Walter Boehlich
Encyclopedia
Walter Boehlich was a German journalist, literary critic, literary editor and translator.
, as a son of writer Ernst Boehlich. During the Nazi regime, Boelich was discriminated at school because of his Jewish background. After World War II
, he read philology at the University of Bonn
and became the assistant of Prof. Ernst Robert Curtius
, an expert on Romance studies and literary theory.
He worked as literary critic
for the weekly newspaper
Die Zeit
and for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
. As chief editor at Suhrkamp Verlag
, he played a crucial part in making Suhrkamp a leading publishing house of German post-war literature and theory.
After he had left Suhrkamp after an argument over editors' participation rights in 1968, Boehlich wrote for the German magazine, Kursbuch. His pamphlet Autodafé on literature and its socio-historical background was published as a poster supplement to the magazine in 1968 and became a standard item of wall decoration in students' living communities of the time. Quote:
From November 1979 until January 2001, he wrote a monthly political column
for the – otherwise satirical
– German magazine, Titanic
.
Boehlich translated several French
, Spanish
and Danish
books.
Walter Boehlich was a member of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
(Darmstadt). He received the 1990 Johann Heinrich Merck Prize, the 1997 Jane Scatcherd Translator Prize, the 2001 Heinrich Mann Prize
and the Wilhelm-Merton-Preis für Europäische Übersetzungen (Wilhelm Merton Prize for European Translations).
In 2006, he died in Hamburg
.
In an obit, literary critic Martin Lüdke wrote in the Frankfurter Rundschau
(April 14, 2006):
Life
Walter Boehlich was born in Breslau, SilesiaSilesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
, as a son of writer Ernst Boehlich. During the Nazi regime, Boelich was discriminated at school because of his Jewish background. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he read philology at the University of Bonn
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...
and became the assistant of Prof. Ernst Robert Curtius
Ernst Robert Curtius
Ernst Robert Curtius was a German literary scholar, a philologist and Romance language literary critic....
, an expert on Romance studies and literary theory.
He worked as literary critic
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
for the weekly newspaper
Weekly newspaper
A weekly newspaper is a general-news publication that is published on newsprint once or twice a week.Such newspapers tend to have smaller circulations than daily newspapers, and are usually based in less-populous communities or small, defined areas within large cities; often, they may cover a...
Die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
and for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
. As chief editor at Suhrkamp Verlag
Suhrkamp Verlag
Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature.In January 2010 the headquarters of the company moved from Frankfurt to Berlin.-Early history:...
, he played a crucial part in making Suhrkamp a leading publishing house of German post-war literature and theory.
After he had left Suhrkamp after an argument over editors' participation rights in 1968, Boehlich wrote for the German magazine, Kursbuch. His pamphlet Autodafé on literature and its socio-historical background was published as a poster supplement to the magazine in 1968 and became a standard item of wall decoration in students' living communities of the time. Quote:
- Criticism is dead. Which one? The bourgeois kind that prevailed. It killed itself, died with the bourgeois world to which it belonged, died with the bourgeois literature that it slapped on the back, died with the bourgeois aesthetics on which it had set its foundations, died with the bourgeois god that had blessed it.
From November 1979 until January 2001, he wrote a monthly political column
Column (newspaper)
A column is a recurring piece or article in a newspaper, magazine or other publication. Columns are written by columnists.What differentiates a column from other forms of journalism is that it meets each of the following criteria:...
for the – otherwise satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
– German magazine, Titanic
Titanic (magazine)
Titanic is a German monthly satirical magazine based in Frankfurt. It has a circulation of approximately 100,000.- History :Titanic was founded in 1979 by former contributors and editors of Pardon, a satirical monthly, which the group had left after conflicts with its publisher...
.
Boehlich translated several French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
books.
Walter Boehlich was a member of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
The Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung was founded on August 28, 1949—the 200th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe—in Paulskirche in Frankfurt...
