Herta Müller

Herta Müller (born August 17, 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist and essayist. She is married to novelist Richard Wagner.

Biography

Herta Müller was born in Niţchidorf ("Nitzkydorf"), Timiş County, the daughter of displaced Swabian farmers. She took German studies and Romanian literature at the Timişoara University.

In 1976, Müller began working as a translator for an engineering company, but was dismissed in 1979 for her refusal to cooperate with the Securitate, the Communist regime's secret police. Initially, she made a living by teaching kindergarten and giving private German lessons. Her first book, written in Romanian, was published in 1982, and appeared only as a censored version, as with most publications of this time.

In 1987, Müller left for Germany with her husband. Over the following years, she received many lectureships at universities in Germany and abroad. She currently lives in Berlin. Müller received membership at the German Academy for Writing and Poetry in 1995, and other positions followed. In 1997, she withdrew from the PEN centre of Germany in protest of its merge with its former German Democratic Republic branch.

In July 2008, Müller sent a critical open letter to Horia-Roman Patapievici, president of the Romanian Cultural Institute (RCI). This was in reaction to the support given by the RCI to a Romanian-German Summer School involving two former informants of the Communist political police (Securitate). [ [http://www.evz.ro/articole/detalii-articol/813306/Scandal-romanesc-cu-Securisti-zvastica-si-sex-la-Berlin-si-New-York/ EVZ.ro - Scandal românesc cu Securişti, svastică şi sex, la Berlin şi New York ] ]

Works

* "Niederungen" ("Underneath"), Bucharest 1982
* "Drückender Tango" ("Oppressive Tango"), Bucharest 1984
* "Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt" ("Man Is a Big Bird on the World"), Berlin 1986
* "Barfüßiger Februar" ("Barefoot February"), Berlin 1987
* "Reisende auf einem Bein" ("Travels of a Leg"), Berlin 1989
* "The Passport", 1989 ISBN 1852421398
* "Wie Wahrnehmung sich erfindet" ("How It Invents Sense"), Paderborn 1990
* "Der Teufel sitzt im Spiegel" ("The Devil in the Mirror"), Berlin 1991
* "Der Fuchs war damals schon der Jäger" ("The Fox Was then Ahead of the Hunter), Reinbek by Hamburg 1992
* "Eine warme Kartoffel ist ein warmes Bett" ("A Warm Potato Is a Warm Bed), Hamburg 1992
* "Der Wächter nimmt seinen Kamm" ("The Guard Takes His Comb"), Reinbek by Hamburg 1993
* "Angekommen wie nicht da" ("Not Arriving Here"), Lichtenfels 1994
* "Herztier" ("Heart-beast"), Reinbek bei Hamburg 1994
* "Hunger und Seide" ("Hunger and Silk"), Reinbek by Hamburg 1995
* "In der Falle" ("In a Trap"), Göttingen 1996
* "Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet" ("Today I Would Not Meet My Love"), Reinbek by Hamburg 1997
* "Der fremde Blick oder das Leben ist ein Furz in der Laterne" ("The Strange View, or Life Is a Flicker of a Lantern"), Göttingen 1999
* "The Land of Green Plums", 1999 ISBN 0810115972
* "Im Haarknoten wohnt eine Dame" ("A Lady Lives in Her Hair"), Reinbek by Hamburg 2000
* "Heimat ist das, was gesprochen wird" ("Home Becomes What You Say It Is"), Blieskastel 2001
* "Der König verneigt sich und tötet" ("The King Lays Down and Dies), Munich (and elsewhere) 2003
* "Die blassen Herren mit den Mokkatassen" ("The Pale Men with Espressos"), Munich (and elsewhere) 2005

Awards

*1981 Adam-Müller-Guttenbrunn Sponsored Prize the Temeswarer Ring of Literature
*1984 Aspekte Literature Prize
*1985 Rauriser Literature Prize
*1985 Sponsored des Literature Prize of Bremen
*1987 Ricarda-Huch Prize of Darmstadt
*1989 Marieluise-Fleißer Prize of Ingolstadt
*1989 German Language Prize, together with Gerhardt Csejka, Helmuth Frauendorfer, Klaus Hensel, Johann Lippet, Werner Söllner, William Totok, Richard Wagner
*1990 Roswitha Medal of Knowledge of Bad Gandersheim
*1991 Kranichsteiner Literature Prize
*1993 Critical Prize for Literature
*1994 Kleist Prize
*1995 European Literature Prize (Aristeion Prize)
*1995/96 City-writer of Frankfurt-Bergen-Enkheim
*1997 Literature Prize of Graz
*1998 Ida-Dehmel Literature Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (for the novel "Herztier")
*1999 Franz-Kafka Prize
*2001 CICERO Speaker Prize
*2002 Carl-Zuckmayer-Medaille of Rhineland-Palatinate
* 2003 Joseph-Breitbach Prize (together with Christoph Meckel and Harald Weinrich)
* 2004 Literature Prize of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
* 2005 Berlin Literature Prize
* 2006 Würth Prize for European Literature und Walter-Hasenclever Literature Prize

Edito

* Theodor Kramer: "Die Wahrheit ist, man hat mir nichts getan" ("The Truth Is No One Did Anything to Me"), Vienna 1999
* "Die Handtasche" ("The Pocketbook"), Künzelsau 2001
* "Wenn die Katze ein Pferd wäre, könnte man durch die Bäume reiten" ("If the Cat Were a Horse, Could You Ride Between the Trees?"), Künzelsau 2001

References

Further reading

* Norbert Otto Eke (Ed.): "Die erfundene Wahrnehmung" ("The Invented Sense"), Paderborn 1991
* "Herta Müller", Berlin 1992
* Herta Haupt-Cucuiu: "Eine Poesie der Sinne" ("A Poetry of Senses"), Paderborn 1996
* Ralph Köhnen (Ed.): "Der Druck der Erfahrung treibt die Sprache in die Dichtung" ("The Compression of Experience Compels the Writing of Poetry), Frankfurt am Main [u. a.] 1997
* Grazziella Predoiu: "Faszination und Provokation bei Herta Müller" ("The Fascination and Provocation of Herta Müller"), Frankfurt am Main (and elsewhere) 2000
* Nina Brodbeck: "Schreckensbilder" ("Terrifying Images"), Marburg 2000
* "Herta Müller", Munich 2002
* Carmen Wagner: "Sprache und Identität" ("Language and Identity"), Oldenburg 2002
* Martin A. Hainz: "Den eigenen Augen blind vertrauen? Über Rumänien." ("Trust Your own Blind Eyes? On Romania) From: Der Hammer – Die Zeitung der Alten Schmiede, Nr. 2, Nov. 2004, S.5-6
* Thomas Daum (Ed.): "Herta Müller", Frankfurt am Main 2003

External links

* [http://www.dickinson.edu/glossen/heft1/hertabio.html Herta Müller (biography)]