September 2006 as a representative of civil society at the first conference of the German Islam Conference initiated by German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble . At the end of April 2007 he criticized the composition of the Islamic Conference in interviews with the Islamische Zeitung and the Berliner Zeitung . He pointed out that, despite his suggestion, no self-confident Muslim woman wearing a headscarf was accepted into the conference and that this group of people was therefore not represented in the conference. He would be happy to vacate his place for an appropriate representative. In this context, he accused the, in his view, “ hyped ” Islamic critics such as Necla Kelek and Seyran Ateş of “derailments and defamations”: “They constantly and tirelessly attack these young believing women.” Kelek protested against his “insult” and replied, "That he is just vain and has no interest in the matter". He had previously created the word "Schamtuchträger", which he used to describe Muslim women wearing headscarves .

For the election of the Federal President on May 23, 2009, he was named by the Schleswig-Holstein Greens as an elector. The Schleswig-Holstein SPD sent him to the election of the German Federal President in 2017 .

During the refugee crisis in Germany from 2015 onwards , Zaimoglu criticized the politics of Angela Merkel and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as well as the “culture of violence” of many immigrants and “barking conservatives”. Accordingly, he revised the play Antigone , which he staged in 2016 at the Schauspielhaus Zurich.

Works (selection)

Book publications

Kanak Sprak , Rotbuch, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-434-54518-2
Scrap - The true story of Ertan Ongun , Rotbuch, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-434-54509-3 (filmed in 2000 under the title Kanak Attack, director: Lars Becker. Collaboration on the script).
Koppstoff , Rotbuch, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-88022-674-1 .
Love marks, scarlet , novel. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-462-03097-3 .
Head and collar , Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-596-15290-9 .
German Amok , Roman, Fischer-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-596-15851-6 .
Canvas , Roman, Rotbuch, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-434-53080-0 .
Othello , new translation, Monsenstein and Vannerdat , Münster 2003, ISBN 978-3-86582-006-8 .
Three attempts on love , plays, Monsenstein and Vannerdat , 2003, ISBN 978-3-86582-007-5 .
Twelve grams of luck , stories, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-462-03362-X .
Leyla , Roman, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-462-03696-3 .
Rome intensive , short stories, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-462-03789-0 .
On the Art of Small Deviations , lecture on June 27, 2007, Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken, edited by Ralph Schock . Union Foundation Gollenstein, Blieskastel 2007, ISBN 978-3-938823-28-6 .
Liebesbrand , Roman, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-462-03969-6 .
Far near , Tübingen Poetics Lecturer, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89929-144-5 (with Ilija Trojanow )
Hinterland , Roman, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-462-04133-0 .
Ruß , Roman, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-462-04329-7 .
The rental painter: a love story , Langen Müller, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-7844-3324-0 .
Isabel , Roman, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-462-04607-6 .
Siebentürmeviertel , Roman, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-462-04764-6 .
Evangelio , Roman, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2017, ISBN 978-3-462-05010-3 .
I go through the Germany of my days: 27 experiences in my country, stories, Edition Eichthal 2018, ISBN 978-3-9817066-4-2 .
The story of women , Roman, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2019, ISBN 978-3-462-05230-5 .

Theater plays (together with Günter Senkel)

Casino Leger , UA Schauspiel Frankfurt 2003
Yes. Do it. Now. , UA Young Theater Bremen, 2003
Half so wild , UA Theater Kiel, 2004
Othello , based on Shakespeare, UA Kammerspiele Munich, 2003
Lulu Live , based on Wedekind, UA Kammerspiele Munich, 2006
Nathan Messias , UA Schauspiel Düsseldorf, 2006
Black Virgins , Theater Hebbel am Ufer, 2006
Molière , UA Salzburg Festival, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, 2007
Romeo and Juliet , based on Shakespeare, UA Theater Kiel, 2006
Shadow Voices , UA Schauspiel Köln, 2008
Alpsegen , premiere: April 15, 2011, Kammerspiele Munich
Siegfrieds Erben , WP: July 20, 2018, Nibelungen Festival Worms

Articles in books and magazines, miscellaneous

Change ridge . Together with Raimund Driesen and Minako Seki . In: Förderverein Kulturlandschaft Niederlausitz (Ed.): III. Europe Biennale Niederlausitz 1995 . Cottbus 1997, pp. 25-29, ISBN 3-00-002567-7
sicarim süppkülleürünüze, züppeler! I shit on your subculture, you Schmöcke! In: Holert, Tom & Terkessidis, Mark (eds.): Mainstream of the minorities. Pop in der Kontrollgesellschaft , ID-Verlag, Berlin 1996 ISBN 3-89408-059-0 (pp. 86–95)
Germany easel. In: Schweeger, Elisabeth & Witt, Eberhard (Ed.): Oh Germany! Belville, Munich 2000 ISBN 3-933510-67-8 (pp. 57–63)
A culture war is raging in Germany. In: Sezgin, Hilal (ed.): Manifesto of the Many. Germany is reinventing itself. Blumenbar Verlag, Berlin 2011. ISBN 978-3-936738-74-2 (pp. 11-15).
Faith is not the hash cookie for the seeker of meaning . In: Güvercin, Eren: Neo-Muslims. Portrait of a German generation . Herder Verlag, Freiburg 2012. ISBN 978-3-451-30471-2 (pp. 7-12).

Awards

1997: Civis Media Prize
1998: Screenplay Award of the State of Schleswig-Holstein
2002: Friedrich Hebbel Prize
2003: Prize of the jury at the Ingeborg Bachmann competition for the story skins (published in the volume Twelve grams of luck )
2003: Inselschreiber
2005: Adelbert von Chamisso Prize
2005: Villa Massimo grant
2005: Hugo Ball Prize from the city of Pirmasens
2006: Art Prize of the State of Schleswig-Holstein
2007: Carl Amery Literature Prize
2007: Grimmelshausen Prize for Leyla
2007: Tuebingen poetics lectureship together with Ilija Trojanow
2008: Cross-border commuter research grant from the Robert Bosch Foundation for Hinterland
2008: Corine for love brand
2010: Jakob Wassermann Literature Prize in recognition of his work and for his role as a mediator in the German-Turkish dialogue.
2010: Culture Prize of the City of Kiel
2011: On February 25, 2011, Zaimoglu received the award "Honorary Member of the School Community of the Nidda High School" during a reading with winners of the OVAG Youth Literature Prize.
2012: Prize of the Literature Houses
2012: Heinrich Heine guest lecturer
2014: Longlist at the German Book Prize with Isabel
2015: Mainz town clerk
2015: Longlist at the German Book Prize with the Siebentürmeviertel
2016: Berlin Literature Prize
2016: Honorary Professorship of the State of Schleswig-Holstein
2017: Nomination for the German Book Prize with Evangelio

literature

Rüdiger Schütt (Ed.): Feridun Zaimoglu - in writing and pictures. Contributions to the work of the author and artist . Kiel 2011, ISBN 978-3-9805175-9-1
The polemics poison the social climate . In: Islamische Zeitung , April 6, 2006; Conversation with the director Neco Çelik and the writer Feridun Zaimoglu about their play Black Virgins .
War of Provocateurs . The writer Feridun Zaimoglu on the polemics against Islam and Muslims at the conference “Integration needs rights and opportunities” organized by Bündnis90 / Die Grünen on June 28, 2007 in the German Bundestag