Werner Köhler (Author)

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Werner Köhler (born January 10, 1956 in Trier ) is a German writer and publisher. In 2000 he realized his idea of ​​the lit.Cologne literary festival , which he has been organizing with his partners Rainer Osnowski and Edmund Labonté since 2001.

Life

Köhler is the son of a master baker in Wittlich . His father died when Köhler was twelve years old; then he learned to cook for the family. Shortly before graduating from high school, he dropped out of school. He then completed an apprenticeship as a bookseller in Düren . From 1981 he began to work for the Aachen branch of the Mayersche Buchhandlung and after several stages rose to one of the chief executives in the bookselling company, who was responsible for marketing, expansion and the branch structure of the bookstore chain.

In 1999 he suffered severe health problems ( burn-out syndrome) and after a subsequent reorientation, he left the safe position. During a conversation with his friend Rainer Osnowski in an ice cream parlor, his idea of ​​a literature festival took shape. Together with Osnowski and Edmund Labonté, Köhler founded the international literature festival lit.Cologne in 2000 and is still one of the three managing directors. At the same time, he and his two partners founded a publishing company that today operates as Labonté Köhler Osnowski (LKO Verlagsgesellschaft) .

The "gourmet chef" Köhler had the weekly cooking program Köhlers Kochzeit at WDR Lokalzeit from March 2002 to the end of 2003 , which he stopped after 100 episodes due to lack of time. He also published his first cookbooks under a pseudonym.

Through its "now became the cult book" s Cookbook satellite hear (2001), encouraged him Kerstin Gleba , since 2002, the chief editor of the publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch to work as a writer. In 2004 he published his autobiographically influenced development novel Cookys . 2005 joined the first volume of the Jerôme Crinelli crime series. Another seven novels and detective novels followed. Köhler described the novel Drei Tage im Paradies (2011) as perhaps his most important book. His friend and publicist Roger Willemsen presented this “development novel” about a war photographer with him in 2011 at the Kölnischer Kunstverein .

In October 2017, the TV channel arte gradually revealed Köhler's pseudonym Yann Sola in the series Mordsidyll. Detective stories in the French provinces . In the fifth episode, Banyuls-sur-mer with Yann Sola , crime writer Friedrich Dönhoff introduces Köhler as Yann Sola , whose latest crime series is set in the far south-west of France and which, with the main character Perez, focuses on a charismatic petty crook and hobby investigator.

Köhler was one of Roger Willemsen's closest friends, whom he had met through lit.Cologne . Willemsen has supported the Cologne Literature Festival since 2002 with programs and a total of 40 evenings as well as in many ways. In 2012, he spontaneously saved an evening with Karl Lagerfeld , who had canceled a conversation with Elke Heidenreich at short notice. Without preparation, he succeeded in ensuring that the well-read fashion designer and his audience could experience an interesting evening, which Köhler gave him great credit. At the funeral of Willemsen, Köhler gave a farewell speech and dedicated a reading to him at lit.Cologne 2017 with prominent artists from his last book Who We Were .

His friend and business partner Edmund Labonté describes Köhler as an enthusiastic personality who is able to “carry away legions of procrastinators, sweep away all doubters and pull the matter through against all odds.” Werner Köhler lives and is in Cologne's old town south married.

Works (selection)

Detective novels

Jerome Crinelli series

Perez series (as Yann Sola)

  • Deadly Tramontane. A southern France crime thriller . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-462-04868-1 .
  • Dangerous harvest. A southern France crime thriller . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2017, ISBN 978-3-462-04869-8 .
  • Last drive. A southern France crime thriller . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-462-05101-8 .

Novels

Cookys cycle

Cookbooks

Movie

  • Mordidyll - Banyuls-sur-mer with Yann Sola. Documentary, Germany, 2017, 26:32 min., Script and direction: Rieke Brendel and André Schäfer, moderation: Friedrich Dönhoff , production: Florianfilm, arte , ZDF , series: Mordsidyll. Thrillers in the French provinces , first broadcast: October 13, 2017 on arte, synopsis by ARD .

Web links

conversations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Werner Köhler: Biography. In: wernerkoehler.de .
  2. ↑ a b "We started it as a small hobby company." In: Deutschlandradio Kultur , March 23, 2011.
  3. ^ A b c Frank Lorentz: "Family does not work." In: Die Welt , October 15, 2006, interview with Köhler.
  4. ^ Author profile: Author Werner Köhler. In: Bastei Lübbe , 2017, accessed on January 4, 2018.
  5. ↑ a b c d Silke and Tobias Büscher: The festival maker: Werner Köhler in a portrait. In: Cologne Reporter , February 11, 2016.
  6. ↑ Martin Oehlen: Lit.Cologne boss Osnowski: "The success is great, the proceeds rather low". In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , March 12, 2014.
  7. ↑ Werner Köhler: People: Round birthdays - Edmund Labonté (60). In: BuchMarkt , January 24, 2017.
  8. ↑ Imprint. In: lit.Cologne , accessed on December 18, 2017.
  9. ↑ About us. In: LKO Verlagsgesellschaft , accessed on April 23, 2017.
  10. ↑ a b Uli Kreikebaum: My Veedel. Werner Köhler shows his southern city. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , December 17, 2012.
  11. ↑ Kerstin Gleba. In: Kiepenheuer & Witsch , accessed on January 4, 2018.
  12. ↑ Werner Köhler about his novel Three Days in Paradise in conversation with Denis Scheck . In: Deutschlandfunk , July 1, 2011, ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: audio file. )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / ondemand-mp3.dradio.de
  13. ↑ Roger Willemsen presented Werner Köhler's new novel. In: BuchMarkt , March 3, 2011.
  14. ↑ TV tip: “Mordsidyll” with Lit Cologne co-founder Werner Köhler. In: BuchMarkt , October 10, 2017.
  15. ↑ We mourn our friend Roger Willemsen. In: lit.Cologne , March 2017.
  16. ↑ Monika Werner-Staude: Almost 200 times fun in literature. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung , December 6, 2016.
  17. ↑ We mourn our friend Roger Willemsen. In: lit.Cologne , February 2016, accessed on April 23, 2017.
  18. ^ Anne Burgmer: When Karl Lagerfeld once almost blew up a lit. Cologne evening. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , February 19, 2019.
  19. ↑ Monika Salchert: Cologne Literature Festival. Lagerfeld causes a scandal at Lit.Cologne. In: Rheinische Post , March 17, 2012.
  20. ↑ Christina Rietz: Lit.Cologne 2012: Schnautzhän, Entschnarcher, Lesefetischisten. In: Zeitmagazin , March 23, 2012.
  21. ↑ Martin Oehlen: lit.Cologne 2012 “Prost! Have a nice evening ”. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , March 22, 2012.
  22. ↑ Werner Köhler: "He ain't heavy - he's my brother". In: Hundredvierzehn.de - the literary online magazine of S. Fischer Verlag , February 22, 2016. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother is a song by the Hollies ; see. Lyrics in songtexte.com .
  23. ^ Announcement: Roger Willemsen - enthusiasts, literature, political man. In: insawilke.de , January 15, 2017.
      Audio file: Roger Willemsen - enthusiast, writer, political person. In: WDR 5 , May 17, 2017, 1:57:08 min .; see. Program booklet , p. 20.
  24. ^ Edmund Labonté: Werner Köhler (60). In: BuchMarkt , January 10, 2016.


personal data
SURNAME Koehler, Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sola, Yann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH trier