Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Enzensberger, Hans Magnus (Kaufbeuren, 1929- ), was enrolled at the age of 15 in the Volkssturm, and later studied literature, languages, and philosophy at Erlangen, Hamburg, Freiburg, and Paris universities (1949-54); he wrote his PhD dissertation on the lyric poetry of Brentano (1955) which appeared as Clemens Brentanos Poetik (1961). From the late 1950s he spent prolonged periods abroad, visiting the USA, Mexico, Italy, Russia, the Far East, and Cuba; he lived for a time in Norway, eventually settling in Munich. Having joined Gruppe 47 in 1955, he devoted himself to political poetry becoming the major representative of the form. An admirer of Heine, he was also partly influenced by Brecht, and even by Benn, with whom he shared his belief in the autonomy of poetic language: he rejected propagandistic poetry involving the use of officially sanctioned ideological phraseology. His technique proceeded from the aesthetics of Adorno and aimed at arousing the reader's ‘critical consciousness’ through a process of disillusionment to which he applied the term ‘negation’. Explicitly stated in the poem ‘Schwierige Arbeit’ (‘geduldig / festhalten den Schmerz der Negation’), his views are elaborated in the two parts of Einzelheiten (1964): the first, Bewußtseins-Industrie, deals with poetic production, the other, Poesie und Politik, with the relationship between poetry and politics. He published his early poetry in the volumes verteidigung der wölfe (1957), landessprache (1957), and blindenschrift (1964) which also contains some of his finest nature poetry. Although his initial aggressiveness earned him a certain notoriety, he proved himself a resourceful master of irony and satire. At the same time he vigorously promoted modern poetry on an international scale by his work as editor and translator, notably in the volume Museum der modernen Poesie (1960) consisting of 350 poems in 16 languages; other volumes include the poetry of William Carlos Williams (1962). In 1963 he was awarded the Büchner Prize and from 1964 spent a year as an honorary lecturer (Gastdozent für Poetik) at Frankfurt University. However, by now he had lost faith in the effectiveness of poetry and became more actively involved in the political scene: the volume Politik und Verbrechen appeared in 1964, he launched a political periodical, Kursbuch, editing it from 1965 to 1975, and gave many lectures during his travels. Outspoken in his criticism of contemporary US foreign policy, of capitalism, and the exploitation of the Third World, he abandoned a fellowship at the Wesleyan University, Connecticut, and, following a prolonged stay in Cuba, published his documentary play Das Verhör von Habana (1970). He was co-editor of the Klassenbuch (3 vols., 1972), on class struggle in Germany, edited the volume Gespräche mit Marx und Engels (1973), and experimented with the montage novel in Der kurze Sommer der Anarchie. Buenaventura Durrutis Leben und Tod (1972). From the mid-1970s he returned to lyric poetry, presenting a critical review of the history of civilization since the Renaissance in the cycle Mauseleum. Siebenunddreißig Balladen aus der Geschichte des Fortschritts (1975) and the 33 epic cantos of the ‘comedy’ Der Untergang der Titanic (1978); the title, like that of his next collection, Die Furie des Verschwindens (1980), symbolizes an apocalyptic vision, the negative utopia to which he repeatedly refers as an expression of resignation and fear. This forms the subject of the last essay of Politische Brosamen (1982), Zwei Randbemerkungen zum Weltuntergang, and is viewed in the poem Die Furie in the context of the dangerous growth of surplus production and a corresponding increase of poverty. It is also the root cause of manifestations of escapism, the theme of the humorous poem ‘Der fliegende Robert’ (which provides the title of a 1989 collection containing poetry, scenes, and essays). His collected poetry, Gedichte 1950-1985 (1986), was followed by the volumes Zukunftsmusik (1991), and Kiosk (1995). Requiem für eine romantische Frau. Die Geschichte von Auguste Bußmann und Clemens Brentano (1988) is an extensively documented novel on Brentano's second marriage which ended in divorce.

