Richard Wagner (born 10 April 1952) is a Romanian-born German novelist. He has published a number of short stories, novels and essays. A member of one of Romania's German minority, called

Banat Swabians The Banat Swabians are an ethnic German population in the former Kingdom of Hungary in Central-Southeast Europe, part of the Danube Swabians. They emigrated in the 18th century to what was then the Austrian Empire's Banat of Temeswar province, la ...

, like his former wife,

Herta Müller Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf (german: Nitzkydorf, link=no), Timiș County in Romania, her native language is G ...

, he studied German and Romanian literature at Timișoara University. He then worked as a German language school teacher and as a journalist, and published poetry and short stories in German. He was also a member of

Aktionsgruppe Banat The Aktionsgruppe Banat was a literary society that fought for freedom of speech, founded by German language, German-speaking authors of the Banat Swabians, Banat Swabian minority in the Banat, Romanian Banat in 1972. The society suffered persecutio ...

, a German-speaking literary society. In 1987, Wagner and Müller left Romania for

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 ...

, to escape

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

oppression and censorship in

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He was ...

's Romania. He still lives in Berlin.

Publications

* ''Klartext. Ein Gedichtbuch (1973)'' * ''die invasion der uhren. Gedichte (1977)'' * ''Der Anfang einer Geschichte. Prosa (1980)'' * ''Hotel California I. Der Tag, der mit einer Wunde begann. Gedichte (1980)'' * ''Anna und die Uhren. Ein Lesebuch für kleine Leute mit Bildern von Cornelia König (1981, 1987)'' * ''Gegenlicht. Gedichte (1983)'' * ''Das Auge des Feuilletons. Geschichten und Notizen. (1984)'' * ''Rostregen. Gedichte. Luchterhand (1986)'' * ''Ausreiseantrag (1988)'' * ''Begrüßungsgeld (1989)'' * ''Die Muren von Wien. Roman (1990)'' * ''Der Sturz des Tyrannen. Rumänien und das Ende der Diktatur. Herausgegeben mit Helmuth Frauendorfer (1990)'' * ''Sonderweg Rumänien. Bericht aus einem Entwicklungsland (1991)'' * ''Schwarze Kreide. Gedichte (1991)'' * ''Völker ohne Signale. Zum Epochenbruch in Osteuropa. Essay (1992)'' * ''Der Himmel von New York im Museum von Amsterdam. Geschichten (1992)'' * ''Heiße Maroni. Gedichte (1993)'' * ''Giancarlos Koffer (1993)'' * ''Mythendämmerung. Einwürfe eines Mitteleuropäers (1993)'' * ''Der Mann, der Erdrutsche sammelte. Geschichten (1994)'' * ''In der Hand der Frauen'', Roman (1995, DVA), * ''Lisas geheimes Buch. Roman (1996)'' * ''Im Grunde sind wir alle Sieger. Roman (1998)'' * ''Mit Madonna in der Stadt. Gedichte (2000)'' * ''Miss Bukarest'', Roman (2001, Aufbau), * ''Ich hatte ein bisschen Kraft drüber, Materialsammlung zu

Birgit Vanderbeke Birgit Vanderbeke (8 August 1956 – 24 December 2021) was a German writer. Biography Born in Dahme, East Germany, Vanderbeke grew up in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, after her family moved to West Germany in 1961. Vanderbeke studied Law, Germanic ...

von Richard Wagner'' (2001, S. Fischer TB), * ''Der leere Himmel, Reise in das Innere des Balkan'', Essay (2003, Aufbau), * ''Habseligkeiten'', Roman (2004, Aufbau), * ''Der deutsche Horizont. Vom Schicksal eines guten Landes'', Essay (2006, Aufbau), * ''Das reiche Mädchen'', Roman (2007, Aufbau) * ''Es reicht. Gegen den Ausverkauf unserer Werte'', Essay (2008, Aufbau) * ''Linienflug''. Gedichte. Hg. von Ernest Wichner (2010, Hochroth) * ''Belüge mich''. Roman (2011, Aufbau) * ''Die deutsche Seele'' (with

Thea Dorn Thea Dorn (pseudonym; Christiane Scherer, born 23 July 1970 in Offenbach am Main) is a German writer of crime fiction and TV host. She lives and works in Berlin. Born in Offenbach am Main, Dorn was initially trained as a singer, and later stud ...

). (2011, Knaus) * ''Und meine Seele spannte weit ihre Flügel aus. Hundert deutsche Gedichte''. Hg. und mit einem Nachwort von Richard Wagner (Aufbau, 2013) * ''Habsburg. Bibliothek einer verlorenen Welt'' (2014, Hoffmann und Campe)

Honours

* 1987 Spezial prize of the

Leonce-und-Lena-Preis Leonce-und-Lena-Preis is a literary prize of Hesse. The award was founded in 1968, the City of Darmstadt has been awarding the prize since 1979. Leonce and Lena is a play by Georg Büchner. The prize money is €8,000. German-speaking authors who ...

* 1988 Förderpreis of the

Andreas-Gryphius-Preis The Andreas-Gryphius Prize is a prestigious literary prize in Germany, named after the German poet Andreas Gryphius (1616–1664). The prize is awarded to authors and translators whose work reflects German culture and history in Central, Eastern ...

* 1989 Deutscher Sprachpreis, with

Gerhardt Csejka Gerhardt Csejka (born 11 April 1945, in Zăbrani) is a German essayist and literary translator. He has delivered lectures at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main (1990-1992) and the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Th ...

, Helmuth Frauendorfer, Klaus Hensel, Johann Lippet,

, Werner Söllner and

William Totok William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

* 1990/91 Rom-Preis, of the Deutsche Akademie

Villa Massimo Villa Massimo, short for Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo ( it, Accademia Tedesca Roma Villa Massimo), is a German cultural institution in Rome, established in 1910 and located in the Villa Massimo. The fellowship of the German Academy in Rom ...

* 2000 ndl-Literaturpreis * 2008

Georg Dehio Book Prize The Georg Dehio Book Prize (''Georg Dehio-Buchpreis'') is a biennial literary award for authors who, "in their literary, scholarly or public work, address the themes of the common culture and history of the German people and their Eastern neighbo ...

* 2011 Donauschwäbischer Kulturpreis des Landes Baden-Württemberg, Ehrengabe für sein Gesamtwerk * 2014 Verdienstkreuz am Bande des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Literature

*Andrea Mork, ''Richard Wagner als politischer Schriftsteller: Weltanschauung und Wirkungsgeschichte'', Campus, 1990, ,

External links

40 Jahre Aktionsgruppe Banat, Halbjahresschrift - hjs-online, 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagner, Richard German essayists 20th-century German novelists 21st-century German novelists German schoolteachers People from Timiș County Romanian dissidents Romanian essayists Romanian novelists Romanian male writers German male novelists Romanian schoolteachers Romanian anti-communists Danube-Swabian people German people of German-Romanian descent 1952 births Living people German male essayists 20th-century essayists 21st-century essayists Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany