Thomas Steinfeld

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Thomas Steinfeld (born May 2, 1954 in Leverkusen ) is a German journalist , literary critic , translator and writer .

Life

Steinfeld grew up in Bielefeld - Sennestadt and graduated from the Hans Ehrenberg School . He then studied German and musicology in Marburg and Berlin . In 1983 he was with a thesis on Hegel's aesthetics doctorate . He then worked as a translator and German teacher in Sweden . From 1984 to 1986 Steinfeld taught German language, literary studies and contemporary history at the University of Calgary and from 1986 to 1990 at the Université de Montréal. In Canada he began to write for the features section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . After returning to Germany, he initially worked as a publishing editor in Stuttgart . At the beginning of 1994 Steinfeld became the literary editor of the FAZ, and from February 1997 he headed the department “Literature and literary life”. In 2001, Steinfeld switched to the features section of the Süddeutsche Zeitung as a senior editor . Since spring 2006 he has been adjunct professor for cultural studies at the University of Lucerne . Since January 2007 he has been in charge of the features section of the Süddeutsche Zeitung together with Andrian Kreye . Steinfeld has been the SZ correspondent in Venice since January 2014.

In 2010 his contribution Our Hate Preachers attracted wider attention . In it he accused critics of Islam “ that the invocation of 'Western values' produces its own hate preachers ”. Specifically, Steinfeld criticized the publicist Henryk M. Broder for pleading " for an offensive defense of the 'free society' ", which also contained " a vision for the future of Islamic societies " based on an " authoritarian regime " based on " forced modernization ". Reinhard Mohr replied that Steinfeld and his colleagues who argued analogously to the feature pages would “ not even notice how their ideological paternalism amounts to incapacitating all those Muslims who should speak up ... ” Broder commented that he found it indecent when Steinfeld and “ others like Necla Kelek, Seyran Ates or Ayaan Hirsi Ali attach the label “ hate preacher ”. Steinfeld knows very well that he is turning reality upside down . This is the brainchild of a columnist who has lost all contact with reality . Kelek criticized the " matter of course, with which freedom is accepted and at the same time its defense discredited" as "intellectual weariness " that comes from the " parallel world of some editorial offices ".

Steinfeld has authored numerous books, including a history of ideas and culture in the city of Weimar ( Weimar , 1998), a phenomenology of popular music ( Riff. Tonspuren des Lebens , 2000), a systematic account of philology ( Der passionate bookkeeper , 2004) and a Book essay about the life and work of the Swedish artist doctor Axel Munthe ( The doctor of San Michele. Axel Munthe and the art of giving life a meaning , 2007). In addition to books, he publishes essays in magazines ( Merkur , Kursbuch , Akzente ) and often writes for Swedish publications ( Axess , Svenska Dagbladet , Expressen , Sydsvenska Dagbladet ). He is the author of several film essays, including Rousseau. How to die in your utopia (together with Eberhard Rathgeb , SWR 1994) and Exil, Eden, Endstation. The Castles in the Air of Capri (together with Thomas Schmitt , Arte 2004). Together with Ralph Jentsch and Lothar Müller , he re- edited the novels Kaputt and Die Haut by Curzio Malaparte at Zsolnay Verlag . Swedish themes are also dedicated this with Staffan Lamm wrote book about the collective house ( The collective house. Utopia and reality of a living experiment , 2006) and its edition of August Strindberg's reports under French peasants who in the series in 2009 , the other library appeared. In 2014 he published the first complete German translation of Nils Holgersson's underbara resa genom Sverige . For this work Steinfeld was on the shortlist for the 2015 Leipzig Book Fair prize in the "Translation" category.

Steinfeld, together with Wolfgang Scheppe, designed the brochure “A Better Tomorrow - The Future of Travel” for the Swiss travel group Kuoni . The magazine, which is part of the 2011 annual report and is presented in the form of a daily newspaper, has received several awards, including the “ Red Dot Design Award : The Best of the Best” for Communication Design and the IF Communication Award 2012 in gold. In the spring of 2011 Steinfeld published a special issue for the Neue Rundschau (S. Fischer Verlag) on ​​the subject of "Occultism". Steinfeld was a member of the "Literature and Science" advisory board of the Goethe Institute (2000–2007). He was a member of the University Council of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and is a member of the Foundation Board of the Lucerna Foundation.

Steinfeld as a language critic

In his work, Steinfeld advocates the development of the German language, among other things. As a critic of the spelling reform of 1996 , he explained (together with Kurt Reumann ) in Die Reform als Diktat - On the dispute about the German spelling , why the FAZ returned to the old spelling. He also opposes the anti- Anglicism fight by language preservers and advocates the changeability of the German language. Steinfeld published today in the new spelling. His translation of “Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige” (2014) was published in the old spelling.

In autumn 2010 Steinfeld published the monograph "Der Sprachverführer - the German language, what it is, what it can do". The critic Ursula März called the book in Die Zeit (January 20, 2011) the “result of a long, intensive reading life” that belongs in every household.

Steinfeld as a crime writer

Together with Martin Winkler , Steinfeld wrote the Swedish thriller Der Sturm under the common pseudonym Per Johansson . The confession of the pseudonym only came under pressure from the publisher and after corresponding reprimands by Richard Kämmerlings , who accused Steinfeld of taking revenge on his former superior Frank Schirrmacher with "character assassination". Both Iris Radisch in “ Die Zeit” and Jakob Augstein shared the opinion that Steinfeld had staged a character assassination under a pseudonym. Spiegel Online summarized the campaign with the sentence “competitor dead, author embarrassed”. Steinfeld finally contradicted Kämmerlings' thesis that the fictional character of the murder victim had clear features of the FAZ editor Frank Schirrmacher , and declared that it was mostly a self-portrait.

