Klaus Wagenbach

Klaus Wagenbach (born July 11, 1930 in Berlin-Tegel , † December 17, 2021 in Berlin ) was a German publisher and author . He was the founder and owner of the Wagenbach publishing house for many years . After 38 years, he handed over the management to his wife Susanne Schüssler in 2002 .

Life

Klaus Wagenbach was the second son of the manager of the Bund Deutscher Bodenreformer , bank employee and later CDU politician Joseph Wagenbach and his wife Margarete, née Weißbäcker, a telephone operator.

From 1949, Wagenbach completed an apprenticeship in bookselling at the Suhrkamp and S. Fischer publishers . His teacher and production manager Fritz Hirschmann at S. Fischer Verlag introduced him to the literature of Franz Kafka and aroused his lifelong interest in this author. From 1951 he studied German , art history and archeology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main / University of Frankfurt and received his doctorate in 1957 under Josef Kunz on Franz Kafka . Then Klaus Wagenbach was lecturer at the Modern Book Club in Darmstadt, from the end of 1959 lecturer for German literature at S. Fischer Verlag in Frankfurt am Main. After this was bought by Holtzbrinck and Wagenbach was dismissed, he founded his own publishing house in Berlin (West) in 1964, which set itself the principles of "historical awareness , anarchy , hedonism " and was organized as a collective from 1970–1973 .

Wagenbach realized the school radio series German Literature in the 20th Century for the broadcaster Free Berlin , which finally ended with Wagenbach's dismissal. For the SPD, he took part in the SPD election office project for the 1965 federal election .

He became a well-known figure in the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition (APO) and student movement in the 1960s . After in 1965, as a publisher of Wolf Biermann , he had refused the personal request made by the later GDR Vice-Minister of Culture, Klaus Höpcke , not to print any further editions of Biermann's book Drahtharfe , Wagenbach received a license, entry and transit ban for the GDR , which lasted until 1972 ( Brandt agreements , transit agreements ).

Signature Klaus Wagenbach

The Rotbuch Verlag split off in 1973. In several criminal trials, Wagenbach was defended by the then Berlin lawyer Otto Schily . In 1974 he was suspended to nine months in prison and two years on probation because of the publication of an RAF manifesto , among other things , and was sentenced to “inciting the formation of a criminal organization, aggravated and simple damage to property, theft, bodily harm and trespassing ". In 1975 he was sentenced to a fine of 1,800 DM for insulting and defamation  because he had called the murder of Benno Ohnesorg by the police officer Karl-Heinz Kurras and the shooting of Georg von Rauch as "murder". Wagenbach gave the funeral oration for his close friend, the Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli , in March 1972 ; on May 15, 1976 he spoke at Ulrike Meinhof's grave .

From 1979 to 1999 he was co-editor in charge of the Freibeuter , a literarily sophisticated and left-wing quarterly publication with themed issues on culture and politics. From 1968 to 1987 he also edited, among others with Michael Krüger , the octopus , a yearbook on German literature, and from 1970 to 1978, mainly with Wolfgang Dreßen , the socialist yearbook / yearbook politics .

As a publisher he published, inter alia. Love poems by Erich Fried and hundreds of books from and about Italy . He received an honorary professorship for modern German literature at the Free University of Berlin and was a Kafka specialist. For many years he was self-deprecatingly entitled “Kafka's most senior living widow” because, in addition to his research, he also had the world's largest collection of photographs of Kafka. In 2002 he handed over the management of the publishing house to his wife Susanne Schüssler. From 2010 he withdrew more and more from editing work in the publishing house. He was a member of the PEN Center Germany .

He was married to Katharina Wagenbach-Wolff (three daughters) from 1954 to 1977 and to Barbara Herzbruch from 1986 until her death (1991). From 1996 he was married to Susanne Schüssler for the third time and had a daughter with her. Wagenbach lived on Savignyplatz in Berlin and Tuscany. He died in Berlin in December 2021 at the age of 91.

honors and awards

• 1979: German Critics' Prize
• 1985: Premio Montecchio
• 1988: Cavaliere dell Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana ( Order of Merit of the Italian Republic )
• 1990: Premio Nazionale per la Traduzione
• Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 1990 Cross of Merit, First Class
  • 2001 Great Cross of Merit
• 1994: Honorary professor for modern German literature at the Free University of Berlin
• 1999: Hugo Ball Prize
• 2001: Knight of the French Legion of Honor
• 2002: Kythera Prize
• 2006: Honorary doctorate from the University of Urbino
• 2006: Honorary award from the Austrian book trade for tolerance in thought and action
• 2006: Rahel Varnhagen von Ense Medal
• 2010: Kurt Wolff Prize
• 2014: Enrico Filippini Prize
• 2017: Max Herrmann Prize
• Honorary Chairman of the Johannes Bobrowski Society
• Honorary member of the executive committee of the Erich Fried Society

