Christian Kracht
Encyclopedia
Christian Kracht (ˈkʁaxt; born 29 December 1966) is a Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 novelist and journalist.

Early life

Kracht was born in Saanen
Saanen
Saanen is a municipality in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is the capital of the Obersimmental-Saanen administrative district.-Geography:Saanen has an area of . Of this area, 52.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 33.6% is forested...

. His father, Christian Kracht Sr., was chief representative for the Axel Springer
Axel Springer AG
Axel Springer AG is one of the largest multimedia companies in Europe, with more than 11,500 employees and with annual revenues of about €2.9 billion. The Company is active in a total of 36 countries, including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland...

 publishing company in the 1960s. Kracht attended Schule Schloss Salem
Schule Schloss Salem
Schule Schloss Salem is a boarding school with campuses in Hohenfels, Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany. It is considered one of the most elite schools in Europe.It offers the German Abitur, as well as the International Baccalaureate...

 in Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....

 and Lakefield College School
Lakefield College School
Lakefield College School is a coeducational boarding school located north of the village of Lakefield, Ontario, Canada.The school's motto is Mens Sana In Corpore Sano...

 in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, in 1989.

Literary career

Kracht worked as a journalist for a number of magazines and newspapers in Germany, including Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...

. In the mid-1990s he went to New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...

 as Spiegels Indian correspondent, as successor of Tiziano Terzani
Tiziano Terzani
Tiziano Terzani was an Italian journalist and writer, best known for his extensive knowledge of 20th century East Asia and for being one of the very few western reporters to witness both the fall of Saigon to the hands of the Vietcong and the fall of Phnom Pehn at the hands of the Khmer rouge in...

. He subsequently lived for several years in Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...

, in the former Yugoslavian embassy, and from there he visited various other Asian countries. His travel reports were published in the Welt am Sonntag
Welt am Sonntag
Welt am Sonntag is a German national Sunday newspaper published by Axel Springer AG, and established in 1948. Its head office is in Berlin, and it has local editions for Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Düsseldorf....

 newspaper, and subsequently appeared as a book, Der Gelbe Bleistift ("The Yellow Pencil"), in 2000. Between September 2004 and June 2006 he published the magazine Der Freund
Der Freund
Der Freund was a literary magazine published by Axel Springer AG. It was produced by Christian Kracht and Eckhart Nickel in Kathmandu, Nepal....

 in collaboration with the writer Eckhart Nickel
Eckhart Nickel
Eckhart Nickel is a German author and journalist.Nickel was born in Frankfurt am Main. After studying art history and literature in Heidelberg and New York City, he worked at various media outlets including the German lifestyle magazine Tempo, Arte television in Strasbourg, and Architectural Digest...

. Initially he lived in Kathmandu while working as editor; however he left this position, and vacated Nepal, when political unrest in the country made working conditions too difficult. The magazine was finally completed in San Francisco; eight editions were published, as originally planned.

Kracht's first novel, Faserland
Faserland
Faserland is the debut novel by Christian Kracht, published in 1995. It is considered to have triggered the new wave of German pop literature. It is the swan song of the generation of the 80's, whose characteristics are so carefully described in the book that it has been called the "cult novel of...

 (1995), was judged by some critics to be a key early work among the new wave of German "pop literature" that started in the mid-1990s, while others drew parallels with the work of Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis is an American novelist and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 different languages. He was regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney...

, some even accusing him of plagiarism. Kracht's work deals with modern consumer culture, the collapse of the post-war concept of a "harmonized middle class society", and the individual and national identity crisis
Identity crisis (psychology)
"Identity crisis is the failure to achieve ego identity during adolescence." The term was coined by the psychologist Erik Erikson. The stage of psychosocial development in which identity crisis may occur is called the Identity Cohesion versus Role Confusion stage...

 that this has brought about.

In September 2001 he published the novel 1979, which was seen by critics as his swansong in the pop literature genre, and depicted the fragility of an apparently decadent Western-metropolitan value system
Value system
A value system is a set of consistent ethic values and measures used for the purpose of ethical or ideological integrity. A well defined value system is a moral code.-Personal and communal:...

 and its powerlessness before the Eastern-totalitarian models of Islamism
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...

 and Maoism
Maoism
Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...

: Kracht was seen as on the way "towards genuine seriousness". The novel was published very close to the September 11 attacks, earning additional public attention.

Since 2004 a stage version of 1979, directed by Matthias Hartmann, has appeared in theaters in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, Bochum
Bochum
Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area and is surrounded by the cities of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Witten and Hattingen.-History:...

 and Hannover. In 2009 the play was shown at the Burgtheater
Burgtheater
The Burgtheater , originally known as K.K. Theater an der Burg, then until 1918 as the K.K. Hofburgtheater, is the Austrian National Theatre in Vienna and one of the most important German language theatres in the world.The Burgtheater was created in 1741 and has become known as "die Burg" by the...

 in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, while a stage version of Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten will be shown in theaters in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

, Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

 and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

.

