Guest of the ilb 2004
Christoph Hein was born in Heinzendorf, Silesa, in
1944. After the war he moved with his family to Bad Düben, near
Leipzig. There, as son of an evangelical pastor, he was refused
entrance to high school; he went to West Berlin in 1958, where he
enrolled as a boarder at a humanistic comprehensive secondary
school. Due to the construction of the Wall he had to leave
school in 1961 without a diploma, but was able to complete his studies
three years later at night school. Following that, he studied
Philosophy and Logic from 1967-71. Among the numerous odd jobs
that Hein undertook during this period were small acting roles and work
as director’s assistant. After completing his studies he worked
as dramatic advisor under the guidance of Benno Besson at the Berlin
Volksbühne, where he was house author from 1974. That year his
play 'Schlötel oder Was solls' (Engl: Schlötel or So what) debuted.
In 1979 he left the theatre along with Besson and since then has
been active as a freelance writer. One of Hein’s first big
successes in both German states was the novella 'Der fremde Freund'
(1982; Engl: The Alien Friend), which came out in West Germany a year
later under the title 'Drachenblut' (Engl: Dragon Blood). Written
from the perspective of an East Berlin doctor, this life’s confession –
though lacking in true confessional nature – pitilessly balances
coolness and alienation. In 1986 Hein managed to create a parable
of the sinking GDR with his play 'Die Ritter der Tafelrunde' (Engl:
'Knights of the Round Table'). Its short-term approved debut in
Dresden in 1989 and its publication in 'Sinn und Form' represented a
triumph over omnipresent censorship, against which Hein took a concrete
stand. After the Cold War he issued numerous statements and
essays in which he reflected on his role as an intellectual. The
author, who often describes himself as a "chronicler without a
message", succeeds in his novels to chart social analyses of
overwhelming concentration. By means of pithy dialogue and
virtuoso use of character’s speech, exemplary biographies are recounted
in an almost restrained tone. Meanwhile, his characters shift
between universality and determination through concrete historical
circumstances. Christoph Hein’s novel, 'Landnahme' (2004),
praised by critics, redresses figures, setting and motifs from the
novel 'Horns Ende' (1985) and offers a chronicle covering over fifty
years of German history. Hein has received many literary awards,
among them the Erich Fried Prize (1990), and the Schiller Gedächtnis
Prize (2004), and is amongst the most widely read contemporary German
authors. His work is translated into 35 languages. Hein
lives in Berlin.
© international literature festival berlin | 
