Frank Schätzing

Frank Schätzing, 2015

Frank Schätzing (born May 28, 1957 in Cologne ) is a German writer . His most famous book is The Swarm . He also appears as a speaker in some TV documentaries.

Life

Frank Schätzing studied communication science at the West German Academy for Communication in Cologne and worked for a long time in the advertising industry at Warner as a creative director in international agency networks. Among other things, he was managing director of the Cologne advertising agency Intevi, which he co-founded .

He has appeared as a writer since the early 1990s. After a few short stories and satires , he first published a historical novel (detective novel) in 1995 with the title Death and the Devil . In 2000, the political thriller Lautlos followed at the 1999 World Economic Summit.

After five of his books were published under the label Köln-Krimi by Emons Verlag , he switched to Kiepenheuer & Witsch with the concept of the science thriller The Swarm .

In 2004, Schätzing celebrated its greatest success to date with The Swarm , in which an unknown intelligent life form from the deep sea threatens the foundations of human life. Allegations of plagiarism , according to which Schätzing is said to have copied parts of his book verbatim, could not be proven, and relevant investigations were discontinued. After Der Schwarm should originally have been released as a film in the cinema from 2006 (the rights to the book were secured by Till Grönemeyer as well as Ica († 2012) and Michael Souvignier , a role was planned for Uma Thurman ), ZDF has now announced that The book will be made into a television series from 2019. This is to be created in an international co-production as a series of eight 45-minute episodes. Frank Doelger , known for the Game of Thrones series, was hired as the producer , while Frank Schätzing himself is writing the scripts.

Frank Schätzing at a book signing in November 2004 in Munich

Until the appearance of Der Schwarm, Schätzing's works were rather limited and local success in the Cologne area was granted. After the success of this novel, however, Goldmann Verlag acquired the paperback rights to the previous works for a new edition. The swarm had a total print run of around 3.8 million copies from its appearance until 2010 and has been translated into 27 languages ​​worldwide.

His books The Dark Side and Murder Hunger were filmed and broadcast on behalf of RTL .

In 2009, Frank Schätzing advertised the lingerie and underwear manufacturer Mey as a model .

In 2014 Schätzing appeared in a supporting role in Tatort - Borowski and the Sea .

Frank Schätzing is married to Sabina Valkieser-Schätzing (who speaks in the radio play version of Der Schwarm Tina Lund) and lives in Cologne.

His new novel The Tyranny of the Butterfly was published on April 24, 2018 . In it he addresses the opportunities and dangers of artificial intelligence .

Interests, views and social engagement

According to his own statement, the idea of ​​the thematic structure of his books often corresponds to personal areas of interest and long-term hobbies, be it the sea and diving, the history of his hometown Cologne or international politics. In addition, Schätzing supports numerous environmental projects with charity readings and as an advisory board of Deepwave , an initiative to protect the high and deep seas and some dolphin conservation projects.

In 2012, Frank Schätzing volunteered as a "boatman" for the German Society for Rescue of Shipwrecked People (DGzRS) and promoted this independent non-profit organization that was financed exclusively from donations.

Schätzing was repeatedly asked about climate change in the media . In his view, “nature has always been unpredictable”. One should "spend less energy on the question of what we can do against climate change, but rather develop strategies on how we can better live with it". He doubts that the current global warming is exclusively caused by humans ("If we blame everything on humans, climate change will become a question of faith"), but on the other hand thinks that an "acceleration" of this climate change through global human activities is out of the question .

In November 2012, Schätzing took part as a speaker at a rally against right-wing violence under the Cologne motto Ass huh, Zäng ussenander .

Works

Film documentaries

• 2007: 2057 - Our life in the future , ZDF, Terra X , (presented and spoken by Frank Schätzing)
• 20 ??: Interactive interview , Frank Schätzing about his role in documentary 2057 and his own visions for the future
• 2007: Revenge of the Oceans , NDR.
• 2010: Universe of the Oceans , ZDF.

Books

• Death and the devil . Novel. Emons, Cologne 1995; Goldmann, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-89705-451-5 .
• Hunger for murder . Novel. Emons, Cologne 1996; Goldmann, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-442-45924-9 .
• The dark side . Novel. Emons, Cologne 1997; Goldmann, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-442-45879-0 .
• Do not worry . Cologne short crime novels. Emons, Cologne 1997; Goldmann, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-442-45923-0 .
• Silent . Novel. Emons, Cologne 2000; Goldmann, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-442-45922-2 .
• The crush . Novel. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2004; Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16453-2 . ( No. 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list in 2004 and 2005 )
• News from an unknown universe . A journey through the seas . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2006; Paperback, ibid. 2007, ISBN 978-3-462-03786-9 . ( No. 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list from April 17 to June 4, 2006 )
• Limit . Novel. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-462-03704-3 . ( No. 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list from October 19 to 25, 2009 )
• Breaking news . Novel. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-462-04527-7 . ( No. 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list from March 17 to May 4, 2014 )
• The tyranny of the butterfly . Novel. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-462-05084-4 . ( 1st place on the Spiegel bestseller list from May 5th to 11th and from May 19 to June 15, 2018 )

As editor

• Carl Barks : The daredevil adventures of the Ducks on the high seas . Marebuch, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-936384-24-X (selection and comment).

