Giselher W. Hoffmann

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Giselher Werner "Gisi" Hoffmann (born January 10, 1958 in Windhoek ; † April 9, 2016 in Swakopmund ) was a German-speaking writer from Namibia .

life and work

The farmer's son was a grandson of German emigrants who had moved to what was then the colony of German South West Africa before the First World War . He grew up with his twin brother Attila W. Hoffmann on a farm near Windhoek. He attended the German Higher Private School in Windhoek.

After completing his military service at the age of 20, he and his brother trained as a professional hunter and worked in this profession for several years in the Kalahari . Already at this time he was working on his first novel Im Bunde der Third (1983), which he published together with his twin brother (Hoffmann Twins). This was later followed by the novel Somewhere in Africa (1986), which he had already written alone. Both books are set in Damaraland and are mostly about poaching . They can be assigned to entertainment literature.

His next novel, Land of Waterless Rivers (1989), was published in Germany under the title Die Erstgeboren (1991) and made Hoffmann known internationally. In it he tells of the encounter between white farmers and the San . As a professional hunter, the author lived with one of these San for a long time. His novel is thus also a knowledgeable portrait of the life of the San, whose culture is threatened with extinction.

In 1991 the novel The Lost Years was published , which deals with the internment of the male German population during the Second World War . In his novel The silent fire (1994) Hoffmann discusses the Herero war and the gradual demise of the Herero culture. The fate of another people in Namibia, the Himba , is described by Hoffmann in his novel Schattenjäger (1998).

In his works, Hoffmann repeatedly described the life, cultures and fates of the various peoples of Namibia , and in some cases also those of the descendants of German settlers in his home country. He did not see himself as a chronicler of the culture of German origin, which has its roots in the colonial era , but wanted to make the individual population groups of Namibia better known in his books.

The plot is usually told from several perspectives, which reflect the perceptions of the characters in the novel, who are differently culturally shaped. So he built literary monuments to the various peoples of Namibia. In The Lost Years , however, he also faced the history of his own ethnic group. He found and worked on primarily Namibian topics whose importance lies in the present.

In 2006 his novel Diamantenfieber was published , which was also published as an audio book. The book takes place at the time of spectacular diamond discoveries in southern Namibia at the beginning of the 20th century.

Hoffmann received several literary prizes , for example the “Great Novel Prize” from the Bertelsmann Club (2000) or the “Author of the Year” award from the Afrikahaus (2001), as well as author grants in Germany (for example that of the Künstlerhäuser Worpswede , 2003) and searched here always in contact with German-speaking authors. However, he continued to live as a freelance writer in Swakopmund on the Atlantic coast of Namibia and also for several weeks in Germany, where the sources for his research were often better than in Namibia and he was able to maintain closer contact with the local literary scene.

From his first marriage there was a son. He spent the last years of his life with his second wife mostly in Swakopmund.

criticism

Hoffmann was not without controversy in Namibia. In addition to recognition, he also earned disapproval. The lost years in particular caused some resentment among the German-speaking readership in Namibia. In addition, there were problems with the Peter Hammer Verlag , who no longer considered it acceptable: as a “white African”, so the reasoning, he no longer fits into a publishing program dominated by black African authors.

Novels

Most of Hoffmann's novels appeared in several editions. The last of the individual titles are mentioned here:

further reading

  • Thomas Keil: Postcolonial German Literature in Namibia (1920-2000). Institute for Literary Studies (University of Stuttgart), Stuttgart 2003, dissertation.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Giselher Hoffmann died , Allgemeine Zeitung (Windhoek) , April 12, 2016.
  2. ↑ Thomas Keil: Postcolonial German Literature in Namibia (1920-2000) . Dissertation, University of Stuttgart, 2003. doi : 10.18419 / opus-5230 .
personal data
SURNAME Hoffmann, Giselher W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmann, Giselher Werner (full name); Hoffmann, Gisi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Namibian German-speaking writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Windhoek
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 2016
Place of death Swakopmund