Iris Radisch (born 2 July 1959) is a German literature-journalist. Since 1990 she has written for the mass-circulation

weekly newspaper A weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electronic publishing, digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly new ...

, ''

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The ...

''. More recently she has come to wider prominence through her television work.

Biography

Iris Radisch was born in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

(as it was known at that time). She attended university at

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 its na ...

and Tübingen, studying

German studies German studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies often include classes on German culture, German hi ...

, Romance studies and Philosophy. She then moved into journalism, working as a literary editor with the ''

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (FR) is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition (see link below) as well as an e-pa ...

'', a mass-market daily newspaper. Her switch to ''

'' came in 1990. As a regular contributor to the paper's Feuilleton (arts and literature) section she gained a reputation as a perceptive, original, but sometimes also starkly polemical literature critic, able to deliver her judgments with a rare level of authority. She was able to combine her journalism with guest professorships, notably at

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...

and at

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. She also began to appear as a television moderator in discussion programes transmitted by

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

, ARD, WDR and the private-sector broadcaster VOX. Her public profile rose after August 2000 when she began her involvement with (The Literary Quartet), a weekly television program produced by

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

's ZDF broadcasting operator in collaboration (at that time) with Austria's

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

. The program presented book reviews provided (and argued over) by a permanent panel of four literary critics. Radisch took the place vacated through the well publicised resignation from the program of

Sigrid Löffler Sigrid Löffler (born 26 June 1942) is an Austrian cultural commentator, arts correspondent and literary critic. Life Sigrid Löffler was born in Aussig (as it was known till 1945) in Czechoslovakia, at the height of the Second World War. As ...

. She remained a panel member till December 2001 when (temporarily, as it later turned out) the series came to an end. She also participated in a number of subsequent "one-off" episodes transmitted during 2005 and 2006 to celebrate anniversaries of

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

und

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

. During 2002/2003 she teamed up with the philosopher-journalist Gert Scobel, the longstanding moderator of the television arts magazine Kulturzeit, as an alternate presenter of the literary radio programme "Bücher, Bücher" from

Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting, public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, ...

. From August 2006 till September 2012 she "fronted" Swiss Television's Literaturclub show in succession to Roger Willemsen. Between 1995 and 2000 Radisch served on the jury for the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, a literary prize centred on German language literature and awarded each year, since 1977, in

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

. She returned to the prize jury a few years later, chairing it between 2003 and 2007. In 2007 Iris Radisch published her first book, "Die Schule der Frauen" (''loosely "The women's school"''). It was not the first time

the title The Title are a British four-piece indie band based in Stoke-on-Trent, England, and signed with Sons Ltd.had been used, but Radisch's book covers and builds on more contemporary and pressing themes than the similarly titled works of

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

and

Gide Gide is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: *André Gide (1869–1951), French author *Catherine Gide (1923–2013), French author and daughter of André Gide *Charles Gide (1847–1932), French economist and uncle of André ...

. "I have three children and one professional job and I am not a believer in simple solutions" (''""Ich habe drei Kinder und einen Beruf und ich glaube nicht an einfache Lösungen"''). The author illuminates her own experience of sustaining a professional career with her "career" as a mother of three small children by two different men. She "exposes modern myths" about the compatibility of family and profession. She discusses the semi-detached contributions of fathers. Since April 2013, jointly with , she has headed up ''

''s Feuilleton section.

Celebration

In 2008 the

Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache The ' (, ''Association for the German Language''), or , is Germany's most important government-sponsored language society. Its headquarters are in Wiesbaden. Re-founded shortly after the Second World War in 1947, the is politically independent ...

awarded her the for her work on ''

''. In 2009 the French Culture Minister,

Christine Albanel Christine Albanel (born 25 June 1955) is a French politician and civil servant. From May 2007 to June 2009, she was France's Minister for Culture and Communication in François Fillon's government. Early career Albanel is agrégé in classica ...

, made her a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres.

Output (selection)

* ''Die Seele Europas und die kleine Heimat. Keiner kommt hier lebend raus. Zwei Texte''. Wieser, Klagenfurt 2006, . * ''Die Schule der Frauen. Wie wir die Familie neu erfinden''. DVA, München 2007, . ** Taschenbuchausgabe (paperback edition): Goldmann, München 2008, . * ''

Camus Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His works ...

: Das Ideal der Einfachheit. Eine Biographie''. Rowohlt, Berlin 2013, . ** Taschenbuchausgabe (paperback edition): Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2014, . * ''Warum die Franzosen so gute Bücher schreiben: von Sartre bis Houellebecq.'' Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2017, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radisch, Iris Journalists from Berlin German women journalists 20th-century German journalists 21st-century German journalists German newspaper journalists German television presenters German women television presenters German television talk show hosts German literary critics German women literary critics Die Zeit people ZDF people Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 1959 births Living people 20th-century German women 21st-century German women