Audio books

• Do not worry . Emons, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-89705-224-5 (3 CDs, speaker: Frank Schätzing and others)
• The crush . Der Hörverlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-89940-396-7 (10 CDs, speakers: Manfred Zapatka , Silke Haupt , Joachim Kerzel , Mechthild Großmann and others) (DE: Platinum in the audio book award)
• The puppeteer . Der Hörverlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-89940-531-5 (1 CD, full reading: Frank Schätzing)
• A sign of love . Der Hörverlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-89940-831-4 (1 CD, speaker: Jan Josef Liefers )
• Death and the devil . Der Hörverlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-89940-742-3 (7 CDs, speakers: Mario Adorf , Anke Engelke , Peter Matić , Cordula Stratmann and others)
• News from an unknown universe . Der Hörverlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-89940-854-3 (2 CDs, speaker: Frank Schätzing et al.)
• Hunger for murder . Der Hörverlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89940-993-2 (5 CDs, speaker: Frank Schätzing)
• Limit . Der Hörverlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-86717-532-6 (20 CDs); ISBN 978-3-86717-580-7 (3 mp3 CDs) (Speaker: Heikko Deutschmann )
• Silent . Der Hörverlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86717-831-0 (2 mp3 CDs, speaker: Stefan Kaminski )
• The tyranny of the butterfly . The Hörverlag; Abridged reading (April 30, 2018); ISBN 978-3-8445-2978-4

Awards

• 2002: Cologne Literature Prize
• 2004: Corine (literature prize) in the fiction category
• 2005: Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for Der Schwarm as the best science fiction novel of the year
• 2005: German Science Fiction Prize for The Swarm
• 2005: Golden pen for The Swarm
• 2005: German Crime Prize for The Swarm
• 2006: Dr. Kurt Neven DuMont Medal of the West German Academy for Communication
• 2007: "Stein im Brett" award from the Professional Association of German Geoscientists (BDG)
• 2007: Premio Bancarella
• 2009: Elisabeth Mann Borgese Sea Prize
• 2011: German Ocean Prize

literature

• Usch Kiausch: I'm an entertainment factor . An interview with Frank Schätzing. In: Sascha Mamczak and Wolfgang Jeschke (eds.): The Science Fiction Year 2005 . Munich 2005, ISBN 3-453-52068-8 , pp. 435-467 .
• Karoline Schmitt: Schätzing, Frank . In: Lexicon of Science Fiction Literature since 1900. With a look at Eastern Europe , edited by Christoph F. Lorenz, Peter Lang, Frankfurt / Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-631-67236-5 , pp. 479–482.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.ksta.de/schaetzing-ist-der-mann-fuer-alle-faelle-13334756
2. ↑ “One to one adopted” , Welt, April 6, 2005
3. ↑ Plagiarism allegations against The Swarm
4. ↑ spiegel.de: "Public prosecutor's office invalidates plagiarism allegation"
5. ↑ https://www.handelsregister.de/rp_web/direct-download.do;jsessionid=2DEB5BB1B464A1B1C5D24B0AC240AC22-n1.tc032n01?id=0  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ https://www.derwesten.de/panorama/verfilmung-von-der-schwarm-aus-geldmangel-ungewiss-id7060624.html
7. ↑ ZDF filmed Frank Schätzing's novel “The Swarm”. In: presseportal.de. August 30, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 . 
8. ^ Author Frank Schätzing as an underwear model for Mey In: Börsenblatt October 12, 2009. Accessed on May 29, 2010
9. ↑ Martin Oehlen: Interview with Frank Schätzing: “I just enjoy playing with horror” . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger . ( ksta.de [accessed on April 22, 2018]).
10. ↑ Claus Kleber and Frank Schätzing: "Let's just say: It's annoying!" In: mz-web.de. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , December 2, 2012, accessed December 16, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Interview with Frank Schätzing: “The world was always dangerous”. In: rp-online.de. Rheinische Post , February 24, 2011, accessed on December 16, 2013 . 
12. ↑ 2057 - Our life in the future - Die Stadt , article about the film on 3sat.de, accessed November 15, 2012
13. ↑ Gold / platinum database of the Federal Association of the Music Industry, accessed on June 3, 2016

Web links

Commons : Frank Schätzing  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: Frank Schätzing  - Quotes

• Literature by and about Frank Schätzing in the catalog of the German National Library
• Frank Schätzing in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
• Frank Schätzing in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Works by and about Frank Schätzing at Open Library
• Author's website
• Biography at Who's Who