Durs Grünbein (born 1962) is a German poet and essayist.

Life and career

Durs Grünbein was born in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

in 1962 and grew up there. He studied Theater Studies in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

, to which he moved in 1985. Since the

Peaceful Revolution The Peaceful Revolution () – also, in German called ' (, "the turning point") – was one of the peaceful revolutions of 1989 at the peak of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s. A process of sociopolitical change that led to, am ...

nonviolently toppled the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

and

Communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

in the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

in 1989, Grünbein has traveled widely in Europe, South-West Asia, and North America, and sojourned in various places, including Amsterdam, Paris, London, Vienna, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York City, and

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. He lives in Berlin and, since 2013, in Rome. His production comprises numerous collections of poetry and prose—essays, short narrative-reflexive prose, aphorisms, fragments, diary annotations and philosophical meditations—as well as three librettos for opera. He has translated classic texts from

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

and Seneca, and a variety of authors, including

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

Henri Michaux Henri Michaux (; 24 May 1899 – 19 October 1984) was a Belgian-born French poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenhei ...

, and

Tomas Venclova Tomas Venclova (born 11 September 1937) is a Lithuanian poet, prose writer, scholar, philologist and translator of literature. He is one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group. In 1977, following his dissident activities, ...

. His works have been translated into many languages, including Russian, Italian, English, French, Spanish, Swedish, and Japanese. His book ''Ashes for Breakfast: Selected Poems'', translated by Michael Hoffmann, was shortlisted for the

Griffin Poetry Prize The Griffin Poetry Prize is a Canadian poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. Before 2022, two separate awards went to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language. I ...

in 2006. Grünbein was awarded numerous national and international awards, including the

Georg Büchner Prize The Georg Büchner Prize () is the most important literary prize for German language literature. The award is named after dramatist and writer Georg Büchner, author of '' Woyzeck'' and '' Leonce and Lena''. The Georg Büchner Prize is awarded an ...

(Germany's most prestigious literary recognition, which he received in 1995, aged thirty-three), the

Friedrich Nietzsche Prize The Friedrich Nietzsche Prize or Friedrich-Nietzsche-Preis is a German literary award named after Friedrich Nietzsche and awarded by the state of Saxony-Anhalt. It was first awarded in 1996 for a German-language essayistic or philosophical work. ...

, the

Friedrich Hölderlin Prize Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...

, the Berlin Literature Prize, the Premio Internazionale di Poesia Pier Paolo Pasolini and the Tranströmer Prize. Grünbein holds the Chair of Poetik und künstlerische Ästhetik (Poetics and Artistic Aesthetics) at the Kunstakademie of Düsseldorf. In 2009, he was awarded the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts as well as the Knights Commander of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

. He is a member of various Academies of Arts and Sciences, including 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, Frankfurt, Paulskirche in Frankfurt. I ...

, the

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts () is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The academy's predecessor organization was founded in 1696 by Elector F ...

, and the

Sächsische Akademie der Künste The Sächsische Akademie der Künste (Saxon Academy of Arts) is a German cultural organisation for the state of Saxony, based in Dresden. Purpose The Academy is a statutory corporation to promote the arts in Saxony, make proposals for its pro ...

, Dresden. In 1997, he was a Fellow at the

Villa Aurora The Villa Aurora, 520 Paseo Miramar, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, has been an artists' residence since 1995. It is the former home of the German Jewish author Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta. The Feuchtwangers bought this Spanish-style ...

in Los Angeles. In 2005, he held the position of

Max Kade Dr. h.c. Max Kade (13 October 1882, Steinbach near Schwäbisch Hall, Württemberg, Germany – 15 July 1967, Davos, Switzerland) was an emigrant from Germany to New York City who became successful in the pharmaceutical industry. Kade was committ ...

Distinguished Visiting Professor at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

in New Hampshire, US. Since 2006, Grünbein is a visiting professor at the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Blinky Palermo, Ma ...

and at the

European Graduate School The European Graduate School (EGS) is a private graduate school that operates in two locations: Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and Valletta, Malta. History It was founded in 1994 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland by the Swiss scientist, artist, and therapist, ...

Saas-Fee Saas-Fee () is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. The village is situated on a high mountain plateau at 1,800 meters (5,900 feet), surrounded ...

