Karl Dedecius (20 May 1921 in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...

– 26 February 2016) was a Polish-born German translator of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

and

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...

.Übersetzer Karl Dedecius 94-jährig verstorben

Life

Dedecius was born to

ethnic German , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

parents in the city of

, Poland, then a multicultural and multilingual city, which, though formerly ruled by the

House of Romanov The House of Romanov (also transcribed Romanoff; rus, Романовы, Románovy, rɐˈmanəvɨ) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after the Tsarina, Anastasia Romanova, was married to th ...

, at that time had only recently become a part of the newly founded

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

. Dedecius attended the Polish Stefan-Żeromski High School, where he received his high-school degree (

Matura or its translated terms (''Mature'', ''Matur'', , , , , , ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

). After the German

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Dedecius was first conscripted into the Reich Labor Service (

Reichsarbeitsdienst The Reich Labour Service (''Reichsarbeitsdienst''; RAD) was a major organisation established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarise the workforce and indoctrinate it with Nazi ...

) and then into the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

. He was severely wounded in the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later re ...

and became a prisoner of war. During his time as a prisoner of war in the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

system of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, he taught himself Russian. Dedecius wrote, "I lay in my sick-bed, and the nurses brought me books by

Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (; russian: Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjurʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲɛrməntəf; – ) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucas ...

, for instance. For one year, I learned the

Cyrillic Alphabet , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

and Russian by reading Lermontov and

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

. Eventually, the guards asked me to write love-letters for them, because I wrote like Pushkin." Dedecius was finally released from Soviet captivity in 1950. He settled first with his fiancé in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

, in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. In 1952, he emigrated to

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 ...

and became an employee of the

Allianz AG Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. The ...

insurance company Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

. In his free time, he occupied himself with

Polish culture The culture of Poland ( pl, Kultura Polski ) is the product of its geography and distinct historical evolution, which is closely connected to an intricate thousand-year history. Polish culture forms an important part of western civilization and ...

and with Polish literary translation, and maintained contact with anti-communist Polish

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established Political system, political or Organized religion, religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and ...

and émigré writers. Dedecius remarked ... "Only when I had gotten myself set up in life and enjoyed some stability was I able to turn to literature in a long-term and systematic way, although my career, you could say, had nothing whatever to do with writing." In the introduction to the Polish edition of "On Translating," Jerzy Kwiatkowski wrote: "Speaking formally, one could say that this translator’s great work came about on his evenings off, as a result of a hobby." In 1959, he published his first anthology, ''Lektion der Stille'' (Lesson of Silence). In the following years, he translated, so to speak in his free time, such well-known Polish writers as

Zbigniew Herbert Zbigniew Herbert (; 29 October 1924 – 28 July 1998) was a Polish poet, essayist, drama writer and moralist. He is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers. While he was first published in the 1950s (a volume title ...

Stanisław Jerzy Lec Stanisław Jerzy Lec (; 6 March 1909 – 7 May 1966), born Baron Stanisław Jerzy de Tusch-Letz, was a Poles, Polish aphorism, aphorist and poetry, poet. Often mentioned among the greatest writers of Military occupations by the Soviet Union, post- ...

Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation ...

Tadeusz Różewicz Tadeusz Różewicz (9 October 1921 – 24 April 2014) was a Polish poet, playwright, writer, and translator. Różewicz was in the first generation of Polish writers born after Poland regained its independence in 1918, following the century of f ...

and

Wisława Szymborska Maria Wisława Anna SzymborskaVioletta Szosta gazeta.pl, 9 February 2012. ostęp 2012-02-11 (; 2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Prowent ( ...

. He also published essays on

Polish literature Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages used in Poland over the centuries have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Latin, ...

and his own literary translation techniques. In 1980, he initiated the German Poland Institute in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

. He served as the institute's director from 1980 through 1997. Meanwhile, continued his literary activities. Dedecius’ main achievements were the 50-volume "Polish Library"

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

, which appeared between 1982 and 2000 from the

Suhrkamp Verlag Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature. Its roots go back to the "arianized" part of the S. Fischer Verlag. In January 2010 the ...

publishing house and the 7-volume "Panorama of Polish Literature of the 20th Century" (1996–2000), whose final volume presented a kind of Dedecius autobiography. Dedecius died in

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 ...

, Germany on 26 February 2016 at the age of 94.

