Gert Hofmann was a German writer and professor of German literature. Hofmann was born in Limbach

Limbach

Limbach may refer to:In Germany:*Limbach, Baden-Württemberg, in Baden-Württemberg*Limbach, Bad Kreuznach, in the district of Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate*Limbach, Westerwaldkreis, in the Westerwaldkreis, Rhineland-Palatinate...

, Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

 (Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

) and died in Erding

Erding

Erding is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district Erding. It had a population of 34,122 in 2004. It is twinned with Bastia in CorsicaThe original Erdinger Weissbier is a well-known Bavarian specialty...

 (near Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

).

He grew up in his native Limbach. In 1948, he moved with his family to Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

. There, he attended a school for translators, studying English and Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

. In 1950, he enrolled to the University of Leipzig, where he studied Romance languages

Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...

 and Slavic languages

Slavic languages

The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...

. In 1951, he fled from the German Democratic Republic

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...

 and settled in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he continued his studies. In 1957, he graduated with a thesis on Henry James

Henry James

Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....

.

After one year as a research assistant at the University of Freiburg

University of Freiburg

The University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...

, he left Germany in 1961 to teach German literature

German literature

German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German part of Switzerland, and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard German, but there...

 in Europe and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

: he taught at universities in Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, New Haven, Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

 and Austin

Austin

Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...

. From 1971 to 1980 he lived in the southern Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n town of Klagenfurt

Klagenfurt

-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...

, while teaching at the University of Ljubljana

University of Ljubljana

The University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. With 64,000 enrolled graduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.-Beginnings:...

 (in former Yugoslavia

Former Yugoslavia

The former Yugoslavia is a term used to describe the present day states which succeeded the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....

, now in Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

). In 1980 he moved to Erding (near Munich), where he died in 1993.

Hofmann began his career as a writer of radio plays, becoming a novelist later in life after his return to Germany. He subsequently received several literary awards during his lifetime including the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis (1979), the Alfred-Döblin-Preis

Alfred-Döblin-Preis

Alfred-Döblin-Preis is a literary prize of Germany.- Winners :*1979 Gerold Späth*1980 Klaus Hoffer*1981 Gert Hofmann*1983 Gerhard Roth*1985 Stefan Schütz*1987 Libuše Moníková*1989 Einar Schleef, Edgar Hilsenrath...

 (1982), and the Müncher Literaturpreis (1993).

A number of his works have been translated by his son, poet Michael Hofmann

Michael Hofmann

Michael Hofmann is a German-born poet who writes in English and a translator of texts from German.-Biography:...

.

Works

• Auf dem Turm (1982)
• Unsere Eroberung (Trans. Our Conquest), (1984, Trans. 1991)
• Der Blindensturz
  Der Blindensturz
  Der Blindensturz is the title of short novel in ten chapters by German writer Gert Hofmann....
  
  (Trans. The Parable of the Blind), (1985, Trans. 1989)
• Veilchenfeld (1986)
• Unsere Vergeßlichkeit (1987)
• Der Kinoerzähler (Trans. The Film Explainer), (1990, Trans. 1996)
• Das Glück (Trans. Luck), (1992, Trans. 2004)
• Kleine Stechardin (1994) (Trans. Lichtenberg and the Little Flower Girl, Michael Hofmann, 2004)