Jochen Greven

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Robert Walser researcher Jochen Greven at Lake Constance
Funkkolleg Media and Communication, Study Letters (1990/91)

Jochen Greven (born April 22, 1932 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ; † March 29, 2012 in Cologne ) was a German specialist in German, author, editor, publisher, radio journalist and translator. Above all, however, he researched the work of the Swiss writer and poet Robert Walser , whose first complete edition he published and about whom he has written several books.

Life

Jochen Greven was born in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1932 and went to school in Zerbst in central Germany and in Cologne . His grandfather Wilhelm Greven was an alderman in Cologne under the then Lord Mayor Konrad Adenauer . His mother died in 1943, his father perished in 1947 in Soviet captivity in Buchenwald special camp No. 2 , the former concentration camp. After the Red Army marched in, Greven fled with relatives to Cologne in 1945, where he grew up in his father's family. In 1954 he married Jeanette Becker-Le Cerf; the marriage had three children. He later lived with his wife and family on Lake Constance , close to Switzerland.

Walser research

Greven studied literature, history and philosophy in Cologne and received his doctorate in 1959 with the first German-language dissertation on Robert Walser. From 1964 to 1973 he published the first Robert Walser edition in 13 volumes, with works that had not yet been deciphered and published in part. In 1978 he was also responsible for the paperback edition for the poet's 100th birthday and the 20-volume complete edition 1985/86 published by Suhrkamp-Verlag.

Jochen Greven in his study in Horn on Lake Constance

From 1960 Greven initially worked as a freelance journalist and translator as well as at Fischer-Verlag in Frankfurt and for R.Piper-Verlag in Munich. From 1970 to 1975 he was the publishing director and managing director of the Fischer-Taschenbuchverlag. In 1975 he moved to Deutschlandfunk as a culture editor and later became department head. From 1986 to 1992 he was head of the main education and training department in the radio of the Hessischer Rundfunk (hr). There he was responsible, among other things, for the Funkkolleg Medien und Kommunikation , the broadcasts of the school radio and the youth radio series Chippie .

In addition, he continued to work as a publicist, editor and translator of numerous literary works. His life theme remained Robert Walser, whose re-evaluation and reception as a Swiss author of modern times and German-language literary modernity he shaped. He dedicated the volume Figur am Rande, in Changing Light (1992) to him. Greven summarized the history of his four decades of Walser research under the title Robert Walser - an outsider becomes a classic .

Jochen Greven died in 2012, a few weeks before his 80th birthday.

Honors

In 1997 the Robert Walser Society, which he co-founded, elected him President. In 2009 the University of Zurich awarded him an honorary doctorate for his services to the poet .

Publications

As an author

  • Existence, world and pure being in the work of Robert Walser . Dissertation 1960; New edition, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2009
  • Robert Walser: Figure on the edge, in changing light. Fischer Paperback, 1992
  • Robert Walser: An outsider becomes a classic. Adventure of a rediscovery . Dragonfly, 2003
  • Sediments. Demand, 2006, ISBN 978-3-935093-46-0 (with own literary texts)

As editor

  • Robert Walser: The Complete Works . 13 volumes, Kossodo, 1966–73 New edition as 12-volume paperback edition. Suhrkamp, ​​1978
  • Robert Walser: All works in individual editions . 20 volumes, Suhrkamp, ​​1985/86. Suhrkamp, ​​1994
  • Robert Walser: Siblings Tanner . With an afterword by the editor. Zurich 1985
  • Robert Walser: The assistant . With an afterword by the editor. Zurich 1985
  • Robert Walser: Fritz Kocher's essays . With an afterword by the editor. Zurich 1986
  • The Funkkolleg 1966–1998. A model of academic further education in the media network . Deutscher Studien Verlag, 1998
  • Klaus Nonnenmann : A smile for tomorrow - places and times . Klöpfer & Meyer, 2000
  • Horst Brandstätter . Author, gallery owner and antiquarian - stimulator, fighter, trailblazer. Drey, 2008

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Schultz-Gerstein: Majestic Subject . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 1978, p. 241-246 ( online ).
  2. ^ Honorary doctorate in 2009 from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Zurich
personal data
SURNAME Greven, Jochen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German literary scholar, editor, translator and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 2012
Place of death Cologne