Hans Werner Kettenbach (20 April 1928 – 5 January 2018) was a German journalist and writer. He also wrote

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

under the pseudonym Christian Ohlig.

Life

Born in

Bendorf Bendorf () is a town in the district of Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the right bank of the Rhine, approx. north of Koblenz. Structure of the town The town consists of the following districts: *Bendorf *Sayn *Mülhofen *St ...

, across the river from

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...

, Kettenbach grew up in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. On passing his school final exams he began a study course covering

Newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

and

Theatre studies Theatre studies (sometimes referred to as theatrology or dramatics) is the study of theatrical performance in relation to its literary, physical, psychobiological, sociological, and historical contexts. It is an interdisciplinary field which also e ...

, but his studies were cut short in 1953 by his father's death, after which he found himself taking over the running of his father's advertising agency. A succession of jobs, along with broken periods of further study followed. Between 1954 and 1956, and again between 1958 and 1964, he worked as a

Literary editor A literary editor is an editor in a newspaper, magazine or similar publication who deals with aspects concerning literature and books, especially reviews.

for

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

and

television plays A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multiple-camera setup, multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contra ...

with the Cologne-based broadcaster,

Westdeutscher Rundfunk Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the conso ...

. From 1956 to 1958, he worked on a voluntary basis for the news editorial department of the mass-circulation

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger The ''Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger'' (KStA) is a German daily newspaper published in Cologne, and has the largest circulation in the Cologne–Bonn Metropolitan Region. ''Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger'' has a base of over 100 contributing editors and a wide ...

newspaper. In 1958, he embarked on a more sustained period of study, covering subjects that included Philosophy and East-European History. Eventually, in 1964 or 1965, he received a doctorate from

Cologne University The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

. His dissertation concerned Lenin's

Theory of Imperialism The theory of imperialism refers to a range of theoretical approaches to understanding the expansion of capitalism into new areas, the unequal development of different countries, and economic systems that may lead to the dominance of some count ...

Published output

* ''Der lange Marsch der Bundesrepublik'', Düsseldorf 1971 * ''Grand mit Vieren'', Bergisch Gladbach 1978 * ''Der Pascha'', Wien 1979 * ''Hinter dem Horizont'', Wien 1981 * ''Glatteis'', Bergisch Gladbach 1982 * ''Minnie oder Ein Fall von Geringfügigkeit'', Zürich 1984 * ''Sterbetage'', Zürich 1986 * ''Schmatz oder Die Sackgasse'', Zürich 1987 * ''Der Feigenblattpflücker'', Zürich 1992 * ''Davids Rache'', Zürich 1994 * ''Die Schatzgräber'', Zürich 1998 * ''Willy Millowitsch als Kommissar Klefisch'', Köln 1999 * ''Die Konkurrentin'', Zürich 2002 * ''Kleinstadtaffäre'', Diogenes Verlag, Zürich 2004, * ''Zu Gast bei Dr. Buzzard'', Zürich 2006 * ''Das starke Geschlecht'', Diogenes Verlag, Zürich 2009, * ''Tante Joice und die Lust am Leben''. Geschichten und anderes. Diogenes Verlag, Zürich 2010, In 1964, Kettenbach joined the editorial team on the ''

''; between 1966 and 1968 he was a chief reporter for the newspaper, and from 1968 he was employed as correspondent and head of its

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

office. In 1974/75, he served as chairman of the Bundespressekonferenz in Bonn. In 1978, he was sent abroad as his newspaper's New York correspondent. Following his return, between 1988 and his retirement in 1992, he was deputy managing editor of the ''Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger''. As a journalist, he also contributed frequently to other newspapers, notably the

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

based ''

Tages-Anzeiger ''Tages-Anzeiger'' (), also abbreviated ''Tagi'' or ''TA'', is a Swiss German-language national daily newspaper published in Zurich, Switzerland. History and profile The paper was first published under the name ''Tages-Anzeiger für Stadt und K ...

'' and the ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

'', as well as regularly contributing reports on radio channels including DLF and WDR. Hans Werner Kettenbach embarked on his career as a writer while still a working journalist, in the 1970s, producing psychological

. The manuscript for his first novel, ''Grand mit Vieren'' (1976) was reportedly written in just fourteen days. Subsequently, he has become one of Germany's top crime fiction writers. He has also written a succession of

and

, notably for the television crime drama series ''Klefisch'' in which his fellow Rhinelander

Willy Millowitsch Willy Millowitsch (, ; 8 January 1909 – 20 September 1999) was a German stage and TV actor and the director of the ''Volkstheater Millowitsch'' in Cologne. Early life Millowitsch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province. His parents were Peter ...

starred as the eponymous police commissioner between 1990 and 1996. Kettenbach was a member of the important German branch of

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

. He died on 5 January 2018, at the age of 89.

Awards and honours

Possibly the most prestigious of the literary awards he has received was the German crime fiction award, received in 1988 for ''Schmatz oder Die Sackgasse''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kettenbach, Hans Werner 1928 births 2018 deaths People from Bendorf People from the Rhine Province German screenwriters German male screenwriters German journalists German male journalists German crime fiction writers German detective fiction writers 20th-century German novelists German radio writers Writers from Rhineland-Palatinate Male novelists 20th-century German male writers Film people from Cologne 20th-century pseudonymous writers