Publications

factories

• Franz Kafka. A biography of his youth 1883–1912. Francke, Bern 1958. Extended new edition: Wagenbach, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-8031-3620-6 (also dissertation at the University of Frankfurt 1957)
• Franz Kafka, in personal testimonies and photo documents. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1964, ISBN 3-499-50091-4 . (35th edition, 2001).
• Free entry. Contributions to public opinion. Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1982, ISBN 978-3-4726-1396-1 .
• Franz Kafka. Pictures from his life. Wagenbach, Berlin 1983; expanded and modified new edition: Berlin 1995, ISBN 978-3-8031-3547-6 .
• Kafka's Prague. A travel book. Wagenbach, Berlin 1993, ISBN 978-3-8031-1141-8 .
• The Klaus Wagenbach publishing house. How I got in and what it looked like between 1965 and 1980. In: Rita Galli (Ed.): Of all books. Thirty-one publishing self-portraits . Ch. Links Verlag , Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-86153-167-4 , pp. 96-105.
• The publisher's freedom - memories, speeches, swipes. Wagenbach, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-8031-3632-9 .

(Co-) editing (selection)

• Atlas compiled by German authors . Wagenbach, Berlin 1965. Extended new edition: Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-8031-3188-1 .
• with Jürgen Born (Ed.): Kafka Symposion. Wagenbach, Berlin 1965 ( DNB 452290406 ), as a paperback: dtv-TB 77, Munich 1969 ( DNB 457126388 ).
• Squid - Yearbook of Literature . Wagenbach, Volume 1 ff., Berlin 1968 ff.
• (Ed.): Reader. German literature of the sixties. Wagenbach, Berlin 1968.
• Fatherland, mother tongue. German writers and their state from 1945 to the present day. Wagenbach, Berlin 1979. New edition 2004, ISBN 978-3-8031-3110-2 .
• (with Heinrich von Berenberg): German democratic journey - a literary travel guide through the GDR. Wagenbach, Berlin 1989, ISBN 978-3-8031-0171-6 .
• Italian love stories. Wagenbach, Berlin 1991, ISBN 978-3-8031-1125-8 .
• German places. Wagenbach, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-8031-1122-6 .
• Amore! or the run of love. Lust, side paths, madness and nonsense. Wagenbach, Berlin 1996, ISBN 978-3-8031-1160-9 .
• How the dog and man became friends. Italian children's stories. Wagenbach, Berlin 1999, ISBN 978-3-8031-1181-4 .
• To Italy! Instructions for a happy journey. Wagenbach, Berlin 2000, ISBN 978-3-8031-1188-3 .
• The long journey. Mediterranean stories. Wagenbach, Berlin 2002, ISBN 978-3-8031-2432-6 .
• Franz Kafka. A reading book (with pictures). Rowohlt (rororo 23444), Reinbek 2003, ISBN 978-3-499-23444-6 . (Also as hardcover: Bertelsmann 2004)
• My Italy, all over the place. Wagenbach, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-8031-3192-8 .
• Why so embarrassed? About the love of books and their future. Almanac on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary. With a list of all published books. Wagenbach, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-8031-2487-6 .
• Italian Christmas. The most beautiful stories. Wagenbach, Berlin 2007/2019, ISBN 978-3-8031-1322-1 .
• 100 poems from the GDR. Edited by Christoph Buchwald . Wagenbach, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8031-3222-2 .
• Disturbance in the operational process. 77 stories for local public transport. Wagenbach, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8031-3267-3 .
• Franz Kafka. A cage went looking for a bird. Funny and grotesque. Wagenbach, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-8031-1335-1 .

literature

• Michael Krüger : An incorrigible optimist. For the sixtieth birthday of the publisher and Kafka researcher Klaus Wagenbach. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 11, 1990.
• Inge Feltrinelli : We danced at all the festivals. Cunning and free: for the 80th birthday of the publisher Klaus Wagenbach. In: Die Zeit , No. 28/2010.
• Heinrich von Berenberg: studying balance sheets? Read poems! In: Der Tagesspiegel , July 11, 2010. (online)
• Left with all my heart . In: Berliner Zeitung , July 11, 2005 "On the 75th birthday of the founder of the Toscana faction and independent Berlin publisher."
• Günter Kaindlstorfer : The dictatorship of the editing department. In: Der Standard , August 14, 1992. (online)
• Peter Laudenbach: More liberal than the police allow In: Brand eins , 09/2010.

