Reiner Stach
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Reiner Stach (born 1951) is a German author, biographer of
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
, publisher, and publicist. Stach lives and works as a freelancer in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
.


Early life and education

Stach was born in
Rochlitz Rochlitz (; hsb, Rochlica) is a major district town (Große Kreisstadt) in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. Rochlitz is the head of the "municipal partnership Rochlitz" (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Rochlitz) with its other members ...
,
Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
. He studied philosophy, literature, and mathematics at the
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...
in
Frankfurt am Main 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 ...
. Stach graduated in 1985 with a PhD. His dissertation was titled ''Kafkas erotischer Mythos. Eine ästhetische Konstruktion des Weiblichen'' (Kafka's erotic myth. An aesthetic construction of femininity).


Career

First Stach worked for major publishers as a science editor and publisher of nonfiction. He published several essays and reviews about the works of
Hans Henny Jahnn Hans Henny Jahnn (born Hans Henny August Jahn'';'' 17 December 1894 – 29 November 1959) was a German playwright, novelist, and organ-builder. Personal life Hans Henny Jahn was born in 1894 in Stellingen, one of Hamburg's suburbs, and was the s ...
and Franz Kafka, in various journals and anthologies, such as in the ''
Neue Rundschau The ''Neue Rundschau'', formerly ''Die neue Rundschau'' (), founded in 1890, is a quarterly German literary magazine that appears in the S. Fischer Verlag. With its over 100 years of continuous history, it is one of the oldest cultural publicati ...
'' and in ''Revista de Libros'',
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. He discovered the estate of Kafka's fiancée
Felice Bauer Felice Bauer (18 November 1887 – 15 October 1960) was a fiancée of Franz Kafka, whose letters to her were published as ''Letters to Felice''. Early life Felice Bauer was born in Neustadt in Upper Silesia (today Prudnik), into a Jewish f ...
in the United States and showed it as an exhibit "Kafka's Bride" in Frankfurt,
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
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
, among other places, during 1998 and 1999. While Kafka had a relatively small literary output, his influence is so immense that Stach estimates there are at least 130,000 web sites devoted to him. Stach stopped his own internet count of Kafka sites when he got to 500 of them. There are dozens of Kafka biographies. Stach decided to write a detailed Kafka biographical trilogy because despite all this, "No definitive biography of Franz Kafka exists". Stach divided his biography of Kafka into three volumes: from birth to age 27 (1910), the period when he wrote his most famous works (1910–1915), and everything thereafter (1916–1924). However, obtaining enough suitable research material for the period covering early family, childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood (1883–1910), relies in part on obtaining access to the estate of
Max Brod Max Brod ( he, מקס ברוד; 27 May 1884 – 20 December 1968) was a German-speaking Bohemian, later Israeli, author, composer, and journalist. Although he was a prolific writer in his own right, he is best remembered as the friend and biog ...
in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
, which has so far largely been inaccessible to research due to legal issues. Consequently, Stach decided to start writing this trilogy with period 1910–1915, the years Kafka's diaries start, so the first volume covers second chronological period. It took Stach about 10 years to write this volume. The first published volume of his Kafka biography, covering the years 1910 to 1915, appeared in 2002 as ''Kafka – Die Jahre der Entscheidungen'' (''Kafka: The Decisive Years'', literally: The years of decisions). This was translated into English in 2005 by
Shelley Frisch Shelley Laura Frisch (born January 1952) is an American literary translator from German to English. She is best known for her translations of biographies, most notably of Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Ma ...
. The second published volume, ''Kafka – Die Jahre der Erkenntnis'' (''Kafka: The Years of Realization'' or "insight"), appeared in 2008, dealing with the last eight years of Kafka's life. This volume was published in English in late 2011. The final volume, covering the earliest chronological period, was published in German in 2014. An English translation of this volume by Shelley Frisch is slated for October 2016. The trilogy has been described as "massive" and going "into painstaking detail". In 2008 he won a Special prize of the
Heimito von Doderer-Literaturpreis The Heimito von Doderer-Literaturpreis (Heimito von Doderer Literature Prize, short also: Heimito von Doderer Prize) was established in 1996 to commemorate the 100th birthday of Heimito von Doderer. It was created as a memorial to "one of the most ...
for his biography ''Kafka – Die Jahre der Erkenntnis''.


Selected works

* * (Dissertation, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, 1985) * * * * * * * (Audio Book) * *


References


External links

*
Im Gespräch: Reiner Stach War Kafkas Leben kafkaesk?
Interview in the FAZ, 29 June 2008
Online-Version von ''"Die Ordnung der Unterwelt"
Zum Verhältnis von Autor, Text und Leser am Beispiel von Hans Henny Jahnns "Fluss ohne Ufer" und den Interpretationen seiner Deuter'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Stach, Reiner 1951 births Living people Franz Kafka scholars German publishers (people) German public relations people German male novelists