Ingo Niermann

Ingo Niermann (born 1969, Bielefeld, West Germany) is a German novelist, writer, and artist.

Biography

Niermann was born in Bielefeld and studied philosophy in Berlin. He has lived in Berlin, to the eastern part of which he allegedly moved in late 1989. Niermann lived in New York from 2013 to 2014, before moving to Basel, Switzerland, where he is currently based.

Publications

Although mostly known for his book releases (see below), Niermann earlier contributed to German newspapers Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He has also conducted interviews for German literary magazine ''Der Freund'' and contributed a series of interviews labelled ''Die Beste aller Welten'' "The best of all worlds imaginable"to the German art magazine ''Monopol''.

In 1999, Niermann first contributed a short story (''10 000 Jahre'' 0,000 years to the anthology "Mesopotamia" edited by Swiss writer Christian Kracht. His debut novel ''Der Effekt'' was published in 2001. It were mainly these two publications that established a perceived link with Germany’s 1990s "pop literature" movement.

Niermann successfully veered from this perception with his acclaimed 2003 book ''Minusvisionen'' est translated as "Negative-only visions"; also a neologism in German published by Suhrkamp. The book revived the literary form of the protocol (Germa
"Protokoll"
, drawing on motives of interview and oral history. It chronicles the visions, projects and (economic) failure of several young German entrepreneurs.

In 2006, ''Umbauland'' appeared, also at Suhrkamp. It presents ten ideas of Niermann – partly conceived with friends and colleagues – on how Germany could be and should be radically reformed. Suggestion include the construction of a large-scale pyramid as tourist attraction and grave site in Eastern Germany, nuclear armament, or a radical re-vamping of the German language ("Rededeutsch").

Late February 2007 saw the publication of ''Metan'' Methane", misspelled the product of teaming up with Christian Kracht and climbing up Kilimanjaro. The book describes the mysterious power of methane gas. Another reviewer refers to the book as a parody of "alarmism" and suggested it should be taken as a joke: "But if this book is taken as a joke, it probably is not a bad one." It has been translated into several languages, such as Latvian and Russian.

Scholarly voices have suggested to read particularly ''Metan'' but also Niermann’s other offerings as indication of a camp take on public and political issues.

As a result of two stays in Beijing, PR China, Niermann published another chronicle book, ''China ruft Dich'' (China is calling you) in early 2008. The book records the stories, experiences and perceptions of German and other non-Chinese expatriates who have decided to pursue life in rapidly changing China of the 00 years. Niermann flanks these reports (or protocols) with Chinese views, for example by renowned artist Ai Weiwei.

Also in 2008, Niermann’s take on the miscellanea wave, entitled ''The Curious World of Drugs'' (''Breites Wissen'') and co-authored with journalist Adriano Sack was published by Plume (US; UK publisher: Turnaround).

Niermann's other titles include: ''David Lieske: I Tried to Make this Work'' (Montez Press, 2015); ''Concentration'' (ed.) (Fiktion, 2015); and ''Breites Wissen'' ''… nachgelegt.'' ''Die seltsame Welt der Drogen und ihrer Nutzer'' (with Adriano Sack) (Rogner & Bernhard, 2015).

Solution series

Since 2008, Niermann functions as series editor of Solutions (original publications in English), published by Sternberg press and designed by Zak Kyes.

In the series, Niermann together with Jens Thiel published ''Solution 9: The Great Pyramid,'' with contributions by Rem Koolhaas, Ai Weiwei, Christian Kracht, David Woodard, and others. Niermann's own titles in the series include the books ''Solution 1–10:'' ''Umbauland'' (2009), ''Solution 186–195: Dubai Democracy'' (2010), ''Solution 264–274: Drill Nation'' (2015), the novel ''Solution 257: Complete Love'' (2016), ''Solution 275–294: Communists Anonymous'' (2017) and ''Solution 295–304: Mare Amoris'' (2019).

The ninth volume in the Solution series appeared in 2013: ''Solution 247–261: Love'' (edited by Ingo Niermann, with contributions by Douglas Coupland, Eva Illouz, Ben Marcus, Beatriz Preciado, Etel Adnan, Momus, David Pearce, and others).

Other artistic and editorial activities

In 2004, Niermann together with artist Antje Majewski