Hans Magnus Enzensberger

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Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Warsaw (Poland), 20.05.2006

Hans Magnus Enzensberger (born 11 November 1929 in Kaufbeuren), is a German author, poet, translator and editor. He has also written under the pseudonym Andreas Thalmayr. He lives in Munich.

Contents

Life [edit]

According to a May 2010 article and interview,[1] Enzensberger was born in 1929 in a small town in Bavaria and is the eldest of four boys. He is part of the last generation of intellectuals whose writing was shaped by first-hand experience of the Third Reich.[2] The Enzensberger family moved to Nuremberg, the ceremonial birthplace of National Socialism, in 1931.[1] Julius Streicher, the founder and publisher of Der Stürmer, was their next-door neighbour. Hans Magnus joined the Hitler Youth in his teens, but was expelled soon afterwards. "I have always been incapable of being a good comrade. I can't stay in line. It's not in my character. It may be a defect, but I can't help it."[1]

Enzensberger studied literature and philosophy at the universities of Erlangen, Freiburg and Hamburg, and at the Sorbonne in Paris, receiving his doctorate in 1955 for a thesis about Clemens Brentano's poetry.[3] Until 1957 he worked as a radio editor in Stuttgart. He participated in several gatherings of Group 47. Between 1965 and 1975 he edited the magazine "Kursbuch". Since 1985 he has been the editor of the prestigious book series Die Andere Bibliothek, published in Frankfurt, and now containing almost 250 titles. Together with Gaston Salvatore, Enzensberger was the founder of the monthly TransAtlantik.[4] His own work has been translated into more than 40 languages.[3]

Enzensberger is the older brother of the author Christian Enzensberger.

Work [edit]

Enzensberger has a sarcastic, ironic tone in many of his poems. For example, the poem "Middle Class Blues" consists of various typicalities of middle class life, with the phrase "we can't complain" repeated several times, and concludes with "what are we waiting for?". Many of his poems also feature themes of civil unrest over economic and class based issues. Though primarily a poet and essayist, he also makes excursions into theater, film, opera, radio drama, reportage, translation. He has written novels and several books for children (including The Number Devil, an exploration of mathematics) and is co-author of a book for German as a foreign language (Die Suche). He also invented and collaborated in the construction of a machine which automatically composes poems. It was used during the 2006 Football World Cup to commentate on games.

In 2009, Enzensberger received a special Lifetime Recognition Award given by the trustees of the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry,[3] which also awards the annual Griffin Poetry Prize.

Honours received [edit]

Published works [edit]

  • Verteidigung der Wölfe, Poems, 1957
  • Viele schöne Kinderreime, 777 poems for children, 1962
  • Einzelheiten, Essays, 1962
  • Politik und Verbrechen, Essays, 1964
  • Deutschland, Deutschland unter anderem, political commentary, 1967
  • Das Verhör von Habana, Prose, 1970
  • Constituents of a Theory of the Media, 1970
  • Der kurze Sommer der Anarchie. Buenaventura Durrutis Leben und Tod, Prose, 1972
  • Gespräche mit Marx und Engels, 1970
  • Palaver. Politische Überlegungen, Essays, 1974
  • Mausoleum. 37 Balladen aus der Geschichte des Fortschritts, Poems, 1975
  • Polit. Brosamen, Essays, 1982
  • Ach, Europa! Wahrnehmungen aus sieben Ländern, Prose, 1987
  • Mittelmass und Wahn, Essays, 1989
  • Zukunftsmusik, Poems, 1991
  • Die Tochter der Luft, Drama, 1992
  • Die Große Wanderung, Essays, 1992
  • Zickzack, Aufsätze, 1997
  • Der Zahlenteufel, Novel, 1997
  • Wo warst du, Robert?, Novel, 1998
  • Leichter als Luft: Moralische Gedichte, Poems, 1999
  • Schreckens Maenner: Versuch ueber den radikalen Verlierer (5th ed.), Essay, 2006
  • Einzelheiten I & II, Essays, 2006
  • Gedichte 1950-2005, Poems, 2006
  • Im Irrgarten der Intelligenz / Ein Idiotenführer, Essay, 2007
  • Hammerstein oder der Eigensinn, Biography, 2008

Bibliography (English) [edit]

  • The Silences of Hammerstein, 2009
  • Where Were You, Robert? also known as Lost in Time, 2000
  • Lighter Than Air: Moral Poems, 2000
  • Selected Poems, 1999
  • The Number Devil, 1997
  • Zig Zag: The Politics of Culture and Vice Versa, 1997
  • Civil War, 1994
  • Civil Wars: From L.A. to Bosnia, 1994
  • Selected Poems, 1994
  • Mediocrity and Delusion: Collected Diversions, 1992
  • Political Crumbs, 1990
  • Der Untergang der Titanic (The Sinking of the Titanic), Versepos, 1978
  • Europe, Europe: Forays Into a Continent, 1989
  • Dreamers of the Absolute: Essays On: Politics, Crime and Culture, 1988
  • Critical Essays, 1982
  • The Sinking of the Titanic: A Poem, 1980
  • Raids and Reconstructions: Essays on Politics, Crime, and Culture, 1976
  • Mausoleum: Thirty-Seven Ballads from the History of Progress, 1976
  • The Havana Inquiry, 1974
  • The Consciousness Industry: On Literature, Politics and the Media, 1974
  • Politics and Crime, 1974

Articles [edit]

  • “Tour of the City”. Telos 29 (Fall 1976). New York: Telos Press.

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b c Interview: A life in writing
  2. ^ Contemporaries include Günter Grass (born in 1927), Martin Walser (1927) and Jürgen Habermas (1929).
  3. ^ a b c Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award profile
  4. ^ TransAtlantik

External links [edit]
Authority control
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