Rudolf von Waldenfels

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the German officer of the same name, see Rudolf von Waldenfels (General) .

Rudolf von Waldenfels

Rudolf Freiherr von Waldenfels (born April 26, 1965 in Jülich ) is a German actor and writer (see also Waldenfels ). He lives in Berlin and in Lichtenberg in Upper Franconia .

Life

Growing up in Heidelberg , he studied acting at the State University for Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main from 1987 to 1990 and was engaged by Claus Peymann at the Vienna Burgtheater after his studies . In 1992 he left the company at his own request and went on a bicycle tour of several years through Asia . His travel impressions flowed into his debut novel Über die Grenz , which was published by Mitteldeutscher Verlag in 2006 and received a positive response from the critics. Rudolf von Waldenfels is the father of two sons. He is married to Ina von Waldenfels for the third time.

Works

His first novel describes a trip by bike through several Asian countries ( Iraq , Pakistan , India , Thailand , Laos , Cambodia ). The first-person narrator , driven by the thirst for adventure and the search for the meaning of life, plunges from one adventure into the next: he describes drug intoxication, random sexual acquaintances, physical borderline experiences. The experience of nature occupies a central place in the novel.

His second book, entitled The Black Messiah , sheds light on Barack Obama's career and examines the country's political culture, which continues to be a mystery to many European observers.

The author about his book:

“Barack Obama's election as American president has electrified the world and given millions of people new hope. Nevertheless, the messianic features of his election campaign make one think. From the summer of 2008, America was in an Obama frenzy. Weeping fits and fainting spells became common occurrences at his campaign events, which increasingly resembled revival services. Even more worrying: Many journalists gave up their critical distance, which is actually a basic requirement of their profession, and threw themselves into the frenzy of enthusiasm. How was that possible? What deep longings did Obama address in Americans? In search of answers to these questions, I flew for several weeks in the summer of 2009 to Chicago, Obama's political hometown, where he and his wife still own a house today. Then I rented a car and drove thousands of miles across the country - and talked to as many people, at least that's what it felt like. Blacks, whites, men, women, prominent and less prominent. "

literature

• Across the border. Mitteldeutscher Verlag 2006, ISBN 978-3-89812-343-3
• The black messiah. Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2010, ISBN 978-3579068695

Web links

• Literature by and about Rudolf von Waldenfels in the catalog of the German National Library
• http://www.rudolfvonwaldenfels.de/
• http://www.perlentaucher.de/buch/23504.html

Individual evidence

1. ↑
   • Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 12, 2006
   “The pull of 'Across the Border' develops like the journey; Suddenly the reader is right in the middle of it all, fascinated by all the strange in the narrator's eyes and by the changeful emotional landscape that the journey through Asia triggers in him. Everything is concentrated in the moment, whether the drug intoxication, the sexual adventure or the last effort on the bike. There is no later and hardly anything past, only the now persists, expands and is captivating in its immediacy. "
   • taz, January 18, 2006
   “Above all, there is no getting into a better life. This renunciation of a closed story with a spiritual superstructure is one of the great advantages of this travel novel. It would have made sense to formulate the Europeans journey as the path of a soul seeker - but von Waldenfels prefers to trust the ambivalence of his main character: She is torn between the empty desert and the full taverns, between intoxication and abstinence. "
   • New Germany, July 20, 2006
   “One is inclined to quote again and again in order to advertise this book, which in its scope is more like a novelistic travelogue, but in its dimensions a profound text that lives from clear, pictorial language. Everything seen (...) does not seem to be captured in language, but almost burned. Rudolf von Waldenfels teaches us to be amazed in the sense of the ancient philosophers as the basis of human experience and human existence in general. "
   • Break in style, rbb-Kulturfernsehen Berlin, March 8, 2006
   “With his book, Rudolf von Waldenfels embarked on a new literary journey into the 'Heart of Darkness'. An expressive text trip into nirvana, at the end of which he leaves the reader to find meaning. How can the hero find himself? How can he feel the real me? He embarks on sexual adventures, gets lost in drug experiments, risks infectious diseases in escapades with prostitutes. Because he finds no meaning in normal life, he seeks the closeness of death, the self-dissolution in the orgiastic. "
2. ↑ http://www.rudolfvonwaldenfels.de/