(Darmstadt). He received the 1990 Johann Heinrich Merck Prize, the 1997 Jane Scatcherd Translator Prize, the 2001 Heinrich Mann Prize
Heinrich Mann Prize
The Heinrich Mann Prize is a literary award given annually by the Berlin Academy of Art . The prize given for works with socially critical aspects in a character that would honor Heinrich Mann...
and the Wilhelm-Merton-Preis für Europäische Übersetzungen (Wilhelm Merton Prize for European Translations).
In 2006, he died in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
.
In an obit, literary critic Martin Lüdke wrote in the Frankfurter Rundschau
Frankfurter Rundschau
The Frankfurter Rundschau is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition as well as an e-paper...
(April 14, 2006):
- The essence of Suhrkamp Verlag, modern literature and corresponding theory, was owed – amongst others – to him. ... He was an accomplished literature scholar and knowledgeable about theory. That is why he could always tell his colleagues in their face what kind of 'nonsense' they just produced according to his invariably well-grounded opinion. Once I even saw him winning an argument over Marcel Reich-RanickiMarcel Reich-RanickiMarcel Reich-Ranicki is a Polish-born German literary critic and member of the literary group Gruppe 47. He is regarded as one of the most influential contemporary literary critics in the field of German literature and therefore was in Germany often called the 'Pope of literature' .-Life:Marcel...
and make him leave gulping and speechlessly. ... Seldom has an author made so many enemies with his analysis, especially among his colleagues who sensed how they were losing ground. With Walter Boehlich, one of the last great intellectuals of the old Federal Republic has died. Even though he had many enemies, there are many who have to be thankful to him – and are.
Editor
- Marcel ProustMarcel ProustValentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
: Briefe zum Werk (Letters to Work), Frankfurt am Main 1964 - Der Berliner Antisemitismusstreit (The Berlin Anti-semitism Argument), Frankfurt am Main 1965 et al.
- Georg Gottfried GervinusGeorg Gottfried GervinusGeorg Gottfried Gervinus was a German literary and political historian.-Biography:Gervinus was born in Darmstadt. He was educated at the gymnasium of the town, and intended for a commercial career, but in 1825 he became a student of the university of Giessen...
: Einleitung in die Geschichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Introduction to the History of the 19th Century), Frankfurt am Main 1967 - Der Hochverratsprozeß gegen Gervinus (The High Treason Case against Gervinus), Frankfurt am Main 1967
- Karl GutzkowKarl GutzkowKarl Ferdinand Gutzkow was a German writer notable in the Young Germany movement of the mid-19th century.-Life:...
: Deutschland am Vorabend seines Falles oder seiner Größe (Germany on the Eve of its Fall of its Greatness), Frankfurt am Main 1969 - Thomas MannThomas MannThomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
: Schriften zur Politik (Writings on Politics), Frankfurt am Main 1970 - Hjalmar SöderbergHjalmar SöderbergHjalmar Emil Fredrik Söderberg was a Swedish novelist, playwright, poet and journalist. His works often deal with melancholy and lovelorn characters, and offer a rich portrayal of contemporary Stockholm through the eyes of the flaneur...
: Doktor Glas, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1992 - Sigmund FreudSigmund FreudSigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
: Jugendbriefe an Eduard Silberstein (Youth Letters of Eduard Silberstein), Frankfurt am Main 1989 - David Friedrich Strauss: 'Soirées de Grandval, Berlin 1996
Translations
- Herman BangHerman BangHerman Joachim Bang was a Danish author, one of the men of the Modern Breakthrough.-Biography:Bang was born into a noble family of Asserballe, on the small Danish island of Als, the son of a South Jutlandic vicar...
: Eine Geschichte vom Glück (A History of Luck), Berlin 1993 - Herman Bang: Sommerfreuden (Summer Friends), Reinbek bei Hamburg 1993
- Herman Bang: Das weiße Haus. Das graue Haus (The White House. The Grey House), Zürich 1958
- Giambattista BasileGiambattista BasileGiambattista Basile was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector.- Biography :Born to a Neapolitan middle-class family, Basile was, during his career, a courtier and soldier to various Italian princes, including the doge of Venice. According to Benedetto Croce he was born in 1575, while...