Since November 2006 he has been a regular columnist for the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...

. His column, which is published every other Saturday in alternation with Jenny Erpenbeck
Jenny Erpenbeck
-Life:Jenny Erpenbeck is the daughter of the physicist, philosopher and writer John Erpenbeck and the Arabic translator Doris Kilias. Her grandparents are the authors Fritz Erpenbeck and Hedda Zinner. In Berlin she attended an Advanced High School, where she graduated in 1985...

 (previously with Nicole Krauss
Nicole Krauss
Nicole Krauss is an American author best known for her novels Man Walks Into a Room , The History of Love and, most recently, Great House...

), originally had the title "Letter from...", which by now has changed to "Letter from the Past".

February 2007 saw the publication of Metan ("Methane"), the product of a climbing expedition up Kilimanjaro with the writer Ingo Niermann
Ingo Niermann
Ingo Niermann is a German novelist, writer, and artist.-Biography:Niermann studied philosophy in Berlin, where he is still based and to the eastern part of which he allegedly moved as early as late 1989.-Publications:...

. The book describes the mysterious power of methane
Methane
Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...

 gas. Early reviews varied from the critical to the bewildered, one describing it as "großer Quatsch" ("a load of nonsense"). Another reviewer refers to the book as a parody of "alarmism" and suggested it should be taken as a joke: "But if this book is taken as a joke, it probably is not a bad one."

His most recent novel, Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten
Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten
Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten is a novel by Swiss writer Christian Kracht. It was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in September 2008...

, has garnered acclaim in the German-speaking literary world. Die Welt
Die Welt
Die Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times...

 called it a "glorious horror story"; the Süddeutsche Zeitung
Süddeutsche Zeitung
The Süddeutsche Zeitung , published in Munich, is the largest German national subscription daily newspaper.-Profile:The title literally translates as "South German Newspaper". It is read throughout Germany by 1.1 million readers daily and boasts a relatively high circulation abroad...

 praised the writing as not only deeply reminiscent of Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger was a German writer. In addition to his novels and diaries, he is well known for Storm of Steel, an account of his experience during World War I. Some say he was one of Germany's greatest modern writers and a hero of the conservative revolutionary movement following World War I...

, but also as the "most beautiful German prose currently on offer", and Die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...

 hailed the work as "the novel of the year".

Style and reception

Kracht's writings contain alienating
Alienation effect
The distancing effect, commonly mistranslated as the alienation effect , is a performing arts concept coined by playwright Bertolt Brecht "which prevents the audience from losing itself passively and completely in the character created by the actor, and which consequently leads the audience to be a...

 references to other works, including Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...

's Magic Mountain
The Magic Mountain
The Magic Mountain is a novel by Thomas Mann, first published in November 1924. It is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of 20th century German literature....

, the subtly ironic travel journals of Robert Byron
Robert Byron
Robert Byron was a British travel writer, best known for his travelogue The Road to Oxiana. He was also a noted writer, art critic and historian....

, and Herge
Hergé
Georges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...

's Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...

 series. Furthermore, the ligne claire
Ligne claire
Ligne claire is a style of drawing pioneered by Hergé, the Belgian creator of The Adventures of Tintin. It uses clear strong lines of uniform importance. Artists working in it do not use hatching, while contrast is downplayed as well...

 ("clear line") drawing style developed by Hergé is used for the illustrations (by Dominik Monheim) in the first edition of Ferien für immer ("A Permanent Vacation"), a collection of pieces about "the most pleasant places in the world", written with Eckhart Nickel
Eckhart Nickel
Eckhart Nickel is a German author and journalist.Nickel was born in Frankfurt am Main. After studying art history and literature in Heidelberg and New York City, he worked at various media outlets including the German lifestyle magazine Tempo, Arte television in Strasbourg, and Architectural Digest...

 in 1998.

Kracht has sometimes been a controversial figure in modern German-language literature. The meaning of his pronouncements in interviews is not always obvious; his description of the Taliban leader Mullah Omar
Mohammed Omar
Mullah Mohammed Omar , often simply called Mullah Omar, is the leader of the Taliban movement that operates in Afghanistan. He was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001, under the official title "Head of the Supreme Council"...

 (and by implication the Taliban itself) as "camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...

" should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt: in this case moral values take second place after media aesthetics. A similar principle applies to Kracht's foreword to the 2006 illustrated book Die totale Erinnerung (published with Feral House
Feral House
Feral House is a book publisher owned and operated by Adam Parfrey. The publisher itself describes the books it sells as "pure information", and says the topics of the books are "forbidden"....

 as "The Ministry of Truth" in the U.S.), in which all of North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

 is referred to as a gigantic simulation, whereas his ignorance of actual suffering in North Korea upset some commentators.

