Download - Berlin Verlage Foreign Rights 2010
2010FOREIGN RIGHTS
Berlin Verlag
Bloomsbury Berlin
Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag
Wolfdietrich Schnurre, born in Frankfurt am Main in 1920, was an involuntary
soldier for six and a half years. He began writing upon his r eturn to Berlin in
1945.
Along with Hans Werner Richter and Alfr ed Andersch, Schnurr e was a co-
founder of the legendar y Gruppe 47, with his short stor y Das Begräbnis (The
Burial) read at the opening meeting. Over the years, writers such as Heinrich
Böll, Günter Grass and Ingeborg Bachmann joined the literary group. Like many
of his contemporaries, Schnurr e was a thor oughly political writer, drawing
attention to injustices and pr otesting – be it against the construction of the
Berlin Wall or in support of the student movement.
Wolfdietrich Schnurre was awarded numerous prizes, including the Federal
Cross of Merit, the Cologne Literature Prize and the highly pr estigious Georg
Büchner Prize. He died in Kiel in 1989.
Wolfdietrich SchnurreA LifeA picture story with tasks to solve58 pages
‘How many German writers are there actually, whose careerbegan after 1945 and to whom one can attest originality andformat? Perhaps only five? Wolfdietrich Schnurre is one of thesmall number of writers that stand up to them.’ MARCEL REICH-RANICKI
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‘The Shadow Photographer is a hundred books in one. A library. A miracle.’ WELT AM SONNTAG
This book reads like a diar y, one of the quality of Max Frisch’s jour nals. It
opens with a date (August 1976) and closes with a date (10 Januar y 1977),
and features the obligator y autobiographical element: Schnurr e’s childhood
with his father, the war, sickness, pain and death, but also happiness. About
family, reading, knowing and writing. Yet this book is much more than that.
Schnurre depicts an entire human memory in short notes from everyday life
and brilliant aphorisms, through quotes and drafts for novels, through
fictitious letters and poems. And Schnurr e’s memor y is a testament to
intellectual agility, a convolute of mental wealth and abundance. The focus of
this, his most personal book, is on Schnurr e himself, as a man, a father , a
partner, a son and a writer – generating a closeness rarely found in literature,
yet remaining absolutely discreet.
Wolfdietrich SchnurreThe Shadow Photographer
NovelWith a foreword by Wilhelm Genazino
532 pages
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Wolfdietrich SchnurreSpark in the Brushwood
Short stories from 1945 to 1965400 pages
Wolfdietrich Schnurre’s short stories are among the classics of the twentieth century
Wolfdietrich Schnurre was one of the first writers to bring the American short
story in the tradition of Poe, Hemingway and Faulkner to Germany , and he
instantly became a master of the short form. His stories focus on ‘people as
they are: maltreated, oppressed, guilt-laden, persecuted and accursed.’ They
form a brotherhood with society’s weak, insignificant and marginal characters,
the war still ever-present between the lines. Schnurre writes about society from
a moral standpoint and yet from its centre, accusing and criticising in everyday
jargon and awakening our sympathies.
This volume collects Wolfdietrich Schnurre’s short stories written from 1945,
in the immediate post-war years when he achieved a pr ominence similar to
that of Heinrich Böll with Das Begräbnis or Man sollte dagegen sein, to 1965,
the time of Funke im Reisig, probably his best-known stories today. Every one
of them confirms his reputation as one of Germany’s most important post-war
writers.
‘There is little to match Schnurre’s stories in recent German literature.’
NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG
Wolfdietrich SchnurreWhen my Father cut offhis BeardFather and son stories
Wolfdietrich SchnurreMy Father’s Red BeardFather and son stories
Wolfdietrich SchnurreSomething like HappinessShort Stories
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Ingo SchulzeOranges and AngelsItalian sketches190 pagesWith 48 colour photographs by Matthias HochPublished in May 2010Sold to: Italy, Netherlands
In 2007, Ingo Schulze moved into the Villa Massimo in Rome with his family
for a year. Yet he cannot wax lyrical on temples, churches, frescos and paint-
ings without catching sight of illegal immigrants, prostitutes and tourists. Set
before a backdrop of mythical landscapes and ancient ruins, the everyday
ordinary-extraordinary experiences Ingo Schulze describes in these stories
take on an aspect of the exemplary – and yet remain vague and ambivalent.
The present day becomes permeable for the layers of the past upon which we
walk. These links are so expertly forged that the AS Roma shorts will remain
as firmly in our memory as an octopus that falls in love with the narrator, a
Romanian odd-jobber outside a supermarket or Signor Candy Man, who
fights against oblivion and once went East for the love of a woman.
Matthias Hoch’s photos are also Italian sketches. Another guest at the V illa
Massimo in 2005, his eye for Italy is precise and surprising. The images and
texts come together to create a dialogue of austere poetry.
Ingo Schulze was born in Dresden in 1962 and studied Classics in Jena. He has
lived in Berlin since 1993. His books have won numerous awards and are trans-
lated into more than thirty languages.