: Das Märchen aller Märchen (The Fairy Tale of all Fairy Tales), Frankfurt am Main - Steen Steensen BlicherSteen Steensen BlicherSteen Steensen Blicher was an author and poet born in Vium near Viborg, Denmark.- Biography :Blicher was the son of a literarily inclined Jutlandic parson whose family was distantly related to Martin Luther....
: Bruchstücke aus dem Tagebuch eines Dorfküsters (Fragments from the Diary of a Village Sexton), Berlin 1993 - Karen BlixenKaren BlixenBaroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke , , née Karen Christenze Dinesen, was a Danish author also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen. She also wrote under the pen names Osceola and Pierre Andrézel...
: On Modern Marriage and Other Observations, Frankfurt am Main 1987 - Gabriel Dagan: Die Verabredung (The Appointment), Frankfurt am Main 1986
- Régis DebrayRégis DebrayJules Régis Debray is a French intellectual, journalist, government official and professor. He is known for his theorization of mediology, a critical theory of the long-term transmission of cultural meaning in human society; and for having fought in 1967 with Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara in...
: The Chilean Revolution, Neuwied [et al.] 1972 - Marguerite DurasMarguerite DurasMarguerite Donnadieu, better known as Marguerite Duras was a French writer and film director.-Background:...
: The Afternoon of Mr. Andesmas, Frankfurt am Main 1963 - Marguerite Duras: Destroy, She Said, Neuwied [et al.] 1970
- Jean GiraudouxJean GiraudouxHippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy...
: Simon, Frankfurt am Main 1961 - Víctor JaraVíctor JaraVíctor Lidio Jara Martínez was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, political activist and member of the Communist Party of Chile...
: Víctor Jara, Frankfurt am Main 1976 - Søren KierkegaardSøren KierkegaardSøren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish Christian philosopher, theologian and religious author. He was a critic of idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel...
: Journals, Cologne [et al.] 1955 - Vizconde de Lascano Tegui: Von der Anmut im Schlafe (Of the Grace in Sleep), Berlin 1995
- Amedeo ModiglianiAmedeo ModiglianiAmedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
: Modigliani, Stuttgart 1961 (translated together with Silja Wendelstadt) - Die Ostindienfahrer (The East Indian Traveler), Frankfurt am Main 1970
- Peter Ronild: Die Körper (The Heads), Frankfurt am Main 1971
- Monique Saint-Hélier: Die Weisen aus dem Morgenland (The Ways of the Morning Land), Frankfurt am Main 1958
- Ramón José Sender: Requiem für einen spanischen Landmann (Requiem for a Spanish Statesman), Frankfurt am Main 1964
- Ramón José Sender: Der Verschollene (The Missing), Frankfurt am Main 1961
- Hjalmar SöderbergHjalmar SöderbergHjalmar Emil Fredrik Söderberg was a Swedish novelist, playwright, poet and journalist. His works often deal with melancholy and lovelorn characters, and offer a rich portrayal of contemporary Stockholm through the eyes of the flaneur...
: Evening Star, Frankfurt am Main 1980 - Hjalmar Söderberg: GertrudGertrud (play)Gertrud is a Swedish 1906 play , in three parts, by author and playwright Hjalmar Söderberg.-Story description:The play is a modern relationship drama with the middle-age Gertrud in the centre and about her relationships with three different men; her husband Gustav Kanning , her older,...
, Frankfurt am Main 1980 - Lope de Vega Carpio: Die Irren von Valencia (The Stray of Valencia), Frankfurt am Main 1967
- Virginia WoolfVirginia WoolfAdeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
: Mrs. DallowayMrs DallowayMrs Dalloway is a novel by Virginia Woolf that details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway in post-World War I England. It is one of Woolf's best-known novels....
, Frankfurt am Main 1997
External links
- Literature by and on Walter Boehlich in the Catalog of the German National LibraryGerman National LibraryThe German National Library is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany...
- Obituary in the Jungle WorldJungle WorldJungle World is a German weekly newspaper published in Berlin. Initially founded in 1997 by striking editors of the German Marxist daily Junge Welt, it became independent after only a few issues...