Tanja Stern

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Tanja Stern (born July 15, 1952 in East Berlin ) is a German writer .

Life

Tanja Stern was born as the daughter of the GDR journalists Heinz and Katja Stern . Her grandfather was Victor Stern , communist philosopher and dean at the party college "Karl Marx" .

In 1971 she passed the Abitur at the Gray Monastery in East Berlin (then 2. EOS Berlin-Mitte) and then began studying theater studies at the “Hans Otto” theater school in Leipzig , which she graduated in 1975 with a diploma.

After a year in the feature film department of the GDR television , which she left because of personal differences, Tanja Stern worked as a librarian, bookseller and from 1981 as a secretary in what was then VEB Transformatorenwerk Oberspree (TRO), but only from Friday noon to Sunday evening, because she was completing at the same time from 1981 to 1984 distance learning at the literature institute "Johannes R. Becher" Leipzig . She has been a freelance writer since 1997. She lives in Wildau near Berlin and has been publishing her works in independent publishing since 2008.

Tanja Stern made her debut with the short story volume Fern von Cannes , which was published in 1985 by Der Morgen , East Berlin, and addressed the frustration of young people in the GDR. After the fall of the Wall, she prepared the East-West problem for children in the children's book Kater Theo and the Four Righteous . Later, historical and literary subjects were in the center of her interest. In 2012 she described the history of her communist family in the memory book The Apparatus and the Soul . As a result, various works on the history of communism were created. Tanja Stern also designs art calendars.

reception

Stern's debut, the book of short stories Fern von Cannes , was rated good in the GDR press, but mostly only partially good. Ingrid Kirschey-Feix praised the Junge Welt : “She knows how to shape conflicts. Your instinct is amazing. ”Leonore Brandt expressed herself critically on Sunday :“ Tanja Stern tells her stories with ironic distance, very knowledgeable and sensitive, although sometimes she does not escape the danger of asserting developments and feelings more than creating them. ”In The New Age said: "With varying degrees of success, Tanja Stern creates an instructive distance to unrealistic egoists, also warning against the complicity of parents and school in false illusions and self-conceit." The first two stories, in the opinion of the reviewer , slip too far Clichés that the title story was the most impressive. Christel Berger took the same point of view in New Germany , in that she pointed out that the characters were clichéd and thus found them “boring and inadequate”. Only the last of the three stories shows "that the author is on the way to discard templates". Sabine Karradt was also critical of the figure drawing. In Der Morgen she wrote that “trying to portray the problems of young people” “does not quite work out”. Only the figure of Sascha in the title story is differentiated and shows a personality development.

Quote

“Artistry stands in my stories as a metaphor for this search [for a creative meaning] and the desire to make a contribution to the further development of society in some area, to bring something personal to it. In science and technology, research and technology. In art too, of course. I find it problematic that, in my experience, young people are often slowed down in their vigor, their urge to push through new ideas. "

- Tanja Stern : Sunday, 1985

Works

  • Far from Cannes . Stories. Buchverlag Der Morgen, East Berlin 1985. (also: Independent Publishing, 2015, ISBN 978-3-938105-00-9 )
  • Heart '88. Essay. In: Christel Hildebrandt (ed.): Love and other declarations - texts by and about GDR authors. Small steps publishing house, Bonn 1988, ISBN 3-923261-18-7 , p. 22ff.
  • Theo the cat and the four righteous . Children's book. Erika Klopp Verlag, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-7817-1948-0 . (Also as: Aktion Kater Theo . Children's book. Independent Publishing 2011, ISBN 978-3-938105-11-5 )
  • The unlived future of Georg Büchner . Essay. In: Dietmar Goltschnigg (ed.): Georg Büchner and the modern age, texts, analyzes, commentary. Volume 3: 1980-2002. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-503-06108-8 .
  • Opera murders. Three Verdi operas told in prose . Independent Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-3-938105-13-9 .
  • The apparatus and the soul. Family story with a rotten finale . Independent Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-3-938105-18-4 .
  • Secret scandals. Secret things from the Cold War . Independent Publishing, 2015, ISBN 978-3-938105-31-3 .
  • Industrial salon Schöneweide e. V. (Ed.): The Oberspree cable works. Fragments of an industrial giant . (= Large companies in Schöneweide. Volume I ). Berlin 2015, OCLC 970353858 .
  • The Gehrmann sisters. Two German communists between commitment and resignation. In: Yearbook for Communism Research 2015. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86331-225-1 .
  • Insane acts. Three historical cases of augmented suicide . Independent Publishing, 2016, ISBN 978-3-938105-33-7 .
  • Industrial salon Schöneweide e. V. (Ed.): The transformer factory Schöneweide. Electrical industry pioneer . (= Large companies in Schöneweide. Volume II ). Berlin 2016, OCLC 970353713 .
  • She only played one summer. The story of Pia Degermark . (= Forgotten Artists. Volume 1). Independent Publishing, 2017, ISBN 978-3-938105-35-1 .
  • Bonzenreise - on a long journey with the friendship of nations . (Historical travel report). Independent Publishing, 2018, ISBN 978-3-938105-38-2 .
  • Towards the vacation murder . (GDR crime thriller). Independent Publishing, 2019, ISBN 978-3-938105-40-5 .

Scholarships

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Leonore Brandt: Youth dreams. Conversation with the debutante Tanja Stern . In: Sunday . No. 29/1985 , July 21, 1985, pp. 4 .
  2. ↑ neues-deutschland.de editorial in the New Germany, May 7, 1999th
  3. ↑ How my mother started the popular uprising. In: Berliner Kurier. 1st June 2013.
  4. ↑ bundesstiftung-aufteilung.de yearbook for historical communism research. 2015 edition, Federal Foundation for Coming to terms with the SED dictatorship.
  5. ↑ Ingrid Kirschey-Feix: Dreams in everyday life. Tanja Stern's debut with a book about and for young people . In: Junge Welt . April 26, 1985.
  6. ^ GA: Buchverlag Der Morgen . In: New Time . No. 181/1985 , August 5, 1985, Büchertelegramm, p. 4 .
  7. ↑ Christel Berger: Told about "heroes" who make it easy for themselves . In: New Germany . No. 168/1985 , July 20, 1985, Bücherbord, p. 14 .
  8. ↑ Sabine Karradt: Between ideal and reality. Tanja Stern: “Far from Cannes”. Stories in the book publisher Der Morgen . In: The morning . August 3, 1985, p. 4 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stern, Tanja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH East Berlin