Lothar Baier

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Lothar Baier (born May 16, 1942 in Karlsruhe , † July 11, 2004 in Montreal , Canada ) was a German writer , literary critic and translator.

life and work

Lothar Baier studied German , philosophy and sociology . In addition to longer stays in France, England, the USA and Canada, he mainly lived in Frankfurt am Main .

In 1962/1963, Baier was one of the editorial staff of the first issue of the literary journal text + kritik , along with Gerd Hemmerich, Jochen Meyer, Wolf Wondratschek and Heinz Ludwig Arnold .

In his work since the 1970s, Baier has primarily dealt critically with the aftermath and processing of National Socialism as well as with Francophone culture. When he died, he was "still one of the most famous German intellectuals" in France. Baier has published numerous articles in well-known magazines - including Merkur , Kursbuch and TransAtlantik , in later years also in Wespennest -, worked for radio - especially for Deutschlandfunk - and regularly published articles in daily and weekly newspapers, initially for the literary section of FAZ , later for the Frankfurter Rundschau , the taz , the Süddeutsche Zeitung , but also Le Monde diplomatique . He was employed by Die Zeit for thirty years . Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, he has worked especially for Fridays . Since 1984 he has been writing for the Swiss weekly WoZ . From 1997 to 2003 he was editor there and since January 1998 has been responsible for the corporate department, which received a lot of attention at the time. In the course of the relaunch of the newspaper, he left the editorial team because the page he was responsible for was deleted.

Baier translated Jules Verne , Jean-Paul Sartre (whose literary work he also edited in the German version), Paul Nizan , André Breton and Georges Simenon from French into German.

Since the 1980s he has also published his essayistic work in book form, starting with the volume French Conditions , which was published by the European Publishing House in 1982 and in which he dealt with French society in the transition to the presidency of François Mitterrand . Some thought it was his "most important book". From the German perspective, when looking at France, the postmodern philosophers dominated at this time , but also the rise of the New Right around Le Pen . He drew a critical conclusion of the Mitterrand era in his book Firma France. A factory tour published by Klaus Wagenbach in 1988 .

In 1987, Baier followed the trial of Klaus Barbie in Lyon for taz . He was the only German journalist to report for eight weeks on every day of the trial, from the first session to the verdict.

His book on the persecution of the Cathars (1984) and his story The Deadline for the Year (1985) show how wide-ranging his interests were.

In 1995, Baier left the West German PEN .

Since 1992, Baier has held visiting professorships at the University of Montreal , where he moved in 2001. He felt increasingly excluded in the German literary business because he was critical of the consequences of the merger of the two German states. On the mediation of the then Freitag co-editor Christoph Hein, he published a volume of time-critical works on these years ( Die denied Utopie ) in Berlin's Aufbau Verlag in 1993 .

Baier died in Montreal through suicide caused by depression , which he had suffered from for a long time. He was found at his home on July 11, 2004.

