Ralf Rothmann
(born 10 May 1953 in Schleswig, Germany); writer
Ralf Rothmann spent most of his childhood and youth in the Ruhr area. After training as a mason, he worked for a few years in construction, after which he took on many different jobs. He moved to Berlin in 1976, where his first volume of poetry was published in 1984. His novel, Messers Schneide (Knife Edge) appeared in 1986. Rothmann’s early novels are based in the Ruhr, while his more recent works deal with events in the Second World War and the immediate post-war era. Rothmann has received several awards, including the Uwe Johnson Prize in 2018 for his novel, Der Gott jenes Sommers (The God of that Summer). Ralf Rothmann lives in Berlin.