Works

  • Symbolism - Classical - Romantic. Attempt at a formal analytical critique of Hegel's literary philosophy. Dissertation. (Theses: Literary Studies, 63). Königstein / Ts., Forum Academicum in the Athenäum publishing group, Hain, Hanstein 1984, ISBN 3-445-02328-X .
  • (with Heidrun Suhr; Ed.): In the big city - The metropolis as a cultural-theoretical category (= Athenaeum's monographs: literary studies. Vol. 101). Hain, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-445-08951-5 .
  • The rough tone. Little logic of learned decency (= Anton Hain. Volume 13). Hain, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-445-06013-4 .
  • Weimar. With photographs by Barbara Klemm . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-608-91941-4 .
  • Reef. Soundtracks of life. DuMont, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-7701-4986-6 .
  • Contributions to Reform as a dictation. To the argument about the German spelling. FAZ, Frankfurt am Main 2000, DNB 975592262 .
  • (Ed. :) Houellebecq phenomenon. DuMont, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7701-5623-4 .
  • (Ed. :) "Once and not more." Writer on age. DVA, Stuttgart / Munich 2001, ISBN 3-421-05449-5 .
  • The passionate accountant. Philology as a way of life. Carl Hanser, Munich / Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-446-20550-0 .
  • Wallander's landscape. A journey through Skåne. With a foreword by Henning Mankell . Unabridged edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-423-20759-0 .
  • (Ed. :) What remains of the day. The features section and the future of the critical public in Germany. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-596-16329-3 .
  • (with Staffan Lamm :) The collective house. Utopia and reality of a living experiment. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-10-043924-4 .
  • The doctor from San Michele. Axel Munthe and the art of giving life a meaning . Carl Hanser, Munich / Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-446-20844-5 . Swedish version under the title En stor man. Axel Munthe and Konsten att exchange livet med mening . Atlantis, Stockholm 2009, ISBN 978-91-7353-208-2 .
  • Scandinavian architecture. From the simplicity of building . (with Jon Steinfeld) Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-421-03643-8 .
  • (Ed.): The great poet sees things bigger. The classic Robert Gernhardt. Fischer, Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-10-070406-1 .
  • The phrasebook. The German language: what it is, what it can do. Hanser, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-446-23416-1 .
  • Selma Lagerlöf . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-422-07320-3 .
  • I want, I can. Modern and self-optimization . Konstanz University Press, Konstanz 2016, ISBN 978-3-86253-085-4 .
  • Lord of the Ghosts. The thoughts of Karl Marx . Carl Hanser, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-446-25673-6 .
  • with Burkhard Müller : German borders. Travel through the middle of Europe. The Other Library , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-8477-0398-3 .
  • with Frederic Steinfeld: Ikea. 100 pages . Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 2019.
  • Italy. Portrait of a foreign land . Rowohlt Berlin, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-7371-0058-8 .
Translations

literature

  • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung for Germany (ed.): You edit and write . Modifications made by Ingeborg Lukas. FAZ, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ZDB -ID 1418076-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Reinhard Mohr: Embarrassing Enlightenment Lessons , Spiegel-Online , January 15, 2010.
  2. ^ Henryk M. Broder : The green bond of sympathy. In: Der Spiegel. 2010, issue 10, March 8, 2010, pp. 122–123 ( online version )
  3. ↑ ZDF nachtstudio , July 18, 2010, In the Crossfire of Criticism: The Islam Debate - A New Cold War? , Panelists: Hamed Abdel-Samad , Henryk M. Broder, Lamya Kaddor , Claudius Seidl . At the beginning it is explained that Thomas Steinfeld, who was also invited, canceled. Video Nachtstudio (March 7, 2010)  in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on February 11, 2014. (offline) ( on Youtube ), program announcement (on Phoenix )
  4. ↑ Thomas Steinfeld: Our hate preachers. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. January 14, 2010 ( online version )
  5. ↑ BR-alpha , broadcast on March 23, 2010, 8.15 p.m., verbatim transcript ( memento from March 31, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 51 kB)
  6. ↑ Necla Kelek: Critique of the Critique of Islam: You cooked with hatred , FAZ, January 22, 2010 .
  7. ↑ FAZ, November 29, 2014, p. L8.
  8. ↑ http://www.preis-der-leipziger-buchmesse.de/de/Nominierungen/Uebersetzung/
  9. ↑ zeit.de
  10. ↑ a b spiegel.de
  11. ↑ Oliver Mayer: A storm in the German feature pages: The scandal surrounding the Swedish thriller "Der Sturm" by Thomas Steinfeld alias Per Johansson. In: Studies on German Literature and Language (Japanese Society for German Studies, Tokai Section). No. 45, 2013, pp. 81-92. Full text of the article.
  12. ↑ Richard Kämmerlings: Retaliation - The gruesome death of a great journalist. In: The world. August 14, 2012.
  13. ↑ Iris Radisch : Schirrmacher in Schweden, in: Die Zeit No. 34, August 16, 2012, p. 42.
  14. ↑ Jakob Augstein: We kill what we love. Friday , August 16, 2012, archived from the original on February 23, 2014 . ;.
  15. ^ Sebastian Hammelehle: competitor dead, author embarrassed. on: Spiegel Online. August 16, 2012.
  16. ↑ Murder victims in "The Storm", according to Steinfeld, also self-portrait. In: Focus. Issue 34, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Steinfeld, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Leverkusen