Ruth Stöbling

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Ruth Stöbling (born August 17, 1938 in Ueckermünde ) is a German literary translator , interpreter and document translation service provider for the languages Danish and Norwegian .

Life

Ruth Stöbling was born on August 17, 1938 in Ueckermünde. After graduating from high school, she studied Nordic studies at the University of Greifswald from 1957 to 1962 . She specialized in Danish and Norwegian languages ​​and literature. She was particularly interested in Danish literature, not least because Martin Andersen Nexø was, so to speak, an East German national writer. His Ditte Menneskebarn (dt .: Ditte human child ) was since the Second World Warappeared in almost one million copies, but later arisings as Dea Trier Mørchs 86.000fach sold Vinterbørn (dt .: Winter Children , 1986, translated by Udo Birckholz) was read more in East Germany than in the country of origin. Ruth Stöbling: “Danish literature describes and is based in many ways on phenomena and concepts that we were familiar with in the GDR. The Danish system was a bit of socialism , but with the key difference that the system could be criticized. And so Denmark stands as a model for the eastern view of life and its possibilities. ”Even years later, she saw an advantage for the“ Ossis ”in bringing Danish literature and culture to life. During her studies she spent two weeks in Denmark in 1961, an opportunity that, as a GDR citizen, would never come back to her.

After graduating, she worked as an interpreter and editor . In 1974 she translated the novel Jens Munk by Thorkild Hansen, based on descriptions by the seafarer Jens Munk, for Hinstorff Verlag from Danish into German. From 1976 to 2004 she lived as a freelance translator in Sanitz near Rostock . Since then she has lived in Ueckermünde again.

In 1978 he was accepted into the GDR Writers' Association . As a translator, the earning potential was rather modest, but her love of the matter and the lack of political concessions were worth it. The reading public in the GDR was also eager for foreign literature, which is why her translations found huge sales and she was ultimately able to make a living from it. In 1980 one of her most important translations came out: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's Selected Stories in Two Volumes , again by Hinstorff. The translation from Norwegian was done by her and Alfred Otto Schwede . Stöbling had a postscript contributed, the "in-depth insights into the novelistic provides complete works of the poet [and] its development path". Because of the travel restrictions for GDR citizens, Stöbling later admitted, she had never experienced the tides and therefore tried library books in 1981 when translating Peter Seeberg's novel Ved Havet (German: Am Meer ) to understand the phenomenon.

For several decades she translated Danish literature for readers in her country and helped to popularize Thorkild Hansen, Hans Scherfig , Klaus Rifbjerg , Peter Seeberg, Tage Skou-Hansen and Johannes Vilhelm Jensen there. It was also used by Hinstorff Verlag for expert opinions in the GDR-customary printing approval process for two works by Sigurd Hoel and for Lord of the Sea and Slave of the Sea by Karsten Alnæs.

The Rostock district awarded her its annual culture prize on February 10, 1989 .

After the fall of the Berlin Wall , she was in demand as an interpreter for Danish companies in the former GDR . In this way contacts came about which made it possible for her in 1997 to attend a literature course in one of the special Danish adult education centers with an adjoining dormitory in order to get to know this form of adult education developed in Denmark, about which she had previously only read. Conversely, in Rostock, in cooperation with the Socialist People's Enlightenment Association (Socialistisk Folkeoplysningsforbund, SFOF), it offered language courses for Danish executives deployed in Germany as well as for German vacationers and employees in Denmark.

Stöbling thinks that the East Germans have been treated and forced on the part of the Federal Republic of Germany to adopt a “ capitalism attitude ” and a “ cultural imperialism ”, but they would like a social model based on the Nordic model. GDR publishers have been taken over by large western publishers and the fee for translations has been reduced as a result, which she finds degrading. Since translation is the livelihood of translators, no one can afford a refusal.

While in GDR times she had read works by Scandinavian authors she had translated in the FDGB holiday homes and talked about her everyday work, these events in reunified Germany mainly took place in bookshops.

Until around 2006, Stöbling took on orders for private and business translations (often technical and legal) in her translation agency.

