4 January 2022
Akademie der Künste receives Ursula Krechel’s archive
The writer Ursula Krechel has entrusted the first part of her artistic estate to the archives of the Akademie der Künste. It includes manuscripts of her works, collections of documents and extensive correspondence as well as printed copies of her publications.
Ursula Krechel is not only the author of a body of work overwhelming in its diversity and complexity, but she has also been active as a dramaturge since her student years and later in teaching: as a guest lecturer at various universities and at the Literaturinstitut Leipzig and also as the director of the prose workshop at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. Her extensive archive (10 metres of shelving) documents the development of her oeuvre with a high degree of completeness and provides insight into her work as an author and lecturer in a wide-ranging network of colleagues and institutions. Krechel has been a member of the Akademie der Künste since 2017.
Ursula Krechel, born in 1947, grew up in Trier. She graduated in German, theatre studies and art history in 1971 with a dissertation on the dramaturge, director and theatre critic Herbert Ihering. Even before then, she worked as a reviewer for newspapers and radio and as a dramaturge. She co-founded a women's centre in 1974 and was a member of the board of trustees of the Frankfurt am Main Authors' Foundation from 1976 to 1983. She has written numerous radio and stage plays, poems and essays, worked at the Literaturhaus Frankfurt/Main, held a guest professorship at the Literaturinstitut Leipzig from 1997 to 1999 and directed the prose workshop at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. She was writer-in-residence at the University of Warwick in 1984, at Washington University, St. Louis in 1991, at the University of Essen in 1992 and at Ben Gurion University Beer Sheva in 2000. Her lengthy exile novel Shanghai fern von wo was published in 2008. Her following novels Landgericht (2012) and Geisterbahn (2018) continued her exploration of National Socialism and the period after the Second World War. In 2019, she received the Jean-Paul-Preis of the Free State of Bavaria for her life's work. The citation states: "Ursula Krechel speaks out for those who hardly have a voice in German post-war history. She addresses what has been deliberately suppressed".
In addition to her membership of the Akademie der Künste, she is also a member of the German Academy for Language and Literature, Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz and, since 2020, Honorary President of the PEN Centre Germany.
Works (selection)
Erika. Play (1974), Selbsterfahrung und Fremdbestimmung. Essay (1975), Nach Mainz! Poems (1977), Verwundbar wie in den besten Zeiten. Poems (1981), Zweite Natur. Szenen eines Romans (1981), Lesarten. Von der Geburt des Gedichtes aus dem Nichts. Essay. (1982), Aus der Sonne. Play (1985), Kakaoblau. Gedichte für Erwachsende (1989), Sitzen Bleiben Gehen. Play (1989), Die Freunde des Wetterleuchtens. Stories (1990), Technik des Erwachens. Poems (1992), Mit dem Körper des Vaters spielen. Essays (1992), Sizilianer des Gefühls. Story (1993), Ich glaub, mich tritt ein Meerschwein. Play for children (1996), Ungezürnt. Gedichte, Lichter, Lesezeichen (1997), Verbeugungen vor der Luft. Poems (1999), In Zukunft schreiben. Handbuch für alle, die schreiben wollen (2003), Stimmen aus dem harten Kern. Poem (2005), Shanghai fern von wo. Novel (2008), Jäh erhellte Dunkelheit. Poems (2010), Landgericht. Novel (2012, filmed 2017), Die da. Poems (2013), Stark und leise: Pionierinnen. Essays (2015), Geisterbahn. Novel (2018), Beileibe und zumute. Poems (2021)
Awards (selection)
1980 Work Grant for Berlin Artists, 1984 Scholarship of the Deutscher Literaturfonds, 1994 Internationaler Eifel-Literatur-Preis, 1994 Martha-Saalfeld-Förderpreis, 1995 Aufenthaltsstipendium Künstlerhaus Edenkoben, 1997 Elisabeth-Langgässer-Literaturpreis, 2000 Georg-K.-Glaser-Preis, 2008 Rheingau Literatur Preis, 2009 Jeannette Schocken Preis, 2009 Deutscher Kritikerpreis, 2009 Düsseldorfer Literaturpreis, 2009 Kunstpreis des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz, 2009 Joseph-Breitbach-Preis, 2012 Deutscher Buchpreis, 2012 Lyrikpreis Orphil, 2015 Gerty-Spies-Literaturpreis, 2019 Jean-Paul-Preis, 2020 Federal Cross of Merit
www.adk.de
Enquiries: Helga Neumann, Literature Archive of the Akademie der Künste, Tel. +49 (0)30 200 57-32 29, helga.neumann@adk.de