Filmography

• The heart is on the left. Klaus Wagenbach. Documentation, 75 min., Germany 2005, director: Margit Knapp, Arpad Bondy, first broadcast: arte , September 16, 2006, film excerpt , review in Tagesspiegel
• meets gero von boehm : Klaus Wagenbach. Talk, 45 min., Production: 3sat , first broadcast: September 12, 2004, announcement ( memento of October 23, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) by 3sat

radio play

• 2010: Julian Doepp: Living with Kafka. Klaus Wagenbach in conversation with Julian Doepp. Editor: Herbert Kapfer (conversation) Bayerischer Rundfunk ; First broadcast: December 18, 2010, length: 40'57 ″ minutes

Web links

• Literature by and about Klaus Wagenbach in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Klaus Wagenbach in the bibliographic database WorldCat
• Klaus Wagenbach's works at Perlentaucher
• Page about Klaus Wagenbach at Wagenbach-Verlag

Interviews

• In search of the wild reader , conversation with Ludger Bült , original broadcast: July 20, 2002, MDR Kultur
• Otto is the best . In: Tagesspiegel , July 10, 2005
• Critical edition. Journal for German Studies & Literature ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) No. 2, 2004, ed. from the German studies seminar at the University of Bonn in an interview with Wagenbach:
  “A publisher must be fully half-educated.” “Kafka's longest-serving, living widow” talks about long-term students in the 28th semester, publishing, the Dominican Republic, Glenn Miller and German studies in "De-Nazified" Germany in the 1950s. (PDF; 268 kB; 3 pages)
• Why should one read Kafka today? arte , January 2007
• The audience wanted to read everything . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , May 5, 2008
• That little finger is feminine . In: Tagesspiegel , June 14, 2010
• Because I was furious . In: The mirror . No. 26 , 2010 ( online - Spiegel interview with Susanne Beyer and Volker Hage).
• On the 80th birthday of Klaus Wagenbach . Deutschlandfunk , July 9, 2010; Conversation with Helmut Böttiger
• I'm a bit of the class clown here . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , July 10, 2010; Conversation with Arno Widmann
• “The publisher is there to spread ideas” . Deutschlandfunk Kultur , July 11, 2010; Conversation on the 80th birthday
• Wagenbach over Wagenbach . Deutschlandfunk Kultur, October 9, 2010; Conversation at the Frankfurt Book Fair
• As a boy I was a king of the black market . In: FAZ , June 4, 2013; joint conversation with Helene Wagenbach

Video and audio files

• Video interview with Volker Weidermann . Insights into Wagenbach's Kafka collection. May 2008, 6:52 min.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Official website of the Klaus Wagenbach Verlag
2. ^ Christian Thiel: Publishers. Paradise is on the desk . ( Memento from March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 6, 2005
3. ↑ ^{a b} Klaus Wagenbach. Biography , whoswho.de
4. ↑ Sandra Kegel: It snuck in. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 9, 2010.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Willi Winkler : “Can I sleep with you?” In conversation: Klaus Wagenbach. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 29, 2009.
6. ↑ Dieter E. Zimmer : Condemned: the publisher Wagenbach - nine months. In: Die Zeit , No. 24/1974.
7. ^ ID archive in the International Institute for Social History (IISG) (Ed.): Black texts. Political censorship in the FRG - 1968 until today against left bookshops, publishers, magazines and printing houses. Edition ID archive in the IISG, Amsterdam 1989, ISBN 3-89408-002-7 , p. 14 (series: Documents of the counter-public )
8. ^ Klaus Wagenbach: The publishing house Klaus Wagenbach. In: Rita Galli (Ed.): Of all books. Thirty-one publishing self-portraits . Ch. Links Verlag , Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-86153-167-4 , p. 103.
9. ↑ probably also with reference to Esther Hoffe , the secretary and partner of Max Brod who died at the age of 101
10. ^ Roland Wiegenstein : "Franz Kafka - Biography of a Youth" by Klaus Wagenbach . ( Memento from November 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Die Berliner Literaturkritik , June 20, 2006.
11. ↑ Volker Weidermann : Collector and publisher Klaus Wagenbach. Kafka's world in a box. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 19, 2008
12. ^ At Savignyplatz. Documentary, Germany, 2012, 43:34 min., Script and director: Caterina Woj, production: rbb , series: “Berliner Ecken und Kante”, first broadcast: June 2, 2012, film information from the director.
13. ↑ Stefan Hauck: Publisher legend: Klaus Wagenbach is dead , boersenblatt.net, published and accessed on December 20, 2021.
14. ↑ Inge Feltrinelli campaigned among Italian state officials for this recognition of Wagenbach: We danced at all the festivals. Cunning and free: for the 80th birthday of the publisher Klaus Wagenbach . In: Die Zeit , No. 28/2010
15. ^ Laudation from Ambassador Claude Martin ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, 3 pages) French Embassy in Berlin
16. ^ Die Gesellschaft , Johannes-Bobrowski-Gesellschaft, accessed on March 10, 2015
17. ^ Erich Fried Society: Members