Der Spielverderber. Erzählungen.

by Siegfried Lenz

DTV Deutscher TaschenbuchDate of 1969 soft 3423006005 Ex- Library

Paperback

Published January 1, 1969

About the author

Siegfried Lenz (1926 - 2014) was a German author who wrote twelve novels and produced several collections of short stories, essays, and plays for radio and the theatre. He was awarded the Goethe Prize in Frankfurt-am-Main on the 250th Anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's birth. Lenz and his wife, Liselotte, also exchanged over 100 letters with Paul Celan and his wife, Gisèle Lestrange between 1952 and 1961.

Lenz was the son of a customs officer in Lyck (Elk), East Prussia. After his graduation exam in 1943, he was drafted into the navy. According to documents released in June 2007, he may have joined the Nazi party on the 12th of July 1943. Shortly before the end of World War II, he defected to Denmark, but became a prisoner of war in Schleswig-Holstein.

After his release, he attended the University of Hamburg, where he studied philosophy, English, and Literary history. His studies were cut off early, however, as he became an intern for the daily paper Die Welt, and served as its editor from 1950 to 1951. It was there he met his future wife, Liselotte (d. February 5, 2006). They were married in 1949.

Since 1951, Lenz worked as a freelance writer in Hamburg and was a member of the literature forum "Group 47." Together with Günter Grass, he became engaged with the Social Democratic Party and aided the Ostpolitik of Willy Brandt. A champion of the movement, he was invited in 1970 to the signing of the German-Polish Treaty.

Since 2003, Lenz was a visiting professor at the Düsseldorf Heinrich Heine University and a member of the organization for German orthography and proper speech.

Reviews

[Egon Wegh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Veertien korte verhalen die vlot worden verteld, met vaak aan het einde een tragikomische wending. Zo heeft in het eerste verhaal (‘Nachzahlung’) een man nog loon tegoed van een fabriek, maar weigert hij ondanks vriendelijk aandringen van de directeur hardnekkig om méér geld aan te nemen dan hem toekomt. Uiteindelijk krijgt hij uit een onverwachte hoek een opmerkelijk bericht.

[Christoph Glatz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein Buch, welches die schwierigen Jahre vieler Deutscher nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg thematisiert. Es gelingt dem Autor mit wenigen, effizienten und genauen Beschrieben, den Leser ganz natürlich in das Umfeld der Persönlichkeiten jeder der Kurzgeschichten einzuführen. Während die Themen etwas weit weg, überzeugt der Sprachgebrauch von Siegfried Lenz enorm.