Matthias Hoch was born in Radebeul near Dresden in 1958 and lives in Leipzig.
After studying photography at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts (HGB), he
became a master-class student there. His work has featured in numerous solo
and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad.
New short stories by Ingo Schulze – a dedication to Italy!F
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Ingo SchulzeAdam and EvelynNovel. 314 pages. Sold to: Sweden, Italy,Brazil, France, Finland,Netherlands, Hungary,Czech Rep., Spain,Catalan, Denmark, USA,Korea, Macedonia,Lithuania, Greece, Ice-land, Turkey, Albania,Arabic, Bulgaria, Russia,Romania, Slovenia, Vietnam
Ingo SchulzeCell Phone Thirteen Stories in the Old StyleShort Stories280 pages.Sold to: USA, Italy, Spain,Sweden, Netherlands,Czech Republic, Poland,Hungaria, Korea, Bulgaria, France, Greece,Norway, Romania, Serbia,Slowenia, Marcedonia,Brazil, Portugal
Ingo SchulzeWhat do we want?Essays256 pages. October 2009
Ingo SchulzeSimple Storys304 pages.Sold to: USA, UK,France, Swe den, Denmark, Finland,Norway, Iceland, Estonia, Nether lands,Turkey, Italy, Greece, Spain, Hungary, Russia,Czech Republic, Brazil,Latvia, Egypt, Korea,Croatia, Ukraine, Romania, China
Ingo Schulze33 Moments of HappinessNovel272 pages.Sold to: USA, UK,France, Israel, Russia, Estonia,Nether lands, Turkey,Italy, Greece, Spain,Hungary, Poland,Croatia, Bulgaria,Korea, Romania
Ingo SchulzeNew LivesNovel794 pages. Sold to: USA, France, Italy, Nether lands,Spain, Greece, Catalonia, Slovac Republic, Korea, Sweden, Hungaria,Brazil
‘The best insights are the things we find unexpectedly.’HENNING RITTER
Elisabeth PlessenIda
Novel352 pages
Published in August 2010
Henning RitterNotebooks426 pages
Published in September 2010
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‘There is only one thing I can do: pay for my mistakes.’
A timeless love story set before the backdrop of the student movement and
its liberation from authoritarian structures: Oskar Marwig, a respected archi-
tect, falls in love with the student Ida. She finds his maturity and confidence
attractive, yet at the same time she knows she will one day have to leave him
for that very reason. Oskar senses that too, intensifying his possessiveness all
the more. The r elationship is too much for both of them, r endering them
weak and sick. Ida’s only option is to take a radical step.
With great elegance, Elisabeth Plessen tells a story about the 1970s and the
end of politicisation, discovering for us a language that seems both sober and
rich. Ida is a tale of emancipation, one that faces up to the irrationalities of
relationships. And it is a novel about ar chitecture, which Elisabeth Plessen
captures in space and transforms into literature.
Elisabeth Plessen has published five novels, three short story collections and
a book of poetry, and translated numerous plays into German, notably Shake-
speare’s dramas. Her books include Mitteilung an den Adel (1976), Kohlhaas
(1979) and Das Kavalierhaus (2004). She recently edited the memoirs of her
long-term partner, the theatre director Peter Zadek, Die Wanderjahre.
Henning Ritter’s Notebooks follow a longstanding literary tradition, from the
French Moralists to Paul Valéry’s Cahiers.
What interests the author most is the intellectual competition between the
epochs and traditions, the unsolved tasks of the past and the lessons they
hold. The r esult is a conversation between the most independent thinkers
from the Enlightenment to the present day, from Montaigne to Nietzsche and
Darwin, from Büchner to Canet to, Jünger and many mor e – with r ecurring
motifs and themes, such as the role of pity and memory in today’s society or
the competition between politics and culture in German history.
The notes range between the laconic briefness of the aphorism and the short
essay; they are unplanned, jotted down in a notebook that was always at
hand: – ‘mental building blocks that must be turned over and over’ (Goethe).
Henning Ritter, born 1943, was responsible for the humanities section at the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 1985 to 2008. Numerous publications,
including as the editor of the German editions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s
collected writings and Montesquieu’s Mes Pensées. He was awar ded an
honorary doctorate by the University of Hamburg in the year 2000 and holds
the Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge Prize and the Ludwig Börne Prize.
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Péter EsterházyA Production Novel(Two Production Novels)NovelApprox. 512 pagesPublished in October 2010The original edition was published in 1979 under the titleTermelési-regény (kisssregény) by Magvetó, BudapestSold to France, Russia
Péter Esterházy’s first novel caused a huge sensation upon its publication in
Hungary in 1979, becoming a cult hit.
A novel in two parts. Part I is a magnificent parody of a ‘production novel’ –
the genre in which the writers of the communist hemisphere were expected
to ‘reflect’ working-class life according to the doctrine of socialist realism.
