Gisela Elsner (2 May 1937 – 13 May 1992) was a German writer. She won the
Prix Formentor
The Prix Formentor (also known as Premio Formentor de las Letras, Formentor Literature Prize and The Formentor Prize) is an international literary award given between 1961 and 1967, and, after a long break, from 2011. In the 1960s, the Formentor Gr ...
in 1964 for her novel ''Die Riesenzwerge'' (''The Giant Dwarfs'').
Early life
Elsner was born in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
,
Middle Franconia
Middle Franconia (german: Mittelfranken, ) is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the west of Bavaria and borders the state of Baden-Württemberg. The administrative seat is Ansbach; however ...
. In 1959, she went to Vienna to study philosophy,
Germanic letters and drama.
Career
Elsner then lived as a
freelance writer
''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...
in various places:
Lake Starnberg
Lake Starnberg, or ''Starnberger See'' ) — called Lake Würm, or ''Würmsee'' , until 1962 — is Germany's second-largest body of fresh water, having great depth, and fifth-largest lake by area. It and its surroundings lie in three different Ba ...
,
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
, in Rome from 1963 to 1964, in London from 1964 to 1970, then in Paris, Hamburg, New York, and finally in Munich.
She was among the members of
Group 47
Gruppe 47 (Group 47) was a group of participants in German writers' meetings, invited by Hans Werner Richter between 1947 and 1967. The meetings served the dual goals of literary criticism as well as the promotion of young, unknown authors. In a de ...
, which also included
Günter Grass and
Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Theodor Böll (; 21 December 1917 – 16 July 1985) was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers, Böll is a recipient of the Georg Büchner Prize (1967) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1972). ...
.
In her 1970 novel ''Berührungsverbot'' (''The Touch Ban'' or ''The Prohibition of Contact''), several couples try to transcend the limits of the bourgeois sexual mores of their middle-class background by engaging in group
sex orgies. In Switzerland, a journal that published excerpts from the novel was banned, and in Austria it was attacked as harmful to children.
Elsner described herself as a
Leninist
Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishm ...
. She was a long lasting member of the
German Communist Party
The German Communist Party (german: Deutsche Kommunistische Partei, ) is a communist party in Germany. The DKP supports left positions and was an observer member of the European Left. At the end of February 2016 it left the European party.
His ...
.
Death and legacy
Elsner committed suicide by jumping out of a window, in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
, on 13 May 1992.
[Christine Künzel (Hrsg.): Die letzte Kommunistin. Texte zu Gisela Elsner. konkret Literatur Verlag, Hamburg 2009. p. 22]
A dramatized film about her life, ''
No Place to Go'', was made by her son
Oskar Roehler
Oskar Roehler (born 21 January 1959) is a German film director, screenwriter and journalist. He was born in Starnberg, the son of writers Gisela Elsner and Klaus Roehler. Since the mid-1980s, he has been working as a screenwriter, for, among ot ...
.
References
Further reading
* Christine Flitner: ''Frauen in der Literaturkritik. Elfriede Jelinek und Gisela Elsner im Feuilleton der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.'' (= Frauen in der Literaturgeschichte, Bd. 3) Pfaffenweiler 1995.
* Oskar Roehler: ''Die Unberührbare'', Köln 2002
* Dorothe Cremer: ''„Ihre Gebärden sind riesig, ihre Äußerungen winzig“. Zu Gisela Elsners Die Riesenzwerge; Schreibweise und soziale Realität der Adenauerzeit.'' Herbolzheim: Centaurus Verlag, 2003.
* Martina Süess: ''Wenn Otto sich vertilgt''. In:
WOZ Die Wochenzeitung
''WOZ Die Wochenzeitung'', (commonly abbreviated as ''WOZ'' or ''Wochenzeitung''), is a Swiss, German-language weekly newspaper, published in Zürich (Switzerland).
History
''Die WochenZeitung'' (WoZ) first appeared on 1 October 1981. It was ba ...
, 3. Juli 2008
Online-Version
* Christine Künzel (Hrsg.): ''Die letzte Kommunistin. Texte zu Gisela Elsner.'' (=
konkret
''konkret'' has been the name of two German magazines.
''konkret'' was originally the name of a magazine established by Klaus Rainer Röhl in 1957, that was an influential magazine on the German political left in the 1960s. The magazine was d ...
texte 49) Hamburg: konkret Literatur Verlag, 2009.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elsner, Gisele
1937 births
1992 deaths
Writers from Nuremberg
German Communist Party politicians
20th-century German women writers
Suicides by jumping in Germany
1992 suicides