, Switzerland. In 2009, he was a poet in residence at the

Villa Massimo Villa Massimo, short for Deutsche Akademie Rom 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 Rome, often referred to as the German Rome P ...

in Rome. He has been a regular contributor to '' Frau und Hund – Zeitschrift für kursives Denken'', edited by the academy's rector, the painter

Markus Lüpertz Markus Lüpertz (born 25 April 1941) is a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and writer. He also publishes a magazine, and plays jazz piano. He is one of the best-known German contemporary artists. His subjects are characterized by suggest ...

. Grünbein's third opera, ''Die Weiden'', had its premiere on 8 December 2018 at

Wiener Staatsoper The Vienna State Opera (, ) is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by ...

, which commissioned the opera from Austrian composer

Johannes Maria Staud Johannes Maria Staud (born 17 August 1974) is an Austrian composer. Biography Staud was born in Innsbruck and studied with, among others, Brian Ferneyhough and Michael Jarrell (at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna). In 1999/ ...

and Grünbein. Following ''Berenice'' in 2004 for the Munich Biennale and ''Die Antilope'' in 2014 for Lucerne Festival, ''Die Weiden'' is the third opera Grünbein has written in collaboration with Staud. Staud and Grünbein were booed at the premiere.

Critical reception

Since the publication of his first collection of poems in 1988, Durs Grünbein has emerged as "Germany's most prolific, versatile, successful and internationally renowned contemporary poet and essayist", a "poet of world significance" and one of "the key figures shaping the contemporary scene", alongside, for instance, Ulrike Draesner, Raul Schrott, and Marcel Beyer. Conceiving poetry as a means of memorial, historical, and aesthetic exploration, Grünbein arguably, draws not only on his biography, but on a deep sense of history and far-ranging erudition to produce sardonic poems and essays, bristling with unusual perceptions and inventive expressions". Whereas the intersection of literature and science, aesthetics and evolution, as well as the poetic elaboration of the existential experience in the GDR were the main focus of the critically acclaimed first collections of poetry, '' Grauzone morgens'' (1988), Schädelbasislektion (1991), Falten und Fallen (1994), since the middle 1990s, and especially since the collection Nach den Satiren (1999), classical antiquity figures prominently in Grünbein's poems and essays. "As in his poetry, in his essays, too", observes Michael Eskin, "Grünbein succeeds in artfully interweaving autobiography and memoir with a host of broader concerns ranging from questions of history, science, and medicine, to question of ethics, aesthetics, and politics, with special attention to the continued relevance of the past – Greek and roman antiquity in particular – in and to the contemporary world, as well as the inevitable interpretive malleability of the past in the light of our ever-evolving present". The poet's dialogue with the ancient legacy is more complex even than his own reflection suggests and most scholars assume. Besides interviewing past and present, some poems also engage with the gap between the past and its poetic figuration. Grünbein's works on Descartes' philosophy and its significance for the poetic subjectivity have been praised by prominent critics and thinkers for their depth and remarkable style, "one capable of conducting powerful and original thought with no loss of lyric intensity", notices Don Paterson.

George Steiner Francis George Steiner, Fellow of the British Academy#Fellowship, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between ...

's opus magnum ''The Poetry of Thought'' (2011) is dedicated to "Durs Grünbein, poet and Cartesian".

Honors

* 1992: Bremer Literaturförderpreis * 1992: Marburger Literaturpreis * 1993: * 1995:

Peter Huchel Prize Peter Huchel Prize is a literature prize awarded in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Peter Huchel Prize for German-language poetry, donated by the state of Baden-Württemberg and Südwestrundfunk, has been awarded since 1983 for an outstanding lyri ...

* 1995:

* 2001: Spycher: Literaturpreis Leuk * 2004:

* 2005:

Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis is a German literary prize. It was established in 1983. The City of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe awards the prize annually in June. It is endowed with 20,000 euros and is awarded as a general literary award for outstanding ...

der Stadt Bad Homburg * 2006: Berliner Literaturpreis * 2006: Premio Internazionale Pier Paolo Pasolini Roma * 2008: Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaft und Künste * 2009/2010: Frankfurter Poetik-Dozentur * 2009: Knights Commander of the

* 2009: Samuel-Bogumil-Linde-Preis * 2009: Stipendium der Deutschen Akademie Rom

* 2012: Tomas-Tranströmer-Preis der schwedischen Stadt Västerås * 2019: Premio Internazionale di Poesia – Centro di Poesia Contemporanea dell'Università di Bologna * 2020:

Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award The Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award (Polish: ''Międzynarodowa Nagroda Literacka im. Zbigniewa Herberta'') is a Polish international literary award, literature prize established in 2013 in Warsaw and named after a Polish poet, essa ...

