Photo credit © Oliver Mark Today’s blog post is again about a famous author who wasn’t German but wrote in German. Johannes Mario Simmel was born on the 7th April 1924 in Vienna, Austria and died on the 1st January 2009 in Lucerne, Switzerland. As a student I read some of his novels, which, sadly, … Read more
Image credit: Frank Schwichtenberg “Otto Gerhard Waalkes (born 22 July 1948), also known as simply Otto, is a German comedian, actor, musician, writer and comic book artist. He became famous in the 1970s and 1980s in Germany with his shows, books and films.” (Quote Wikipedia) My friends and I loved him in the 70s. As … Read more
Image attribution: Willy Pragher “Theo Lingen (10 June 1903 – 10 November 1978), born Franz Theodor Schmitz, was a German actor, film director and screenwriter. He appeared in more than 230 films between 1929 and 1978, and directed 21 films between 1936 and 1960.” (source Wikipedia) Fancy reading about him in German? Here is the … Read more
“Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician (CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobility, he took his first public offices in the Protestant Church in Germany.” (Source Wikipedia) As … Read more
“Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (18 March 1858 – 29 September 1913) was a German inventor and mechanical engineer who is famous for having invented the Diesel engine, which burns Diesel fuel; both are named after him.” (Source Wikipedia) As it would have been his birthday today, I searched the internet for some easy and not … Read more
“Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (10 November 1759 – 9 May 1805) was a German poet, playwright, historian, philosopher, and physician. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany’s most important classical playwright.” (Quote Wikipedia) So I’ve searched the internet to see if I could find some information about Schiller in German for you … Read more
“Günter Wilhelm Grass (16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature.” Quoted from Wikipedia or, if you’d like, you can read more about him on the German Wikipedia page. You have probably heard of his most famous … Read more
EDIT 2024: Sadly, Franz Beckenbauer died on the 7th January 2024. Today I thought we look at a different type of famous German, not an artist or author or inventor, but a former football player. And as it’s his birthday today it’s only fitting that we talk about Franz Beckenbauer, or ‘der Kaiser’ (the emperor), … Read more
“Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. He is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German … Read more
This is another blog post about a famous author who wrote in German but wasn’t German. Franz Kafka is one of the most important and influential writers of the 20th century. His works, which include novels, short stories, and essays, are characterised by their dark humor, absurdist themes, and exploration of the human condition. Kafka … Read more
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