Translations

  • 1974: Thorkild Hansen: Jens Munk . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock. (The edition published in the same year by Horst Erdmann, Tübingen / Basel, is Jens Munk. Across the North Pole to China? In Search of the Northwest Passage. Titled A Seafarer's Fate of the 17th Century . The 2nd edition published by Hinstorff in 1991 is Jens Munk. Titled Fate and Legend .)
  • 1975: Together with Alfred Otto Schwede: Hans Scherfig: The lost monkey and other stories . Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin.
  • 1976: Klaus Rifbjerg: Dilettantes . Novel. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin.
  • 1977: Arild Kolstad: The Gruer case. Novel . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock.
  • 1978: Hans Scherfig: The Missed Spring. Novel . Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin.
  • 1979: Knut Hamsun : Pan . (With 10 etchings by Hermann Naumann .) Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig.
  • 1979: Poul Petersen: No space for John B. Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock.
  • 1980: Hans Scherfig: The Chancellery that has disappeared. Novel . Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin.
  • 1980: Together with Alfred Otto Schwede: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson: Selected stories (2 volumes). Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock.
  • 1981: Together with Alfred Otto Schwede: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson: Stories . Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig (= Universal Library ; Vol. 897).
  • 1981: Peter Seeberg: At the sea. Novel . Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin.
  • 1983: Aina Broby: Aina, the girl from Siberia . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock.
  • 1983: Peter Seeberg: The woman in the river. Narratives . Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin.
  • 1984: Skou-Hansen Days: Across the Line. Novel . Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin.
  • 1985: Peter Seeberg: Getting to know Henry Gabrielsen . In: Explorations. Part 2: 31 Danish storytellers . Rudolf Kähler (ed.). Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin. ISBN 3-353-00101-8 .
  • 1986: Together with Erika Kosmalla: Johannes V. Jensen: Himmerlandsgeschichten . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock. ISBN 3-356-00010-1 .
  • 1988: Knut Faltbakken: Adam's diary. Novel . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock. ISBN 3-356-00164-7 .
  • 1988: Mathis Mathisen : A tree with the roots up. From the childhood of a Lappish painter . (With drawings by Iver Jåks.) Children's book publisher, Berlin. ISBN 3-358-00480-5 .
  • 1988: Flemming Andersen: The Mysterious Ship . (With illustrations by Christiane Knorr.) Kinderbuch Verlag, Berlin ( Buchfink books ). ISBN 3-358-00488-0 .
  • 1991: Knud Holst: The Ice Face . In: die horen - magazine for literature, art and criticism , volume 162: The land of possibilities. Literature and art from Denmark . Wirtschaftsverlag NW, Bremerhaven.
  • 1991: Sigrid Undset: Girls . In: Women in Scandinavia. Narratives . Gabriele Haefs, Christel Hildebrandt (eds.). German paperback publisher. ISBN 3-423-11384-7 .
  • 1993: Mathis Mathisen: Ismael. A life in the streets of Cairo . Sauerländer Verlag, Aarau / Frankfurt am Main / Salzburg. ISBN 978-3-7941-3653-7 .
  • 1993: Eva Marie Solheim: We'll get older later. Women at 50 . Kabel Verlag, Hamburg. ISBN 978-3-8225-0227-3 .
  • 2002: Together with Hanno Frick: Håvard Malnæs: Mette-Marit. The new queen of hearts . Ullstein Verlag, Munich. ISBN 978-3-548-42069-1 .

Technical articles

  • 1992: Oversætter og Kulturarbeiter i GDR - og efter "Die Wende" i Tyskland (German: translators and cultural workers in the GDR and after the "Wende" in Germany ). In: Højskolebladed , Vol. 117, No. 2, pp. 23-26.

Awards

  • 1989: Culture Prize of the Rostock District

Individual evidence

  1. a b c ie: Ruth Stöbling . In: Norddeutsche Zeitung . Schwerin February 4th 1983.
  2. a b c d e f g h i j k Ole HB Andreesen: DDR-livet set gennem dansk litteratur. In: information.dk. September 27, 1997, accessed April 30, 2018 (Danish).
  3. Annelie Schreiber: Original heroes from the land of the fjords . In: New Germany . No. 122/1981 . Berlin May 23, 1981, book shelf, p. 14 .
  4. ^ Ministry of Culture. Part 3: HV publishers and bookstores - print approval processes. Approval processes for printing publications by publishers in the GDR 1947–1991. VEB Hinstorff Verlag, 1980/1981 A – L / 1983. In: bundesarchiv.de. Retrieved April 30, 2018 .
  5. (ND): Culture Prize of the Rostock District awarded . In: New Germany . No. 36/1989 . Berlin February 11, 1989, culture, p. 4 .

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