Awards, honors

Fonts

  • as ed .: About Ror Wolf . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1972
  • The great heresy. Persecution and extermination of the Cathars by church and science . Wagenbach, Berlin 1984 ISBN 3-8031-2108-6 ; New edition ibid. 2001
  • with Norbert Seitz (Ed.): The inability to celebrate. May 8th . New Critique Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 978-3-8015-0199-0 .
  • French states. Reports and essays . European Publishing House, Frankfurt 1982; revised and exp. Edition Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt 1985 ISBN 3-596-24337-8 .
  • Annual period. Narration . Fischer, Frankfurt 1985
  • France company. A factory tour . Wagenbach, Berlin 1988 ISBN 3-8031-2155-8 .
  • Equal sign. Pamphlets on deviation and identity . Wagenbach, Berlin 1985
  • Un allemand né de la dernière guerre. Essai. Complexe, Brussels 1985 a. ö .; again Calmann-Lévy, Paris 1989
  • People without time. Essay on the hasty fatherland. Wagenbach, Berlin 1990
  • Signs and wonders. Reviews and essays . Tiamat, Berlin 1990
  • as editor: Christoph Hein. Texts, data, images . Luchterhand, Frankfurt am Main 1990
  • The denied utopia. Time-critical texts . Structure, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-7466-0206-8 .
  • East-West Passages. Cultural change - language times . Antje Kunstmann, Munich 1995
  • No time. 18 attempts on acceleration . Antje Kunstmann, Munich 2000 (also in French and Italian translations)
  • Lothar Baier, Pierre Filion (ed.): America writing differently. An Anthology of Quebec Literature 1945–2000 . Das Wunderhorn , Heidelberg 2000, ISBN 3-88423-164-2 .
  • What will literature be? Antje Kunstmann, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-88897-284-1 .
  • Rwanda. A Canadian novel and a report by a Canadian UN general deal with the Rwandan tragedy. Love in times of genocide. WoZ , April 15, 2004
  • “I shook hands with the devil.” Love in times of genocide. A Canadian Rwanda novel and a Canadian Rwanda testimonial. Friday April 30th, 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to another source: July 10th
  2. ↑ a b Lothar Baier. In: Munzinger archive . 2004.
  3. ^ Jörg Auberg: Lothar Baier. The essayistic work . In: Kindlers Literature Lexicon . 3. Edition. tape 1 . JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , pp. 804 .
  4. ↑ Joachim Güntner: The time alienated. On the death of the essayist Lothar Baier. In: NZZ. July 15, 2004, accessed February 23, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Cf. the memory of Lothar Baier and his classification in: Daniela Dahn : "Red cell" disposed of: procedure à la Metternich. Deutschlandfunk chills uncomfortable literary editors. In: Friday. March 28, 2008, accessed on July 2, 2011 (No. 13, p. 5): “Under the new name 'Andruck - the magazine for political literature', Deutschlandfunk will broadcast the previous program 'Political Literature' from April 7th. out. Not only is the name changing, the format is also being adapted. However, the press release by the Cologne broadcaster hides the most important 'adaptation': Karin Beindorff and Hermann Theißen, the editors responsible for the award-winning political feature, who have also shaped political literature over the years and made it the most interesting non-fiction program on public radio, became deprived of editorial responsibility. You should also no longer be heard as moderators. In their - in a positive sense - offensive programs, Elisabeth Bronfen, Klaus Theweleit, Volker Ullrich, Norbert Frei, Hans-Martin Lohmann, Klaus Kreimeier, Daniel Cil Brecher, Elmar Altvater, Bernd Greiner, Lothar Baier and many other well-known representatives of critical journalism reviewed . There you could hear knowledgeable and provocative conversations with Heiner Müller, Wolfgang Engler, Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Christoph Butterwegge and Edgar Wolfrum. Many contributions were reprinted by newspapers and magazines, some, sometimes even entire programs, can be found in books. "
  6. ↑ Lothar Baier . In: Die Zeit , No. 30/2004, obituary
  7. ↑ a b Died . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 2004, pp. 154 ( online ).
  8. ↑ a b c d Stefan Keller: Obituary. A silence from Montreal. In: WoZ. July 22, 2004, archived from the original on August 20, 2004 ; Retrieved July 2, 2011 .
  9. ↑ a b Erich Hackl: Obituary: Divided history. Lothar Baier and the end of friendship. In: Friday. July 23, 2004, accessed July 2, 2011 .
  10. ↑ a b c d Rudolf Walther: Without a boss on your own account. An unconditional enlightener: On the death of the Frankfurt writer and intellectual Lothar Baier. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. July 15, 2004, archived from the original on January 19, 2011 ; accessed on October 3, 2019 (obituary).
  11. ↑ a b Jörg Auberg: Death of an untimely one. Farewell to Lothar Baier (1942–2004). In: literaturkritik.de. August 1, 2004, accessed July 2, 2011 .
  12. ↑ Erich Hackl: Divided history. Lothar Baier and the end of friendship. In: Friday. July 23, 2004, accessed July 2, 2011 (obituary).
personal data
SURNAME Baier, Lothar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer, freelance journalist and translator
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 2004
Place of death Montreal , Canada