Esterházy portrays the work routine in a mathematical institute, the comedy
of errors of the computing engineer Imre and his comrade Director-General
Gregory Peck, both under the spell of the blonde secretary Marilyn Monroe.
But any production promised in the title is swamped by a flood of paperwork
prompted by a gr otesque slapstick search for a lost study . This part of the
novel is dotted with poems, folk songs and parliamentary speeches.
Part II is entitled ‘E’s Notes’. The chr onicler Peter Eckermann (or Péter
Esterházy?) reports full of admiration and respect, yet with great enjoyment,
on the conditions under which Part I was written by the ‘master’ (Goethe?
Péter Esterházy?), on his private life, his deportation, his career as a footballer
and a father, his start as a writer – in scenes of merciless quotidian banality.
This is in fact a ‘production novel’ in the Esterházian sense, a novel about the
production of a novel and an incr edible affront in times of the dominant
’reflection theory’, the birth of modernism in Hungarian literature.
Péter Esterházy was born in 1950 into a family belonging to Hungary's oldest
aristocratic dynasties. He studied mathematics at the University of Budapest's
department of Natural Sciences, and began his career as a writer in 1978. He is
a member of the German Acadamy for Lang uage and Literature, and lives in
Bu dapest with his family.
2004 Grinzane Cavour Prize for European Literature
2004 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
2002 Herder Prize
2001 Sándor Márai Prize
2001 Hungarian Literature Prize
1999 Austrian National Prize
1996 Kossuth Prize
1993 Premio Opera di Poesia
1986 József Attila Prize
‘Grey, my dear friend, is all theory; but the cover! The cover is asviolet as a bishop!’
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Péter EsterházyCorrected EditionNovel372 pagesSold to: Italy, France,Netherlands, Spain,Croatia, Denmark,Serbia, Slovakia, Romania, Poland
Péter EsterházyCelestial HarmoniesNovel922 pagesSold to: Sweden,Italy, Brazil, France,Netherlands, Spain,Croatia, Denmark,USA, Korea, Greece,Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Romania,Slovenia, Norway,Poland
Péter EsterházyNo Great Art Novel240 pagesFebruary 2009Sold to: Slovakia, Romania, USA,Poland, Sweden,Spain, Croatia,Italy, France, Turkey, Netherlands
Strange Birds Fly Past
Nina JäckleSevillaNovel
180 pagesPublished in March 2010
Keto von WabererStrange Birds Fly Past
Approx. 180 pages March 2011
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'Nina Jäckle is a true discovery!' LITERATUREN
She has left her name, her country, her city and her language behind her, and
the new city is Sevilla. She has plenty of money, yet she does not start a new
life. She i s waiting – for her l over, her accomplice, who has sent her a head
with the stolen money. But with every day that passes without a message from
him, the waiting gradually transforms into a life on her own. Almost
unnoticed, the unfamiliar city , the unfamiliar language, br eak into her
vacuum, taking possession of her, changing her until she realises she is no
longer prepared to share the money and her life with him. Her plan is
perfectly logical: no one will miss a man on the run…
With her characteristic pr ecision and musicality, Nina Jäckle writes about
forgetting and disappearing into another language, about the uncontrollable
dynamics of life itself.
Nina Jäckle was born in the Black Forest in 1966. She has received numerous
literary awards and grants, inc luding the Hamburg Literary Prize for young
writers, the Karlsruhe radio play award, and working grants from the German
Literature Fund, the Land Baden-Württemberg and the Heinrich Heine Fund.
She has published several books with Berlin Verlag: Es gibt solche (2000), Noll
(2004) and Gleich nebenan (2006).
In her new book, Keto von Waberer writes about childhood, her own child-
hood – a brief text so vivid and dense, so upright and precise that it conjures
up an entire cosmos, full of secrets and strange birds. We discover the world
of the 1950s and 60s through the eyes of an extremely watchful girl hungry
for life and love. She ha s a passionate heart for many indiv iduals, above all
her handsome, distant father a nd as a counterpoint her c lever, melancholy
mother. Then there are Herr Semmlacher with the wooden hand who catches
the voles in the gar den, Grandmother Rosa Auristella fr om Bolivia and Ida
Leis, the washerwoman with hands like two boiled animals. There is little
that goes unnoticed for this child, especially the things adults try to hide from
her, and she eventually discovers just how rebellious she can be. In her very
own language, Keto von W aberer grants us insights into a world rich in
wonders, a world of an unusual childhood. Seltsame Vögel fliegen vorbei is a
rare gift to readers.
Keto von Waberer studied in Munich and Mexico, and has worked as an
architect, translator, journalist and writer. She taught creative writing at the
University of Television and Film, Munich, from 1998 onwards. The award-
winning writer is now a freelance author and lives in Munich.
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Daniela DröscherGloriaShort stories208 pages. HardcoverPublished in September 2010
Overstepping boundaries is an imperative of our times, an imperative of art.
