Katrin Askan (1966) is a German

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. She was born 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 ...

, but in 1986, three years before the changes that finally adumbrated an end to the one-

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...

dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...

, she managed to escape to

the west West is a cardinal direction or compass point. West or The West may also refer to: Geography and locations Global context * The Western world * Western culture and Western civilization in general * The Western Bloc, countries allied with NATO ...

. A (slightly) fictionalised version of the long build-up to the event and of the escape itself, with a powerful resonance of authenticity, constitutes the core of her 2000 novel "Aus dem Schneider".

Life and works

Katrin Askan was born in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

. After passing her Abitur (school leaving exams), which under most circumstances would have cleared the path to university-level education, she was enrolled on a traineeship in a

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

. She subsequently found work in a book shop. In 1986 she succeeded in smuggling herself into

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 ...

, apparently taking an indirect route that included, during the most critical stage in the exercise, three hours in the boot of a car from

. This was followed by a lengthy stay in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

where one of the ways in which she supported herself was by undertaking translation work on programmes for radio stations. She went on to study

Germanistics The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

and

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

at the

Free University A free university is an organization offering uncredited, public classes without restrictions to who can teach or learn. They differ in structure. In 1980 in the United States, about half were associated with a traditional university, about a ...

in the part of the city known before

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. Then, in 1998, Askan moved to Germany's western media capital,

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 ...

, where she supports herself as a freelance author and

Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic countr ...

translator. Askan's debut novel, "A-Dur", appeared in 1996. Set in Berlin, it deals with the lives in the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

of three different characters and the destruction of their three individual dreams. It also treats the more generalised disorientation characteristic of post-modern societies. It was well reviewed by critics. "Aus dem Schneider", which appeared four years later, was three times as long and founder a wider audience. It touched on a number of the same themes. Since 1988, Askan has also been publishing poems and prose pieces in various journals and anthologies. An example is her short story "Der Skorpion" which appeared in

Muschelhaufen ''Muschelhaufen'' (heap of shells) is a German annual, originally combining literature and graphic arts. It was founded by Erik Martin from Viersen in 1969 and published - with an interruption of 11 years - until 2008, when the last issue came ou ...

. She has also authored a number of radio pieces for

Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (; "Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting"; abbreviated: RBB , stylized as rbb) is an institution under public law (national broadcaster) for the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg, based in Berlin and Potsdam. RBB ...

's Ohrenbär, a producer of radio programmes for children aged between four and eight.

Recognition

In 1998 Katrin Askan won the Friedrich Hölderlin Literary Award (''"Förderpreis"'') from the municipality of

Bad Homburg Bad Homburg vor der Höhe () is the district town of the Hochtaunuskreis, Hesse, on the southern slope of the Taunus mountains. Bad Homburg is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Authority, Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. The town's offic ...

. In 1999 she was the recipient of the annual Rolf-Dieter Brinkmann Stipendium, funded and administered by her home

city of Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...

. In 2001 she won the "3sat-Prize", one of several annual awards made at the (

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 ...

)

Festival of German-Language Literature The Festival of German-Language Literature (german: Tage der deutschsprachigen Literatur, links=no) is a literary event which takes place annually in Klagenfurt, Austria. During this major literary festival which lasts for several days a number of ...

, for her novella "Landläufig".

Selected works

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Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Askan, Katrin 1966 births Writers from East Berlin German-language writers Writers from Berlin 20th-century German women writers 21st-century German women writers Living people German women novelists German women short story writers German short story writers German women poets 20th-century German novelists 20th-century German short story writers 20th-century German poets 21st-century German novelists 21st-century German short story writers 21st-century German poets