Hellmuth Karasek (4 January 1934 – 29 September 2015) was a German journalist, literary critic, novelist, and the author of many books on literature and film. He was one of Germany's best-known feuilletonists.[2]

Hellmuth Karasek
Karasek in 2012
Born4 January 1934
Brno, Czechoslovakia
(now Czech Republic)
Died29 September 2015(2015-09-29) (aged 81)
Hamburg, Germany
Occupation(s)Journalist, author
Years active1965–2015
Children4[1]
RelativesThomas Mars (nephew)

Biography

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Karasek was born in the capital city of Moravia, Brno (German: Brünn), which was then a part of Czechoslovakia (current-day Czech Republic). Karasek attended the National Political Institutes of Education in Loben.[3] In 1944, when he was ten, his family fled from Bielitz (today Bielsko in Poland) in the neighbouring German region of Silesia to Bernburg in Saxony-Anhalt.[4] After finishing his schooling in the early 1950s he moved from there—then part of East Germany—to West Germany and became a student at the University of Tübingen, where he studied History, German and English language and literature.[5]

After his graduation, Karasek started working as a journalist, and in 1968 became the theatre critic of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. From 1974 until 1996 he wrote for the news magazine Der Spiegel, where he worked as the chief editor of the feuilleton.[6] After his retirement from The Spiegel he wrote a novel named Das Magazin in which he criticised Der Spiegel. He also worked in later years for newspapers like Die Welt, Bild, Berliner Morgenpost and Der Tagesspiegel. He also wrote more than 20 books about his own life or literature and film, including monographs about Max Frisch, Bertolt Brecht and his close friend Billy Wilder. Other projects included three plays under the nom de plume Daniel Doppler and a translation of Raymond Chandler's The Lady in the Lake. In 1999, he was a member of the jury at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.[7]

Karasek was best known as one of the permanent members of the TV-literature review show Das Literarische Quartett [de], together with literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki, between 1988 and 2001.[5][8] He also frequently appeared on other German television shows, for example in quiz shows like Die 5-Millionen-SKL-Show.[9][10]

Awards

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Bibliography

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Karasek (left) and Jens Rusch in 2006
  • Carl Sternheim (1965)
  • Max Frisch (1966)
  • Deutschland, deine Dichter (1970)
  • Brecht, der jüngste Fall eines Klassikers (1978)
  • Billy Wilder (1992)
  • Mein Kino (a personal list of the 100 best movies ever) (1994)
  • Go West! (about the 1950s) (1996)
  • Hand in Handy (about the mobile phone craze) (1997)
  • Das Magazin (novel, 1998)
  • Betrug (novel, 2001)
  • Karambolagen. Begegnungen mit Zeitgenossen (2002)
  • Auf der Flucht (memoir, 2004)

References

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  1. ^ Rosendorff, Kathrin (22 July 2019). "Laura Karasek – Pippi Langstrumpf und Hildegard Knef in einer Person". Frankfurter Rundschau (in German). Frankfurt. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  2. ^ Hugendick, David (30 September 2015). "Hellmuth Karasek: Der große Schwärmer". Die Zeit (in German). Hamburg. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  3. ^ Fritz, Thomas (5 April 2013). "Napolas im "Dritten Reich": Hitlers brutale Kaderschmieden – DER SPIEGEL – Geschichte". Der Spiegel (in German). Hamburg. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  4. ^ "Hellmuth Karasek: Auf der Flucht. Erinnerungen". www.perlentaucher.de.
  5. ^ a b c "Hellmuth Karasek ist tot: Literaturkritiker und Schriftsteller gestorben – DER SPIEGEL – Kultur". Der Spiegel (in German). Hamburg. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  6. ^ Matussek, Matthias (30 September 2015). "Entschuldige mein Gestammel. Ich vermisse dich". Die Welt (in German). Berlin. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  7. ^ "Berlinale: 1999 Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  8. ^ Lovenberg, Felicitas von (30 September 2015). "Der überschäumende Ausgleicher". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Frankfurt. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  9. ^ Weise, Katja (9 October 2015). "Hellmuth Karasek – mehr Liebhaber als Papst". www.ndr.de (in German).
  10. ^ "Hellmuth Karasek "will nicht als Volldepp enden"". Abendzeitung (in German). Munich. 7 September 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  11. ^ "Preisträger der Jahre 1977 – 1962". bdzv.de. Berlin: Theodor Wolff-Preis, Kuratorium für den Journalistenpreis der deutschen Zeitungen. 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  12. ^ "Preisträger des Bayerischen Fernsehpreises 1989–2016" (PDF). stmwi.bayern.de. Munich: Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft und Medien, Energie und Technologie. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
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