In the postscript to his comedy Der Menschenfeind (1984) Enzensberger pays tribute to Diderot as the first enlightened intellectual who combined scholarly pursuits with a keen interest in the political and social conditions of his day and the problems of his fellow citizens. Widely known as an intellectual himself, Enzensberger shows the influence of his 18th-c. model most clearly in his achievement as an essayist and thought-provoking analyst, as in the collection Ach Europa! Wahrnehmungen aus sieben Ländern (1987, excluding major countries like Germany) and Mittelmaß und Wahn. Gesammelte Zerstreuungen (1988); in Die Große Wanderung. 33 Markierungen (1992) his polemics proceed from the historical and anthropological perspectives of the migration of peoples (Völkerwanderung) in the light of which he reviews the political, social, and ethnic problems of the 1980s and 1990s while making the preservation of Western civilization his main concern. His profound scepticism towards the realization of this objective emerges even more clearly from his essay Aussichten des Bürgerkriegs (1993).

Quotes:

"Mediocrity in politics is not to be despised. Greatness is not needed."

"Every orientation presupposes a disorientation."

"A pathological business, writing, don't you think? Just look what a writer actually does: all that unnatural tense squatting and hunching, all those rituals: pathological!"

Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Warsaw (Poland), 20.05.2006

Hans Magnus Enzensberger (born 11 November 1929 in Kaufbeuren), is a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He has also written under the pseudonym Andreas Thalmayr. He lives in Munich.

Contents 1 Life 2 Work 3 Honours received 4 Published works 4.1 Bibliography (English) 4.2 Articles 5 External links

Life

Enzensberger studied literature and philosophy at the universities of Erlangen, Freiburg and Hamburg, and at the Sorbonne in Paris, receiving his doctorate in 1955 for a thesis about Clemens Brentano's poetry. Until 1957 he worked as a radio editor in Stuttgart. He participated in several gatherings of Group 47. Between 1965 and 1975 he edited the magazine "Kursbuch". Since 1985 he has been the editor of the prestigious book series Die Andere Bibliothek, published in Frankfurt, and now containing almost 250 titles. Enzensberger is the founder of the monthly TransAtlantik. His own work has been translated into more than 40 languages.

Enzensberger is the older brother of the author Christian Enzensberger.

Work

Enzensberger has a sarcastic, ironic tone in many of his poems. For example, the poem "Middle Class Blues" consists of various typicalities of middle class life, with the phrase "we can't complain" repeated several times, and concludes with "what are we waiting for?". Many of his poems also feature themes of civil unrest over economic and class based issues. Though primarily a poet and essayist, he also makes excursions into theater, film, opera, radio drama, reportage, translation. He has written novels and several books for children (including The Number Devil, an exploration of mathematics) and is co-author of a book for German as a foreign language (Die Suche). He also invented and collaborated in the construction of a machine which automatically composes poems. It was used during the 2006 Football World Cup to commentate on games.

In 2009, Enzensberger received a special Lifetime Recognition Award given by the trustees of the Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry, which also awards the annual Griffin Poetry Prize.

Honours received

• 1963 Georg Büchner Prize
• 1985 Heinrich-Böll-Preis; see also Heinrich Böll
• 1993 Erich-Maria-Remarque-Friedenspreis; see also Erich Maria Remarque
• 1998 Heinrich-Heine-Preis; see also Heinrich Heine
• 2002 Prince of Asturias Communications and Humanities award
• 2009 Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award

Published works

• Verteidigung der Wölfe, Poems, 1957
• Viele schöne Kinderreime, 777 poems for children, 1962
• Einzelheiten, Essays, 1962
• Politik und Verbrechen, Essays, 1964
• Deutschland, Deutschland unter anderm, political commentary, 1967
• Das Verhör von Habana, Prose, 1970
• Constituents of a Theory of the Media, 1970
• Der kurze Sommer der Anarchie. Buenaventura Durrutis Leben und Tod, Prose, 1972
• Gespräche mit Marx und Engels, 1970
• Palaver. Politische Überlegungen, Essays, 1974
• Mausoleum. 37 Balladen aus der Geschichte des Fortschritts, Poems, 1975
• Polit. Brosamen, Essays, 1982
• Ach, Europa! Wahrnehmungen aus sieben Ländern, Prose, 1987
• Mittelmass und Wahn, Essays, 1989
• Zukunftsmusik, Poems, 1991
• Die Tochter der Luft, Drama, 1992
• Die Große Wanderung, Essays, 1992
• Zickzack, Aufsätze, 1997
• The Math Devil, Novel, 1997
• Wo warst du, Robert?, Novel, 1998
• Leichter als Luft: Moralische Gedichte, Poems, 1999
• Schreckens Maenner: Versuch ueber den radikalen Verlierer (5th ed.), Essay, 2006
• Einzelheiten I & II, Essays, 2006
• Gedichte 1950-2005, Poems, 2006
• Im Irrgarten der Intelligenz / Ein Idiotenführer, Essay, 2007
• Hammerstein oder der Eigensinn, Biography, 2008

