Hugo Claus

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Hugo Claus at the Vlaams Cultureel Centrum (1986)

Hugo Maurice Julien Claus (born April 5, 1929 in Bruges , † March 19, 2008 in Antwerp ) was a Belgian writer . He also emerged as a painter, playwright, journalist, poet, librettist, screenwriter, translator and film and television director, and is considered the most important Belgian post-war writer in the Dutch language . His best-known work is the Bildungsroman Het verdriet van België (German: Der Kummer von Flandern or Der Kummer von Belgium ).

His death led to a renewed public discussion about euthanasia legalized in Belgium , since Claus, who had Alzheimer's disease, had himself determined the time of his death.

Life

Signature of Hugo Claus

Claus was the eldest son of a Flemish printer family . From 1933 to 1939 he lived in a Catholic boarding school in Aalbeke . He then attended secondary schools, first in Kortrijk , then in Deinze . In 1946, Claus left his parents' home and took courses at the Ghent Art Academy. In 1949 he was called up for military service and was u. a. employed by the magazine soldiers post. After his military service, his writing career began.

Claus married for the first time in 1955, and their son Thomas was born in 1963. From 1974 to 1978 he lived in Paris in his second marriage to the actress Sylvia Kristel . In 1975 son Arthur was born. In his third marriage, Claus was married to Veerle Claus-De Wit.

In old age Claus suffered from Alzheimer's disease. In March 2008 he made use of euthanasia legalized in Belgium . He died in an Antwerp hospital in the presence of his wife and a good friend.

plant

Poem by Claus in Leiden

His first success was in 1950 with the book Die Metsiers , which was published in Germany in 1951. At the time he went to Paris to try his hand at painting. He then published several novels and lived temporarily in Italy, the USA and Mexico. In 1965 he made the film Die Feinde , for which he had also written the novel and the screenplay. In the 1970s he produced a television show about Rubens .

His most famous work today appeared in 1983: Het verdriet van België. The book is an educational and family novel and is set in Flanders during the Second World War . One of the main topics is the Flemish collaboration during the German occupation. The work is based on Claus' own life story. A German translation first appeared in 1986 as Der Kummer von Flanders (translator: Johannes Piron). In 1994, Claude Goretta filmed the novel as a three-part television film , which was also broadcast in Germany in 1995. In 2008 a new translation by Waltraud Hüsmert was published under the title Der Kummer von Belgium .

Claus wrote over a hundred literary works, including a. Poems, short stories, novels, plays, libretti and scripts. His work has been honored with more than forty prizes. Since his first nomination for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992, he has been considered a candidate for this award several times.

Awards (selection)

Works (selection)

  • The trip to England . 1954
  • Dantons dood (translation of Georg Büchner's Dantons Tod ) 1959
  • De bewondering . (Eng. The amazement ) 1962
  • Omtrent Deedee . Novel. (German concerning Deedee ) 1963
  • Vrijdag . (German Friday ) 1969
  • Het jaar van de kreeft . (German: The Year of Cancer ) 1972
  • Het betrayed van Belgie . Novel. 1983.
The Sorrows of Flanders . German by Johannes Piron , Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 978-3-608-95364-0 . New edition: The Sorrows of Belgium . German by Waltraud Hüsmert . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-608-96037-2
  • Omtrent dede . Novel. ( The Sacrament . German by Rosemarie Still . 1989)
  • De zwaardvis . Novel. ( The swordfish . German by Rosemarie Still. 1992)
  • Het desire . Novel. ( Jakob's Desire . German by Rosemarie Still. 1993)
  • The people next door. (German by Barbara Antkowiak , Alano, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-89399-187-5 .)
  • The traces. Selected poems (German 1994)
  • Belladonna . Novel. (German by Waltraud Hüsmert. 1996)
  • De smelled . Novel. ( The silence . German by Waltraud Hüsmert. 1998)
  • Poems (German 2000)
  • Redden Onvoltooid . Novel. ( Unfinished past . German by Waltraud Hüsmert. 2001)
  • The sleepwalker. Three stories . (German by Waltraud Hüsmert. 2002)

Scripts

  • 1958: The village on the river (Dorp aan de rivier)
  • 1960: The knife (Het mes)
  • 1966: Fire on the skin (De dans van de reiger)
  • 1967: Change to happiness (Jeudi on chantera comme dimanche)
  • 1972: CATS
  • 1975: Pallieter
  • 1981: Minuet (Menuet)
  • 1984: The Lion of Flanders (De leeuw van Vlaanderen) - also director
  • 1987: Diary of a Mad Old Man
  • 1987: mascara
  • 1989: The Sacrament (Het sacrament)
  • 1994: The Sorrows of Flanders (Le chagrin des Belges)

Web links

Commons : Additional Pictures  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Belgischer Rundfunk: Press review from March 20, 2008. ( Memento of the original from March 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 23, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.brf.be
  2. ↑ evene.fr: Hugo Claus. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
  3. ↑ fernsehserien.de: The Sorrow of Flanders. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
  4. ^ Spiegel Online : Hugo Claus is dead. March 19, 2008. Accessed on August 23, 2009.
  5. ↑ Jet Propulsion Laboratory : 12381 Hugoclaus (1994 PH30) , online at ssd.jpl.nasa.gov
personal data
SURNAME Claus, Hugo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Claus, Hugo Maurice Julien (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Flemish writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Bruges
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 2008
Place of death Antwerp