But what does it actually mean? Daniela Dröscher sends her characters far
away from the familiar trodden paths of everyday life. And the people change
there, even if they hadn’t been expecting to.
These stories have their very own wit and dark depths, impossible to resist.
They combine the appar ently incompatible entities of poetr y and politics.
They dissect the lies upon which lives are built, so sharply that they reveal
the entire ridiculousness of our own existences. Our own shame, paranoia or
carelessness cheats us out of what we might call happiness or simply the
perfect moment.
Daniela Dröscher, born in Munich in 1977, studied German and English
literature and philosophy. She received the Essay Prize of the Young Academy
Berlin in 2005 and the Schiller Essay Prize of the City of Weimar. Her debut
novel Die Lichter des George Psalmanazar was published in 2009, winning her
the A nna S eghers P rize. Gloria has been awar ded the Martha Saalfeld
Emerging Writers’ Prize and the Georg K. Glaser Emerging Writers’ Prize.
‘A language that is poetic yet never hermetic.’ SWR
‘Let us climb in our dr eams, since the hobnails in our boots keep us her e
below!’ (Flaubert) This is the motto of a beautiful young woman who lives a
life against the current with her witty and elegant aunt and travels to India,
determined to find beauty and meaning in life and to follow the spirit of
laughter.
‘But what man could entertain me in the evening after I’ve spent the afternoon
with Herodotus?’ wonders the young woman as she browses through marriage
advertisements, only to follow her clever aunt’s example and plunge herself
all the more devotedly into world literature and gardening. There is no Prince
Charming to release her from her secluded life on an estate in the South of
France – but an invitation to Ind ia arrives from friends of her aunt, a Sik h
clan with fairytale riches, their sights set on the climax of their grandly indo-
lent existence, the oldest son’s marriage.
In delightfully refreshing language, Anna Katharina Fröhlich tells a story of
the pursuit of happiness.
Anna Katharina Fröhlich, born in Bad Hersfeld in 1971, grew up in Frankfurt
and Munich and now lives on La ke Garda. Her debut n ovel Wilde Orangen
was published in 2004.
‘What a crying shame you’re not going to India! What a cryingshame you’re withering away here like an old apple!’
Anna Katharina FröhlichKream KornerNovel160 pages. HardcoverPublished in September 2010
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Looking back without anger: Rada Biller marvels at her20th century
Werner SonneTo the Future Turned, We Stand
NovelApprox. 300 pages
Published in September 2010
Rada BillerMy Seven Names and I
Short StoriesPublished in March 2011
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A moving story of persecution, power and love
Having survived Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1945, Klaus Weinert
cannot imagine being locked up there again only a year later. His world seems
to fall apart for good, his love for the half-Jewess Rebecca seems destined to
remain unfulfilled.
Although many Communists had suf fered fr om their imprisonment in
Sachsenhausen, they arrest the young Social Democrat Weinert, branding him
a ‘deviationist’ for refusing to support the forced unification of the KPD and
SPD. Rebecca returns to her former home in Pol and to search for surviving
relatives, only to be gr eeted by brutal anti-Semitism that for ces her to flee
back to Germany. Deeply traumatised, the two of them see no future ahead
of them – and yet their love gets a new chance in this dramatic stor y of
betrayal and violence.
Werner Sonne, born in Rhineland-Palatinate in 1947, has worked in German
television for more than forty years. He has been the head of the Berlin studio
for the ARD morning magazine show since 2004. His most recent book was
Wenn ich dich vergesse, Jerusalem (2008).
Rada Biller’s stories resound with a deep sense of humanism, revealing a true
European cosmopolitan. She r ecalls how even small childr en fell victim to
anti-Semitism, how the Nazis’ obsessions extended even to beloved pets. Or
how easy it was to beat the faceless bur eaucracy at its own game and slip
through the Iron Curtain, how Jewish life has re-conquered a place for itself
in post-war Germany.
Escape, the family and identity ar e the constellation ar ound which these
seventeen humorous, melancholy and personal stories revolve. Yet Rada Biller
is never concerned with making accusations, with venting anger – what
interests her is finding herself, and the art of forgiveness.
Rada Biller was born in Baku in 1930. Her family moved to Moscow in 1937,
spending the war years in Bashkiria and Stalingrad. After World War II, she
studied geography in Moscow and moved to Prague during the 1950s.
Following the brutal ending of the Prague Spring, she and her family emi-
grated to Hamburg in 1970, where she wrote prose sketches and short stories
in her native Russian. Her first novel Melonenschale was published in 2003.