Work

Poetry

* '' Grauzone morgens'' (1988), * ''Schädelbasislektion'' (1991), * ''Falten und Fallen'' (1994), * ''Den teuren Toten'' (1994), * ''Nach den Satiren'' (1999), * ''

Erklärte Nacht ''Erklärte Nacht'' ("Declared night") is a 2002 poetry collection by the German writer Durs Grünbein. See also * 2002 in poetry * German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German lan ...

'' (2002), * '' Vom Schnee'' oder Descartes in Deutschland (2003), *An Seneca. Postskriptum. Die Kürze des Lebens (2004) * ''Der Misanthrop auf Capri'' (2005), * '' Porzellan. Poem vom Untergang meiner Stadt'' (2005), *Strophen für Übermorgen (2007), ' *Liebesgedichte (2008) *Lob des Taifuns. Reisetagebücher in Haikus (2008) *''Der cartesische Taucher.'' Drei Meditationen. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2008, . *Libellen in Liberia. Gedichte und Berichte (2010) * ''Aroma'' (2010), * ''Koloss im Nebel'' (2012), *''Cyrano oder Die Rückkehr vom Mond.'' Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2014, *''Die Jahre im Zoo. Ein Kaleidoskop.'' Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2015, *''Zündkerzen.'' Gedichte. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2017, *Oper. Libretti. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2018 *Contributor to ''A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue Between East and West'' *'' Äquidistanz'' (2022),

Prose

* ''Galilei vermisst Dantes Hölle und bleibt an den Maßen hängen''. Aufsätze 1989–1995 (1996), * ''Das erste Jahr. Berliner Aufzeichnungen'' (2001), * ''Warum schriftlos leben''. Aufsätze (2003), * ''Antike Dispositionen'' (2005) * ''Die Bars von Atlantis. Eine Erkundigung in vierzehn Tauchgängen'' (2009),

Books in English translation

* ''Ashes for Breakfast: Selected Poems'', (translated in 2005 by

Michael Hofmann Michael Hofmann (born 25 August 1957) is a German-born poet, translator, and critic. ''The Guardian'' has described him as "arguably the world's most influential translator of German into English". Biography Hofmann was born in Freiburg into ...

) (shortlisted for the 2006 International

) * ''Descartes' Devil: Three Meditations'' (translated by Anthea Bell; published by Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc., New York, 2010) * ''The Bars of Atlantis: Selected Essays.'' (edited and with an introduction by Michael Eskin; published by

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer P ...

, New York, 2010) * ''The Vocation of Poetry'' (translated by Michael Eskin; published by Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc., New York, 2011) * ''Mortal Diamond: Poems'' (translated by Michael Eskin; published by Upper West Side Philosophers, Inc., New York, 2013) * ''Porcelain: Poem on the Downfall of my City'' (translated by Karen Leeder; published by Seagull Books, Calcutta, New York, London, 2020) * ''Psyche Running: Selected Poems 2005-2022'' (translated by Karen Leeder; published by Seagull Books, Calcutta, New York, 2024)

References

External links

Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist 2006
Biography, including audio and video clips
Profile on Germany – Poetry International Web site

at the ''

complete review ''Complete Review'' (stylized ''complete review'') is a literary website founded in March 1999. It is best known for reviews of novels in English translation, in particular drawing attention to otherwise neglected contemporary works from around th ...

''
Why Live Without Writing: Unpopular answers to poetry questions
Essay, February 2010 at the

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is a United States literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthrop ...

website
The Doctrine of Photography by Durs Grünbein
Doctrine of Photography, translated by Karen Leeder 2017 at the

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Grunbein, Durs 1962 births 20th-century German dramatists and playwrights 20th-century German philosophers 20th-century German poets 21st-century German dramatists and playwrights 21st-century German philosophers 21st-century German poets 21st-century German writers Dartmouth College faculty East German poets East German writers 21st-century German essayists German-language poets Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German librettists Living people Writers from Dresden Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) German male essayists