Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [39]
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Günter Grass’ Ein weites Feld (Too Far Afield; 1992) addresses ‘unification without unity’ after the fall of the Wall.
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Thomas Brussig (b 1964), a novelist and screenwriter from Berlin, rose to prominence in the mid-1990s with Helden wie Wir (Heroes like Us; 1995). He also wrote the screenplay for the film Sonnenallee Click here and is a member of the Lübeck-based Gruppe 05 – cofounded in 2005 by Günter Grass with other writers to get more young scribes involved in politics. Other members of the group whose works reward exploration include Burkhard Spinnen (b 1956), who has published more than a dozen novels and essays; and novelist, poet and essayist Matthias Politycki (b 1955).
Skipping back to a few relative old-timers for a moment, a trio of contemporary literary figures was born in 1944: the strongly mystic Botho Strauss, crime novelist and Berlin professor Bernhard Schlink (whose books have won prizes and much praise), and novelist WG Sebald (1944–2001), who assured his place as one of Germany’s best writers with his powerful portrayal of four exiles in Die Ausgewanderten (Emigrants). Munich-based writer and playwright, Patrick Süskind (b 1949) achieved international acclaim with Das Parfum (Perfume), his extraordinary tale of a psychotic 18th-century perfumer.
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Meaty Thomas Mann starters include Buddenbrooks, Der Zauberberg (Magic Mountain), and his menacing Doktor Faustus, in which the central character exchanges health and love for creative fulfilment.
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Russian-born Wladimir Kaminer (b 1967) is a popular and interesting author who hit Berlin in the early 1990s. He left the Soviet Union, acquired refugee status in East Germany, then after reunification he began a regular disco with Russian beats in Berlin’s Mitte district. Kaminer’s first collection of stories was the highly popular Russendisko (Russian Disco; 2000), and today he continues to spin vinyl at the disco and elsewhere. His most recent work includes Es gab keinen Sex im Sozialismus (There Was No Sex in Socialism; 2009).
Feridun Zaimoglu (b 1964) is Turkish born, wrote an intriguing first novel using the language of German rappers (Kanak Sprak; 1995) and is today one of Germany’s most important writers of the new generation. He narrowly escaped death in a bus crash in Turkey, which inspired the beginning of his recent work Liebesbrand (Blazing Love; 2008).
Zaimoglu is strongly influenced by the work of fellow Turkish-German author and playwright Emine Sevgi Özdamar (b 1946), whose Das Leben ist eine Karawanserei (Life is a Kervansaray; 1992) was Times Literary Supplement Novel of the Year in 1994. In 2009 she was awarded the Berliner Kunstpreis (Berlin Art Prize).
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Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf by Alfred Döblin is a masterful epic set in 1920s Berlin (film-maker Rainer Fassbinder made a 15-hour film version of it).
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The Deutscher Buchpreis (German Book Award), the equivalent of Britain’s Booker Prize and the US National Book Awards (in fiction), is a good guide to what’s new each year. Usually about 130 works of fiction are entered and a short list of five selected. A few recent winners are Uwe Tellkamp (b 1968) for Der Turm (The Tower; 2008) and Julia Franck for Die Mittagsfrau (Lady Midday; 2007). You can find other short-listed and winning authors on the official website, www.deutscher-buchpreis.de.
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Cinema
German film has a long, illustrious and colourful history, perhaps explaining why local productions are popular and account for about 20% of