150px, Signature, 1988 Hans Wollschläger (17 March 1935, in

Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the largest town in population between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district () of Minden-Lübbecke, situated in the cultural region ...

– 19 May 2007, in

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main (river), Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in ...

) was a German writer, translator, historian, and editor of German literature.

Biography

Wollschläger is widely known as the translator of '' Ulysses'' by

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

, commissioned by

Suhrkamp Verlag Suhrkamp Verlag is a German publishing house, established in 1950 and is generally acknowledged as one of the leading European publishers of fine literature. Its roots go back to the "arianized" part of the S. Fischer Verlag. In January 2010, ...

after the reputation of previous translations had been tarnished. His translation took on "canonical and cult status" for German readers of Joyce. He also translated the complete works of

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

(together with

Arno Schmidt Arno Schmidt (; 18 January 1914 – 3 June 1979) was a German author and translator. He is little known outside of German-speaking areas, in part because his works present a formidable challenge to translators. Although not among Germany's mo ...

), and novels by

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

and

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett ( ; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the characters he created are Sam Spade ('' The Ma ...

. He was vice chairman of the '' Karl-May-Gesellschaft'' ('' Karl May society'') and was one of the editors of the historical

critical edition Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range i ...

of this author. He wrote several books of fiction and non-fiction, including a history of the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

which has a polemical aspect (at the close of the book he suggests the Catholic Church be declared a criminal organisation, and Pope Urban II as a mass murderer) but also contains excerpts from several Arabic sources never previously translated into German. Originally Hans Wollschläger had studied music. He wrote three symphonies which have never been performed in public. He also worked on a performing edition of the draft of

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

's unfinished Tenth Symphony, which he never completed. However, under the influence of Erwin Ratz, Wollschläger came to the conclusion that an unfinished masterwork should not be touched, and publicly withdrew his edition in 1962.

Selected works

* ''Karl May'' (1965, 1976, 2004) * ''Die bewaffneten Wallfahrten gen Jerusalem'' (1970, 1973) * ''Nacht-Stücke'' (1974) * ''Die Gegenwart einer Illusion'' (1978) * ''Herzgewächse oder Der Fall Adams'' (1982) * ''Von Sternen und Schnuppen'' (1984) * ''In diesen geistfernen Zeiten'' (1986) * ''"Tiere sehen dich an" oder das Potential Mengele'

(1987). * ''Bannkreis der Besseren Heimat'' (1990) * ''Denn es gehet dem Menschen wie dem Vieh: Wie dies stirbt, so stirbt er auch'' (2001) * ''Moments musicaux.'' (2005)

References

1935 births 2007 deaths People from Minden Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Postmodern writers English–German translators 20th-century German translators 20th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers {{Germany-translator-stub