Foto (Ausschnitt): dpa - Bildarchiv
Paul Celan
(born 23.11.1920 in Chernovtsy, Greater Romania (now Ukraine), died 1970 in Paris), poet
Paul Celan was born Paul Antschel. His parents were German-speaking Jews. Celan studied medicine in France and Romance languages in Romania. After the deportation and death of his parents he performed forced labour in several concentration camps. After 1945 he worked as a translator and proof-reader. At this point he published his first poems, in which he processed the horrors of National Socialism. The anthology Der Sand aus den Urnen (i.e. The Sand from the Urns) was published in 1948 and included his poem Todesfuge (i.e. Death Fugue), published in 1945, which is considered Celan's best-known and most important work. The poet has won awards including the Bremen Literature Prize, the Georg Büchner Prize and the Grand Art Prize of North-Rhine Westphalia.