Honors

Dedecius received many

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

s, prizes and awards. In 1967, he was awarded the

Johann-Heinrich-Voß-Preis für Übersetzung The Johann Heinrich Voß Prize in Translation (german: Johann-Heinrich-Voß-Preis für Übersetzung) is awarded yearly by the German Academy for Language and Poetry in Darmstadt.

. In 1990, he received the

Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels is an international peace prize awarded annually by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (English: ''German Publishers and Booksellers Association''), which runs the Frankfurt Book Fair. The award ceremony is held in the Paulskirche in ...

, in 1997 the Samuel-Bogumil-Linde-Preis. Since 2004, the

Robert Bosch Stiftung The Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH () is a German foundation that owns a majority shareholding in Robert Bosch GmbH, from which it derives its funding. The foundation was established in accordance with the wishes of Robert Bosch, who died in 1942, an ...

, in cooperation with the German Poland institute, awards the Karl-Dedecius-Preis for translators, which is endowed with a prize of €10,000.Karl-Dedecius-Preis page on the German Poland Institute site
/ref>

References

This article is a translation of the equivalent German-language Wikipedia article (retrieved 17 August 2006). The following references are cited by that German-language article:

Works

*1971: ''Deutsche und Polen. Botschaft der Bücher.'' ermans and Poles: The Diplomacy of BooksMünchen: Hanser. . *1974 ''"Überall ist Polen"'' oland is Everywhere Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. *1975: ''Polnische Profile'' olish Profiles Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. . *1981: ''Zur Literatur und Kultur Polens'' n the Literature and Culture of PolandFrankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. *1981: ''Polnische Pointen Satiren und kleine Prosa des 20.Jahrhunderts'' Karl Dedecius. Ullstein Buch *1986: ''Vom Übersetzen. Theorie und Praxis'' n Translating: Theory and PracticeFrankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. . *1988: ''Von Polens Poeten'' n Poland’s PoetsFrankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. . *1990: ''Lebenslauf aus Büchern und Blättern'' Curriculum Vitae Made of Books and PagesFrankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. . *1996: ''Ost West Basar. Ansprachen Essays Würdigungen.'' ast-West Bazaar: Addresses, Essays and AppreciationsWith a Foreword by

Marion Gräfin Dönhoff Marion may refer to: People *Marion (given name) * Marion (surname) *Marion Silva Fernandes, Brazilian footballer known simply as "Marion" * Marion (singer), Filipino singer-songwriter and pianist Marion Aunor (born 1992) Places Antarctica * Ma ...

. Selected and with an Afterword by Andreas Lawaty. Zürich: Ammann-Verlag. *2000: ''Panorama der polnischen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Abt.V. Panorama. Ein Rundblick'' anorama of Polish Literature of the 20th Century: Section V. Panorama.Zürich: Ammann-Verlag. . *2002: ''Die Kunst der Übersetzung'' he Art of TranslatingBerlin: Logos Verlag. . *2006: ''Ein Europäer aus Lodz : Erinnerungen'' European from Lodz: MemoirsFrankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp,

Literature

*Elvira Grözinger, Andreas Lawaty (Eds.): ''Suche die Meinung: Karl Dedecius, dem Übersetzer und Mittler zum 65. Geburtstag'' earching for the Opinion: Festschrift for the Translator and Intermediary Karl Dedecius on his 65th BirthdayWiesbaden 1986, Otto Harrassowitz. . *Manfred Mack (Ed.): "Karl Dedecius und das Deutsche Polen-Institut. Laudationes, Berichte, Interviews, Gedichte" arl Dedecius and the German Poland Institute. Laidatios, Reports, Interviews, Poems Darmstadt 1991, Justus von Liebig Verlag, . *Hubert Orłowski: ''Karl Dedecius'', in Marek Zybura (Ed.): ''...nie będzie nigdy Niemiec Polakowi bratem...?'' Wrocław: Okis. pp. 268–279. .

References

External links

Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, „Beheimatet in Polen und Deutschland. Aus einer Laudatio auf Karl Dedecius...“, DIE ZEIT 11/1986Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, „Mittler zwischen schwierigen Nachbarn“, DIE ZEIT 04/2002Karl-Dedecius-Archiv im Collegium PolonicumDeutsches Polen-Institut, DarmstadtFriedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dedecius, Karl 1921 births 2016 deaths German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union Writers from Łódź People from Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939) Translators from Polish Translators from Russian Translators to German German translation scholars Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland 20th-century German translators Naturalized citizens of Germany 20th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers Writers from Darmstadt Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Reich Labour Service members German Army personnel of World War II Polish emigrants to Germany