Bibliography (English)

• Where Were You, Robert? also known as Lost in Time, 2000
• Lighter Than Air: Moral Poems, 2000
• Selected Poems, 1999
• The Number Devil, 1997
• Zig Zag: The Politics of Culture and Vice Versa, 1997
• Civil War, 1994
• Civil Wars: From L.A. to Bosnia, 1994
• Selected Poems, 1994
• Mediocrity and Delusion: Collected Diversions, 1992
• Political Crumbs, 1990
• Der Untergang der Titanic (The Sinking of the Titanic), Versepos, 1978
• Europe, Europe: Forays Into a Continent, 1989
• Dreamers of the Absolute: Essays On: Politics, Crime and Culture, 1988
• Critical Essays, 1982
• The Sinking of the Titanic: A Poem, 1980
• Raids and Reconstructions: Essays on Politics, Crime, and Culture, 1976
• Mausoleum: Thirty-Seven Ballads from the History of Progress, 1976
• The Havana Inquiry, 1974
• The Consciousness Industry: On Literature, Politics and the Media, 1974
• Politics and Crime, 1974

Articles

• “Tour of the City”. Telos 29 (Fall 1976). New York: Telos Press.

External links

• In conversation with Charles Simic December 11, 2002
• The radical loser: English translation of an article originally appearing in Der Spiegel on November 7, 2005.
• Enzensberger at PEN American Center Participated in the 2006 PEN World Voices Conference in NYC
• Poesieautomat (Poetry-Machine) realized by Christian Bauer, 2006
• Griffin Poetry Prize Lifetime Recognition Award profile (including audio and video of tribute and acceptance speech)

v • d • e Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Laureates Robert Rozhdestvensky (1966) · Bulat Okudzhava (1967) · László Nagy (1968) · Mak Dizdar (1969) · Miodrag Pavlović (1970) · Wystan Hugh Auden (1971) · Pablo Neruda (1972) · Eugenio Montale (1973) · Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca (1974) · Léopold Sédar Senghor (1975) · Eugène Guillevic (1976) · Artur Lundkvist (1977) · Rafael Alberti (1978) · Miroslav Krleža (1979) · Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1980) · Blaže Koneski (1981) · Nichita Stănescu (1982) · Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Ajneya' (1983) · Andrey Voznesensky (1984) · Yiannis Ritsos (1985) · Allen Ginsberg (1986) · Tadeusz Różewicz (1987) · Desanka Maksimović (1988) · Thomas W. Shapcott (1989) · Justo Jorge Padrón (1990) · Joseph Brodsky (1991) · Ferenc Juhász (1992) · Gennadiy Aygi (1993) · Ted Hughes (1994) · Yehuda Amichai (1995) · Makoto Ooka (1996) · Adunis (1997) · Lu Yuan (1998) · Yves Bonnefoy (1999) · Edoardo Sanguineti (2000) · Seamus Heaney (2001) · Slavko Mihalić (2002) · Tomas Tranströmer (2003) · Vasco Graça Moura (2004) · William S. Merwin (2005) · Nancy Morejón (2006) · Mahmoud Darwish (2007) · Fatos Arapi (2008) · Tomaž Šalamun (2009)

Persondata
NAME	Enzensberger, Hans Magnus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Thalmayr, Andreas
SHORT DESCRIPTION	German writer
DATE OF BIRTH	11 November 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kaufbeuren
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

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