Thomas Kling (June 5, 1957 – April 1, 2005) was a German

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

Life

Thomas Kling was born in

Bingen am Rhein Bingen am Rhein () is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The settlement's original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant "hole in the rock", a description of the shoal behind the ''Mäuseturm'', k ...

, grew up in

Hilden Hilden is a town in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is situated in the District of Mettmann, west of Solingen and east of Düsseldorf on the right side of the Rhine. It is a middle sized industrial town with a forest and numero ...

and went to school in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

. He studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

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 ...

, Düsseldorf and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and lived in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

for a certain period. Since 1983 he presented his poems on public performances – first in Vienna, than in the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

. Later he performed together with the jazz percussionist . Kling lived with his wife Ute Langanky, a painter, on the museum area of Hombroich (a former rocket station) near

Neuss Neuss (; spelled ''Neuß'' until 1968; li, Nüss ; la, Novaesium) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It ...

. In 2005 he died in

Dormagen Dormagen (; Ripuarian: ''Dormaje'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany in the Rhein-Kreis Neuss. Geography Dormagen is situated between Düsseldorf – Cologne – Mönchengladbach on the western bank of the river Rhine. Division of ...

of lung cancer. He was buried in Neuss-Holzheim.

Poetry

Thomas Kling was an important poet in contemporary German literature. He was influenced by authors like

Friederike Mayröcker Friederike Mayröcker (20 December 1924 – 4 June 2021) was an Austrian writer of poetry and prose, audio plays, children's books and dramatic texts. She experimented with language, and was regarded as an avantgarde poet, and as one of the lea ...

Ernst Jandl Ernst Jandl (; 1 August 1925 – 9 June 2000) was an Austrian writer, poet, and translator. He became known for his experimental lyric, mainly sound poems (''Sprechgedichte'') in the tradition of concrete and visual poetic forms. Poetry Inf ...

Paul Celan Paul Celan (; ; 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970) was a Romanian-born German-language poet and translator. He was born as Paul Antschel to a Jewish family in Cernăuți (German: Czernowitz), in the then Kingdom of Romania (now Chernivtsi, U ...

, Hans Carl Artmann and

Konrad Bayer Konrad Bayer (17 December 1932 – October 1964) was an Austrian writer and poet. A member of the Wiener Gruppe, he combined apparently irreconcilable elements—violence, hermeticism, pessimism, ecstasy, banality—and influences (dadaism, surre ...

. The structure and the layout of his poems were often dominated by the needs of his performances. He was member of the German

PEN A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity wh ...

-centre and of the

Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung The Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (in English German Academy for Language and Literature) was founded on 28 August 1949, on the 200th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. It is seated in Darmstadt, ...

(German Academy for Language and Poetry).

Awards

* 1986:

Förderpreis für Literatur der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf The Förderpreis für Literatur der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf is a German literary award donated by the City of Düsseldorf in North Rhine-Westphalia. The Prize for Literature in support of the City of Düsseldorf has been awarded since 1972 by ...

Northrhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhab ...

Förderpreis für Literatur der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf
/ref> * 1989: Promotion Prize of Northrhine-Westphalia * 1990: Rolf Dieter Brinkmann Grant of Cologne * 1991: Promotion Prize of the arts circle in the Federal Association of German Industry * 1993: Else Lasker Schüler Prize for Poetry * 1997: Peter Huchel Prize * 2001: Ernst Jandl Prize * 2005: Poetry Prize of the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf

Works

* ''der zustand vor dem untergang'' (the situation before the breakup), Düsseldorf 1977 * ''erprobung herzstärkender mittel'' (testing of heart strengthening means), Düsseldorf 1986 * ''geschmacksverstärker'' (flavour enhancer), Frankfurt am Main 1989 * ''verkehrsfunk'' (traffic message channel), 1989 * ''brennstabm'' (fuel rod / fuel rodz), Frankfurt am Main 1991 * ''nacht.sicht.gerät'' (night.vision.device), Frankfurt am Main 1993 * ''wände machn'' (making walls / makin walls), Münster 1994 * ''morsch'' (decayed), Frankfurt am Main 1996 * ''Itinerar'' (itinerary), Frankfurt am Main 1997 * ''Wolkenstein. Mobilisierun''' (claude stone. mobilisatio', Münster 1997 * ''GELÄNDE camouflage'' (terrain camouflage), Münster 1997 (together with Ute Langanky) * ''Fernhandel'' (long distance trade), Köln 1999 * ''Botenstoffe'' (messenger substrates), Köln 2001 * ''Sondagen'' (sondages), Köln 2002 * ''Auswertung der Flugdaten'' (analysis of flight data), Köln 2005 * ''Gesammelte Gedichte'' (collected poems), Köln 2006 * ''Das brennende Archiv'' - Brevier. (ed. Ute Langanky and Norbert Wehr). Suhrkamp, Berlin 2012 (= suhrkamp taschenbuch 4351), .

Editor

: ''Benachbarte Metalle'', Frankfurt am Main 1998 * Sabine Scho: ''Thomas Kling entdeckt Sabine Scho'', Hamburg .a.2001 * ''Sprachspeicher. 200 Gedichte auf deutsch vom achten bis zum zwanzigsten Jahrhundert'', Köln 2001

Translations

Gaius Valerius Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His s ...

: ''Das Haar der Berenice'', Ostfildern vor Stuttgart 1997

Literature

* Heinz-Norbert Jocks: ''Thomas Kling. Bilderfindungen'', Un entretien de Heinz-Norbert Jocks, revised in: Schreibheft. Zeitschrift für Literatur, Edition 96, Essen 2021, p. 146-155. * Heinz-Norbert Jocks: ''Bilderfindungen, Ein Gespräch mit Thomas Kling'', in: Kunstforum International, Cologne 1998, No. 140, p. 238–253. * Heinz-Norbert Jocks: ''Wörter aus dem Vulkan'', In:

General-Anzeiger The ''General-Anzeiger'' is a regional daily newspaper based in the city of Bonn, the former West German capital in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The paper was first published in April 1888. In addition to the city and it ...

, Bonn 1994,23./24. July 1994. * Heinz-Norbert Jocks: ''Das Genie'', In: ''Überblick Magazin'', Düsseldorf, 1986, Edition 11, November, p. 36–38. * Heinz-Norbert Jocks: ''Ein Wahlverwandter der Dadaisten'', In: ''Düsseldorfer Hefte'', Düsseldorf, 1986, 1. October 1986, Edition 11, p. 13-14.

References

* ''Thomas Kling'', München 2000. * ''Thomas Kling – Karl-Heinrich Müller'', Köln 2004. * ''Thomas Kling ist tot. Notizen zu einem deutschen Dichter'' (In:

Theo Breuer Theo Breuer (born 30 March 1956) is a German poet, essayist, editor, translator and publisher. Life and work Theo Breuer was born in Bürvenich, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany and educated at Cologne University where he studied German an ...

, ''Aus dem Hinterland. Lyrik nach 2000'', Sistig/Eifel 2005, S. 101-114). * Hubert Winkels: ''Der Stimmen Ordnung. Über Thomas Kling'', Köln 2005.

External links

At his publishing house Dumont, German

Interview on literaturkritik.de, German

Review of his book “Auswertung der Flugdaten” in the newspaper “Die Zeit”, German
Added category tag for membership in the German Academy of Language and Literature {{DEFAULTSORT:Kling, Thomas 1957 births 2005 deaths People from Bingen am Rhein German male poets 20th-century German poets German-language poets Members of the German Academy for Language and Literature Deaths from lung cancer 20th-century German male writers