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Matthias GöritzThe Short Dream of Jacob VossNovel192 pages
Nina JäckleNext DoorNovel126 pages
Nina JäckleNollNovel194 pagesSold to: France
Elfriede JelinekDeath and the Maiden I-VPrincess’s dramas240 pages.Sold to: France, Sweden, Netherlands, Slovenia, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia,China, Japan, Greece, Spain
Bernadette CalonegoUnder Dark WatersNovel284 pagesSold to: Netherlands
Daniela DröscherThe Lights of GeorgePsalmanazarNovel364 pages
Hans Graf von der GoltzKrasnitz’ DecisionNovel178 pages
Patricia GörgLucky SplitsNovel108 pages
Katrin AskanOut of the WoodsNovel198 pagesSold to: Denmark, Italy
Rada BillerLina and the OthersNovelOriginally written in Russian320 pages
Marcus BraunWedding PreparationsNovel234 pagesSold to: Greece, Czech Republic
Jan Peter BremerPalacesThree Short Novels235 pages
Viktor JerofejewThe Good Stalin364 pages.Sold to: Croatia, Estonia, Finland,France, Greece, Hungary, Italy,Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland,Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia
Patricia GörgMeier with a YA year book172 pages
Jan Peter BremerStill LifeShort Novel88 pages
Fiction Backlist
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Fridolin SchleyWild, Beautiful AnimalShort Stories140 pages
Elke SchmitterMrs. SartorisNovel160 pagesSold to: 17 countries
Elke SchmitterVera’s DaughterNovel176 pages
Keto von Waberer,SisterNovel166 pagesSold to: France, Lithuania,Netherlands
Gila LustigerMr Grinberg & Co.A story about happinessIllustrated by Vitali Konstantinov186 pagesSold to: Korea
Grit PoppeExtraordinary CircumstancesNovel 302 pagesSold to: Turkey
Mirjam PresslerPoison of RosesNovel250 pagesSold to: France, Italy, Netherlands, Romania
Leif RandtHouse of LightsNovel236 pages
Thomas KluppParadisoNovel160 pagesSold to: Lithuania, BulgariaFilm Rights soldSample Translation availablewww.paradiso.berlinverlage.de
Wolfgang KohlhaaseNew Year’s Eve with BalzacStories218 pages
Björn Kuhligk / Jan WagnerThe Forest at HomeTravels through the Harzregion176 pages
Moritz Wulf LangeLittle Aster.Dallinger's First CaseDetective Story264 pages
Keto von WabererEmbracesShort Stories194 pages
Nikola RichterEnding it on an IslandShort Stories144 pages
Moritz Wulf LangeCold Abyss. Dallinger’s Second CaseDetective Story260 pages
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Elke SchmitterNo Spaniel64 pagesAugust 2005
Tom SchulzCanon of Disappearing112 pagesSeptember 2009
Ron WinklerFragmented Waters96 pagesFebruary 2007
Ron WinklerFrenetical Silence96 pagesFebruary 2010
Björn KuhligkOn the Surface of the Earth86 pagesMarch 2009
Björn KuhligkBig Picture76 pagesFebruary 2005
Björn KuhligkIn the End the Tourists Come112 pagesFebruary 2002
Gerhard FalknerHölderlin Repair96 pagesNovember 2008
Jan WagnerAustralia96 pagesAugust 2010
Jan WagnerEighteen Pies96 pagesAugust 2007
Jan WagnerGuericke's Sparrow83 pagesFebruary 2004
Jan WagnerTest Drilling in the Sky80 pagesFebruary 2001
Consistently Contemporary and Ruthlessly Poetic!
The QUELLE-Story – A key chapter of 20th century economichistory in Germany
For decades, it was an institution in millions of German households: the Quelle
catalogue. Not only was it a medium that created a particularly close connec-
tion between the company and its customers; more importantly, the range of
products it presented also had a decisive influence on public taste and everyday
culture in the land of the economic miracle.
Gregor Schöllgen presents the first compr ehensive biography of the Quelle
founder Gustav Schickedanz. On the basis of previously unavailable sources,
he describes the early years of the mail-order company from the 1920s and
the construction of the industrial empir e with which Gustav Schickedanz
created a second foothold for the company in the 1930s. After World War II,
Schickedanz was accused of having pr ofited from ‘Aryanisation’. Although
these accusations eventually pr oved unfounded, Schöllgen skilfully exposes
the grey areas in which business inevitably operates within a dictatorship.
In the post-war period, W est Germany’s economic miracle and the
emerging consumer society meant a time of unprecedented growth for Quelle,
proving a success that could have no future without Gustav Schickedanz’
entrepreneurial genius.
Schöllgen’s richly illustrated biography is partly based on a systematic analysis
of the Schickedanz family papers after the founder’s death, to which the author
was the first historian to have unrestricted access.
Gregor Schöllgen, born 1952, is a professor of modern history at the University
of Erlangen, where he heads the Centre of Applied History (ZAG). He has been
a guest professor in New York, Oxford and London and is the co-editor of the
files of the German foreign office and Willy Brandt’s papers. Professor Schöllgen
has written numerous books on 19th and 20th century history, including the
bestseller Willy Brandt (2001). His most recent publications include Der Eiskönig.
Theo Schöller (2008).
Gregor SchöllgenGustav SchickedanzBiography of a Revolutionary464 pagesPublished in August 2010
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Birgit SchönauCircus ItaliaAn inside report on the entertainmentdemocracyApprox. 250 pagesPublished in February 2011
From a place of desire to a countr y of corruption – Italy has ch anged. The
Arcadian utopia is over, now we turn up our noses. B ut can we still under-
stand the country? And is Italy really now only Berlusconia? In this journey
across Italy, prominent figur es fr om politics and television voice their
opinions, alongside the everyday citizens of a post-democratic state. Be it in
the separatist North or the Mafia-run South, Italy seems to be out of control.
Half circus, half jungle camp, with survival of the fittest as the only rule. Birgit
Schönau meets mayors who think they’ re sheriffs, ministers who burn laws
in public, and footballers who play against their own government. She visits
the new lords and the new slaves on the margin of Europe. She describes a
country between megalomania and catastrophe, whose inhabitants look like
the audience at a circus – but know all too well what they are doing. And the
question that closes the book is: will we soon be living like this too?
Birgit Schönau, born in Westphalia in 1966, studied history and journalism
before moving to Rome in 1992. She has followed every step of Silvio
Berlusconi’s political car eer, r eporting for the Sü ddeutsche Zeitung and
DIE ZEIT.
Bella, Bella Berlusconia!
Christine Brinck describes a childhood in the GDR, a childhood in which she
had to f ace the snares o f denunciation a t an early age. She g rants u s an
unusual and very personal insight into the first ten years of the East German
regime, into a childhood before the Berlin Wall.
With a sharp eye free from self-pity, Brinck explains how people c ope with
threatening situations without losing their sense of humour and energy, and
how people come to terms with life between rebellion and withdrawal.
The second part of the book presents very different voices, all linked by their
desire for freedom, frustration over the dic tatorship and finally escape from
the GDR. A tennis ace who longs to face the int ernational competition, a
philosophy student for whom the truth is more important than the party, and
a Swiss girl who gets caught up in the bureaucratic wheels of a dictatorship.
In a calm tone but with a sharp eye, this b ook is a document of almost for-
gotten times – enlightenment in the best sense of the word.
Christine Brinck grew up in East Germany. Her family escaped to the West,
where she studied English literatur e, linguistics and comparative higher
education research. She is now a fr eelance journalist writing for DIE ZEIT ,
the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
‘Calm, subtle, touching – these are the words that best describeChristine Brinck’s wonderful book.’ LOUIS BEGLEY
Christine BrinckA Childhood in Pre-Wall Times192 pagesPublished in October 2010
BIRGITSCHÖNAU
Circus Italia
The Poison of Globalization
What implications does globalization have for the way Old Europe sees itself?
It’s absolute poison! Instead of colonising the entire globe with our own values
as Europe once hoped, twenty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain we’re now
facing a multi-polar world with no unifying structur e. We are forced to deal
with other cultur es and c ontinents on eye le vel, even having to openly
acknowledge their militar y and economic superiority. That wasn’t the plan!
We’re not used to this! Where will it all end? After all, it’s us who are the good
guys! T he tr ue b elievers! T he b eautiful p eople! P articularly t he d ogged
perseverance with which the EU clings to its vision of Europe as a continent
leading global politics can only be described as pathological – to be precise,
as the reaction of an of fended narcissist. In his essay, the philosopher and
writer Wolfram Eilenberger sets out a clear and sharp-tongued critique of the
fatal defence strategies at the heart of our culture.
Wolfram Eilenberger, a doctor of philosophy, is a corr espondent to Cicero
magazine, a columnist for the Berlin Tagesspiegel and a freelance writer. Berlin
Verlag has published various books, including Philosophie für alle, die noch etwas
vorhaben (2005) and Kleine Menschen, große Fragen (2009). W olfram
Eilenberger lives in Berlin und T oronto, where he teaches philosophy at the
University of Toronto.
Wolfram EilenbergerThe Poison of Globalization
Approx. 160 pagesPublished in March 2011
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Susanne KippenbergerKippenberger.
The Artist and his Families576 pages
80 b/w IllustrationsFebruary 2007
Sold to: USA
‘One of the best art books in a long time.’ TAGESSPIEGEL
A touching book r emembering Mart in Kippenberger, the bad boy of the
German art world who died young and infamous for his artistic iconoclasm
and provocative life, told through the eyes of his sister.
As an artist and a person, Martin Kippenberger always sought out extremes.
In her biographical portrait, Susanne Kippenberger portrays her brother as
those close to him knew him. She looks beyond the performances of an artist
who always wanted to control his fame and the impression he made on the
world. She describes the iconoclast and the family man, the self-made man
and the provocateur, who feared nothing a s much a s boredom and hated
nothing as much as routine - but still needed rituals. Who was addicted to
drugs, alcohol, recognition and love, and worked himself to death for his art.
Whose longing for new places and projects was as great as that for a home,
for families and ersatz families. An enfant terrible for whom childhood never
ended.
Susanne Kippenberger, born in Dortmund in 1957, is an editor for the Berlin
newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.
