After a short literary break, we are back with our project LiteraTour. In August, everything will revolve around important personalities in German literature. Together with you, we want to get to know some of the most important writers. At what time did they live? What were the circumstances in Germany? What influenced them? What is special about their literature?
What will happen?
Every week we will publish short info texts about some German-speaking authors here on this page. We ask you to read these texts carefully so that you can participate in our big author quiz at the end of the month.
Who can participate?
All students who are learning German from class 8 onwards at one of the partner schools of the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi can participate in the campaign. There is no age restriction.
The Authors-Quiz
At the end of the month we will hold a special quiz about the authors featured here. To participate in the quiz, you just need to fill out this form. We will send you the most important information on how to participate and the corresponding link on 26.08.2022. The quiz will then be online on Kahoot for 24h on 27.08.2022. The 5 winners will receive a special book package. If more than 5 participants reach the full score, we will let the lot decide.
These writers only exist as a duo. Behind the Brothers Grimm, however, there are two individuals: Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm. They were born at the end of the 18th century in the beautiful state of Hesse. After finishing school, the two young men were drawn to Marburg, where they wanted to study law. But they found the German language and literature much more interesting, so they began to collect legends, folk songs and fairy tales. Then in 1812 the collected fairy tales of the two were published for the first time and that is probably the main reason why even today young and old know "Sleeping Beauty", "Hansel and Gretel" or "Snow White". This is certainly due to the persistent work of the two brothers and the fact that their texts have been translated into more than 170 languages. In addition to their collections of orally transmitted texts, the brothers also worked as linguists and wrote a German grammar and also a dictionary of the German language. But of course, today they are much better known as fairy tale uncles.
Imagine growing up with 5 sisters? Not easy, is it? But whether this was Friedrich Schiller's incentive to become one of the most important poets in Germany is rather questionable. Friedrich Schiller, actually Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller, was born in the middle of the 18th century in rather poor circumstances. Already in his youth he was a quiet rebel. He attended a military school, where he suffered from the strict order. But already at that time he sought escape in books and read, although it was forbidden, Lessing and Shakespeare. This inspired him so much that he soon wrote the first of his own texts and many of these are now real classics; especially his dramas such as "The Robbers" or "Kabale und Liebe". Schiller's friendship with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is particularly interesting. The two met while working on a literary magazine and became thick friends. They wrote each other endless letters, visited each other and competed literarily. When Schiller died at the age of 45, it was a great shock for Goethe, from which he never really recovered.
Are you happy with your name? Mr. Heine was probably not, having been born Harry Heine at the end of the 18th century. That is why he later had his name changed to Christian Johann Heinrich Heine. He was also not very interested in the occupation of his father, a cloth merchant, but found literature and philosophy much more attractive. So he later earned his money as a poet and journalist. Heine achieved his breakthrough in 1821 with the work "Gedichte " (Poems). After that, there was no stopping him literarily. By decorating his articles and reports with artful lyricism, he developed a poetic everyday language. Today, Heine is considered the last writer of Romanticism. His texts are based on the romantic ideas, but in the end the author escaped from its base and followed realism.
New year, new child. Almost. Theodor Fontane was born just one day before New Year's Eve in beautiful Brandenburg. As it was then, he followed his father's example and completed an apprenticeship as a pharmacist. He seemed to do this job quite well, too, because after a few years of professional experience he received the distinction of "pharmacist first class." But somehow he longed for something else, for writing. However, this was not so easy at first, because he could not earn money with it. Things got better when he started working as a foreign correspondent. He later published his experiences in his well-known travelogues. Then, when he was able to live from writing alone, he stopped being half a journalist. Today Fontane is known as one of the most important representatives of realism. He always oriented himself on real facts and people and reproduced this factually. To remain as objective as possible was his goal, which he probably perfected during his time as a journalist. At the same time, realism stands in stark contrast to romanticism, as with Heine.
India was always part of Hermann Hesse from birth, as his grandfather lived for 20 years as a missionary in India. Hesse's mother was also born in this colorful country. But he never really set foot in India. In 1911, he set out on a journey to India, but spent most of his time in Indonesia. While his ship docks in Ceylon, he is still some distance away from India, but his fascination is unstoppable. Intensively he deals with Indian culture, Hinduism and the Indian spiritual world. He read many articles, discussed them and, of course, included India in his works. His most famous work is certainly "Siddharta", an "Indian poem" as he calls it. A story about the son of a Brahmin on his way to realization. After Hesse was invalided out in World War I because of his shortsightedness, he began to write critically about war and patriotism. Even during World War II, he did not stop attacking the Nazis through his writing. In the end, Hermann Hesse received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.
Imagine your name being made into an official word. Wouldn't that be a special honor? This is exactly what happened to Franz Kafka. The word "Kafkaesque" goes back to the famous author and describes an absurd situation that is not transparent. And exactly such situations can be found in abundance in Kafka's works. Kafka was Austrian, born in the beautiful city of Prague, studied chemistry, a bit of German and law and started writing around 1904. And that was his main activity until his death. So some novels and many stories were written, not all of them were finished. It is particularly interesting that Kafka instructed his friend and publisher Max Brod to burn his works after his death. But fortunately Brod had other ideas, did not burn the texts, but published them. It is only because of this that Kafka's work is still so famous today.
When you look for authors of children's books, Erich Kästner unexpectedly falls directly into your lap. He is probably the most famous author of this genre. Born in Dresden from a lower middle-class background, Kästner actually wanted to become a teacher. But when World War I began, he was drafted. When he returned, physically unharmed but mentally battered, he devoted himself to his career, earning a doctorate and working as an editor, writing poems, essays, criticism, and then finally his famous books. He finally became famous with "Emil and the Detectives", but did not stop writing after that, but published directly the next hit, "The Flying Classroom". Even today, his books can still be found in almost every children's room in Germany. Although Kästner's children's books depict the ideal world, he also wrote critical texts, especially when the Nazis took power. This led to many of Kästner's books being burned at the time and he was arrested several times. But despite all this, Kästner never stopped writing.
Always against the political and ecclesiastical establishment. This is how Heinrich Böll's drive can be briefly described. Born in Cologne, he served during the Second World War and subsequently processed these experiences in literature. He was thus part of the so-called "Trümmerliteratur", the literary epoch after the war that wanted to break away from tradition in terms of language and reinvent literature. This epoch is also called: literature of zero hour. And during this time Böll wrote poems, short stories and novels and was always critical and did not shy away from confrontation. Among his most important works is certainly "the lost honor of Katharina Blum", a story about the emergence and danger of violence. For his outstanding literary achievements, Heinrich Böll was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972.
Woman power! Christa Wolf is one of the most important figures in post-war literature. She would certainly never have used the word feminist herself, but her texts fit exactly into this theme. Historical women, oppression based on gender, female identity - all this can be found in Wolf's stories. And that pretty much reflects what the feminist movement is about today. The author lived in the DDR during the division of Germany and dealt with socialism in literary form, often critically. This made her a topic of discussion in public quite often. Among her best-known works are "Der geteilte Himmel" and "Moskauer Novelle".
There are heaps of good writers in contemporary literature. One of these word talents is Ferdinand von Schirach. He was born in Munich and is a lawyer. After studying law, von Schirach worked as a lawyer in criminal law. It was not until he was 45 that his first literary stories were published, and they are almost always based on his experiences as a lawyer. They often deal with the question of guilt, the question of humanity or punishment. What is still human, what is already inhumane? Schirach has a special fascination for such questions from the world of law.
