Dörte Hansen (also known as Dörte Hansen-Jaax, born 1964 in

Husum Husum (, ) is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey town by the sea". It is also the home of the annual i ...

, West Germany) is a German

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, journalist and writer.

Life

Hansen grew up in Högel in

Nordfriesland Nordfriesland (; ; Low German: Noordfreesland), also known as North Frisia, is the northernmost Districts of Germany, district of Germany, part of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. It includes almost all of traditional North Frisia (with the e ...

; her family spoke

Low German Low German is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language variety, language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide. "Low" ...

at home. She learned her "first foreign language,"

Standard German Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the umbrella term for the standard language, standardized varieties of the German language, which are used in formal contexts and for commun ...

, in elementary school. After graduating high school (''

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

'') in 1984, she studied

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...

English studies English studies (or simply, English) is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries. This is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which is a dis ...

Romance studies Romance studies or Romance philology (; ; ; ; ; ; ) is an academic discipline that covers the study of the languages, literatures, and cultures of areas that speak Romance languages. Romance studies departments usually include the study of Spa ...

and Frisian studies at the Christian Albrechts University Kiel. In 1994, Hansen received her doctorate at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

with a sociolinguistic thesis on a special form of bilingualism. Hansen is married to documentary filmmaker and has a daughter. From 2005 to 2016, she lived with her family in Steinkirchen, Lower Saxony and now lives in Husum.

Work

After an internship at the magazine '' Merian'' she worked until 2008 as a journalist for several radio stations ( NDR, WDR, SWR, hr, DLF) and various magazines, until 2012 then as a permanent cultural editor at NDR Info. Since then, she has worked as a freelance author. In her first novel, ''Altes Land'' (2015), Hansen worked critically on the subject of

homeland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

: many city dwellers discovered the

countryside In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically describ ...

as a place of longing for themselves and moved to a village. In Hansen's opinion, however, they were subject to a mistake because they only played country life and made "peasant theater". Hansen connects this topic with the fate of the female protagonist as a homeless postwar refugee from

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

in the

Altes Land Altes Land () is an area of reclaimed marshland straddling parts of Lower Saxony and Hamburg. The region is situated downstream from Hamburg on the southwestern riverside of the Elbe around the towns of Stade, Buxtehude, Jork and the ''Samtg ...

. The book was a bestseller and received praise from most critics. Her second novel ''Mittagsstunde'' (2018) explores German village life. The cultural and interpersonal change in the fictional North Frisian village "Brinkebüll" is portrayed from the 1960s to the present day. The author tells the story without idealizing country life and draws in laconic language often bizarre characters with a lot of empathy.

Memberships

PEN Centre Germany PEN Centre Germany is part of the worldwide association of writers founded in London in 1921, now known as PEN International. One of over 140 autonomous PEN centres around the world, PEN Centre Germany is based in Darmstadt, Hesse. Work PEN Ce ...

Awards

* 2006: Media Prize of the foundation "Children's Rights in the One World" in the radio category for her NDR reportage ''Der Hamburger Kompass – Hilfe für Kinder alkoholkranker Eltern''. * 2015: for ''Altes Land''. * 2016: for ''Altes Land'' * 2019:

Rheingau Literatur Preis Rheingau Literatur Preis is a literary prize of Hesse. It is awarded annually since 1994 by the which follows the Rheingau Musik Festival. An author is awarded whose prose gained the attention of the literary critics ("") The prize of 11,111 Eu ...

for ''Mittagsstunde'' * 2019: Niederdeutscher Literaturpreis der Stadt

Kappeln Kappeln () is a town in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the north bank of the Schlei, approx. northeast of Schleswig, and southeast of Flensburg. For the eastern Angeln and the northern S ...

* 2019: Grimmelshausen Literaturpreis for ''Mittagsstunde'' * 2022:

Mainzer Stadtschreiber The Mainzer Stadtschreiber (City clerk in Mainz) is an annual German literature award. It is awarded by ZDF, 3sat and the city of Mainz and was founded in 1984. The award is endowed with €12,500. Additionally the laureate receives the right to l ...

* 2022:

Publications

* * * ''Fürchte dich nicht vor dem Familienberater.'' Reportage. In: '' Chrismon'', December 2009. * (''

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' Bestseller list number 1) * (''Der Spiegel'' Bestseller list number 1) * * (''Der Spiegel'' Bestseller list number 2)

Translations

* * * *

Audio books

* * *

Film versions

* 2020: ', director: Sherry Hormann * 2022: ''Mittagsstunde'', director:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, Dorte German women journalists German radio journalists German women novelists 21st-century German novelists Sociolinguists Norddeutscher Rundfunk people 1964 births Living people People from Husum North Frisians Pages with unreviewed translations 21st-century German women University of Hamburg alumni