WOLFRAMEILENBERGER
Das Gift der Globalisierung
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Eva Gritzmann / Denis ScheckHER & HIM – How Men and WomenEat and Drink Differently Approx. 200 pagesPublished February 2011
A culinary gender study – delicious from the first page to the last.
Studies have found that men and women taste, cook and or der food
differently. Eva Gritzmann and Den is Scheck set out on an inf ormative and
enjoyable tour of culinar y culture, talking to lady vintners about women’s
wine, asking female butchers what they put in their sausages, and finding out
from the bestselling writer Jan Weiler what a ‘stupid salad’ is. Michelin-starred
chefs, brain scientists and flavour researchers talk about how men and women
eat and drink dif ferently. Undertaking daring experiments and looking at
literature and medicine, the authors investigate key questions such as: Is meat
vegetables for men? Why did the snake tempt Eve with fresh fruit? Why is
mum’s h ome-cooking a lways m en’s f avourite? They s erve u p i nformed,
delicious and original answers, full of al dente wit for all lovers of the culinary
and the cultural.
Dr. Eva Gritzmann trained as a bank clerk before studying medicine. She is
now a doctor and lives in Stuttgart.
Denis Scheck is one of Germany’s best-known literar y critics and a self-
acclaimed gourmet. He lives in Cologne.
Why men eat meat and women like salad
Nobody has been more successful than Julia Knolle and Jessica Weiss with
their fashion blog Les Mads, short for ‘Les Mademoiselles’. Les Mads are
constantly on the r oad, in Milan, Paris, London and Stockholm, New Y ork
and of course Berlin. They attend fashion shows, browse through lookbooks,
keep an eye on street trends and visit the most gorgeous vintage stores.
In this book, Julia and Jessica write about their experiences before and behind
the scenes of the fashion world. And of course they t ell us what they them-
selves wear and don’t wear. An educational and entertaining look at fashion
and glamour today – with plenty of addresses and tips.
Julia Knolle, born in Düsseldorf in 1982, studied business administration in
Cologne. To distract herself from her studies, she spent her nights on fashion
sites and forums on the internet, until she met Jessica Weiss through friends
and the two of them started their own blog. A white T-shirt has been a basic
feature in her wardrobe for years, a beloved favourite alongside other classics.
Jessica Weiss, born in Essen in 1986, studied marketing communication in
Cologne. Platform shoes, black asymmetry or vintage finds – Jessie’s favourites
always play a role in her posts about outfits that she writes on an almost daily
basis for Les Mads.
The book of the season – on location with the fashion bloggersLes Mads
Julia Knolle/Jessica WeissFashion Story. On location with Les MadsWith illustrations by Silke WerzingerApprox. 176 pagesPublished in January 2011
Yoga is relaxation? Only for hippies?Think again
Manuel AndrackThe New Hiking
On the road in pursuit of happiness250 pages
Published in January 2011
Kristin RübesamenEveryone Is Illuminated
Confessions of a yoga teacher256 pages
Published in September 2010
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All about the joyous adventure of hiking
Ever since Manuel Andrack started e xplaining the phenomenon of ‘new
hiking’ in his successful books, Germany’s forests and mountains have been
overrun by hip young things. But what is actually the perfect hike? The path
that stimulates all our senses and keeps us fit and healthy? A delightful view
of the countryside, or a great pub at the end of the road? Hiking is not a box
of chocolates – promenadologists have researched it as thoroughly as others
investigate the genome. Doctors highly recommend it, as long as you go easy
on it. But not ever yone sticks to the appr oved dose – some extr eme hikers
walk up to 75 kilometr es in 24 hours. W ith this one exception, however ,
Manuel Andrack has stuck to well-trodden paths, always in pursuit of the joy
of the perfect hike. In this book he tells us how to find that happiness.
Manuel Andrack was born in Cologne in 1965. He was chief editor for the
hugely successful German comedy show Harald Schmidt Show, winning the
German Television Award in 2001 and 2003. He has been publishing books
on the subjects of hiking, punk rock and genealogy since 2004. He writes for
various newspapers and magazines, including DIE ZEIT and Stern, and works
as a radio writer and presenter.
High blood pressure, depression, impotence – moder n yoga is said to help
with everything. But modesty and closeness to God? Doesn’t it make the
nervous more sensitive, the cr estfallen more self-pitying, the gentle feeble-
minded and the aggr essive unbearable? Materialists ar e the gr eatest body
fetishists, even in yoga. Has the W est ruined yoga? Can yoga even save the
exhausted self, as the sociologists call it, at all? Or does it lead to a silent
revolution after all?
Kristin Rübesamen tells of her jour ney from New York to Berlin’s down-at-
heel district of Wedding and why she took up yoga at the studio around the
corner. We get to know her teachers and h er own teaching experience. She
takes us all around the world, only to end up back at the secret of the down-
ward-looking dog – concisely, in amazement and with great respect.
Kristin Rübesamen, born in Munich, studied German and Russian literature
and went on to work in te levision. Following a decade in New Y ork and
London, she now lives in Berlin with her husband and two daughters. She
writes for the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Frankfurter A llgemeine
Sonntagszeitung and has published two novels. Her most recent publication,
with Angelika Taschen, is Great Yoga Retreats. She teaches yoga in Berlin and
around the world.
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Matthias Kalle/Tanja Stelzer (eds.)Should Daddy Smoke on the See-Saw? Anunprofessional parenting bookFeaturing Harald Martenstein, Jana Hen-sel, Susanne Gaschke, Ulrich Greiner andothersApprox. 200 pagesPublished in October 2010
Parenting is a moral and educational minefield. Never have parents been as
unsure as now – in our times of bilingual pre-schools and peer pressure from
super-parents and model childr en. So the editors Matthias Kalle and T anja
Stelzer set out to pose 150 questi ons to their fellow writers w ith parenting
experience: about daddy smoking at the playground, babies at parties,
Nintendos in the nursery, about cheating, swearing and obedience in family
life. The answers are as varied as the writers themselves – some witty, some
serious, but all of them intelligent and touchingly honest. This book is no
dogmatic behaviour bible; it’s a colourful, ente rtaining kaleidoscope of
modern parenting experiences and a plea to give up striving for perfection.
Matthias Kalle, born 1975, writes for ZEITma gazin. He is marrie d with a
daughter.
Tanja Stelzer, born 1970, has written for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,
SZ-Magazin and the T agesspiegel and is now chief text editor for ZEIT -
magazin. She lives in Hamburg with her husband, son and daughter.
An up-to-date guidance for modern parents - intelligent, cleverand with a sense of humour
We’ve all been ther e – bought things bec ause they’re so seductively low in
price, but in the end are such poor quality that you can hardly use them. Got
annoyed because they instantly fall apart, break or tear. Because they’re itchy,
smelly, tight or don’t taste good. Enough is enough: Put Your Money Where
Your Mouth Is reveals the secr ets of why cheap batteries ar e so cheap, what
makes a good bakery, and provides invaluable orienta tion in the consumer
jungle: How can I find a pencil that won’t break? A pen that won’t smudge?
Or a tin-opener that won’t go on strike after the fifth ser ving of dog food?
With wit and insight, the r eformed bargain-hunter Jens Schäfer shar es an
enjoyable mixtur e of informed shopping advice, astounding pr oduct
knowledge and empathetic reports on experiences of everyday consumer
insanity.
Jens Schäfer bought his first tin-opener at the age of twenty – his second one
came three days and ten cans later. Born in Löffingen in 1968, he grew up in
the Black Forest and the Allgäu. He studied humanities in Freiburg, Vienna
and Berlin. He writes television screenplays and has published two novels
and an instruction manual for the Black Forest. He’s never forgotten that first
tin-opener, and is still using the second one.
This book is worth every penny
Jens SchäferPut Your Money Where Your Mouth IsA handbook for a bargain-free lifeApprox. 160 pages Published in April 2011
JENSSCHÄFER
Gutes kann auchteuer sein
Non-Fiction Backlist
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Ulrich RenzBeauty320 pagesSold to: Spain, Korea
Manuela Runge / BerndLukaschLives of InventionThe Brothers Lilienthal304 pages
Andreas WeberFeeling Life. Nature andthe Revolution of the Life Sciences172 pagesSold to: Korea, Slovenia, Croatia
Andreas WeberOrganic Capital240 pagesSold to: Korea, Netherlands
Susanne KippenbergerAt the TableThe Culinary Bohème orThe Discovery of Lust for Life256 pages. HardcoverWith b/w illustrations
Irina LiebmannBerlin’s Quiet Heart. Around Hackescher Markt112 pagesWith 50 colour photoswww.irina-liebmann.de
Irina LiebmannWould it be nice?It would be nice! 416 pages Sold to: FrancePrize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2008
Wolfram EilenbergerLittle People, Big Questions160 pages
Wolfram EilenbergerPhilosophy for People Whowant to Make it222 pagesSold to: Korea
Barbara HahnHannah ArendtPassions, People and Books176 pages
Viktor JerofejewThe Russian Apocalypse304 pagesSold to: Netherlands
Eva ZüchnerThe Vanished JournalistA Media Career in The ThirdReich288 pages
Michael MaarSolus RexThe Bad and Beautiful World ofVladimir Nabokov208 pagesSold to: Bulgaria, England, USA
Michael KlonovskyThe Pain of BeautyOn Giacomo Puccini288 pages 10 b/w illustrations
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BV Berlin Verlag GmbHGreifswalder Str. 207 D – 10405 BerlinGermany www.berlinverlage.de
Sabine Oswald Foreign Rights [email protected] 0049-30-44 38 45 15Fax 0049-30-44 38 45 95
Anja Mallmann Foreign Rights [email protected] 0049-30-44 38 45 17 Fax 0049-30-44 38 45 95