Kracht also became known to a wider audience in Germany through his enigmatic and oddly disjointed appearance on the popular Harald Schmidt Show
Harald Schmidt
Harald Franz Schmidt is a German actor, writer, comedian and television entertainer best known as host of two popular German late-night shows.- Early life :...

. Moreover he took part in an advertising campaign for the clothing label Peek & Cloppenburg with fellow writer Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre in 1999.

Kracht refers to his own books, which have been translated into more than 18 languages, with apparent self-irony — calling them merely "light entertainment" —, but behind this statement there is perhaps more than a little pretense: "After architecture, the greatest cultural achievements are to be found in comedy. I have tried to write comedies." Kracht distances himself from the label "pop literature". For example he once refused to allow his writings to be republished in an anthology of that genre.

In a recent list of the 500 most important intellectuals in Germany, published annually by the political magazine Cicero, Kracht is placed 101st, climbing 29 places from his previous year's position.

Personal life

He is married to film director Frauke Finsterwalder. They live in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, Argentina.

Books

  • Faserland
    Faserland
    Faserland is the debut novel by Christian Kracht, published in 1995. It is considered to have triggered the new wave of German pop literature. It is the swan song of the generation of the 80's, whose characteristics are so carefully described in the book that it has been called the "cult novel of...

     (novel), 1995
  • Ferien für immer (travel writing - with Eckhart Nickel
    Eckhart Nickel
    Eckhart Nickel is a German author and journalist.Nickel was born in Frankfurt am Main. After studying art history and literature in Heidelberg and New York City, he worked at various media outlets including the German lifestyle magazine Tempo, Arte television in Strasbourg, and Architectural Digest...

    ), 1998
  • Mesopotamia. Ein Avant-Pop-Reader (as publisher, anthology), 1999
  • Tristesse Royale (with Joachim Bessing, Eckhart Nickel, Alexander von Schönburg and Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre), 1999
  • Der gelbe Bleistift (travel writing), 2000
  • 1979 (novel), 2001
  • Die totale Erinnerung. Kim Jong Ils Nordkorea (illustrated book - with Eva Munz and Lukas Nikol), 2006. Released in English with Feral House
    Feral House
    Feral House is a book publisher owned and operated by Adam Parfrey. The publisher itself describes the books it sells as "pure information", and says the topics of the books are "forbidden"....

     as The Ministry of Truth.
  • New Wave. Ein Kompendium 1999-2006, 2006
  • Metan (with Ingo Niermann
    Ingo Niermann
    Ingo Niermann is a German novelist, writer, and artist.-Biography:Niermann studied philosophy in Berlin, where he is still based and to the eastern part of which he allegedly moved as early as late 1989.-Publications:...

    ), 2007
  • Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten
    Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten
    Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten is a novel by Swiss writer Christian Kracht. It was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in September 2008...

     (novel), 2008
  • Gebrauchsanweisung für Kathmandu und Nepal (travel writing/guide book to Nepal - with Eckhart Nickel), 2009
  • Five Years: Briefwechsel 2004-2009. Band 1: 2004-2007 - with David Woodard, 2011, ISBN 978-3865252357

Audio books

  • Liverecordings (with Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre, Harald Schmidt
    Harald Schmidt
    Harald Franz Schmidt is a German actor, writer, comedian and television entertainer best known as host of two popular German late-night shows.- Early life :...

     and Christian Ulmen
    Christian Ulmen
    Christian Ulmen is a German entertainer and actor.-Career:Ulmen started his television career in 1996 as a video jockey on MTV Europe...

    ), 1999
  • Faserland, 2000
  • 1979, 2002
  • Das Sobhraj Quartett - Asiatische Reisenotizen (with Eckhart Nickel), 2004
  • Das Jagdgewehr ("The Hunting Gun") by Yasushi Inoue
    Yasushi Inoue
    Yasushi Inoue was a Japanese writer whose range of genres included poetry, essays, short fiction, and novels...

     (with Sandra Schwittau, Mavie Hörbiger and Hannelore Elsner
    Hannelore Elsner
    Hannelore Elsner is a German actress. After finishing drama school she worked in theatres in Berlin and München. Later she starred in films and TV series such as Die Schwarzwaldklinik...

    ), 2005
  • Frühstück bei Tiffany (Breakfast at Tiffany's
    Breakfast at Tiffany's (novella)
    Breakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote published in 1958. The main character, Holly Golightly, is one of Capote's best-known creations and an American cultural icon.-Plot:...

    ) by Truman Capote
    Truman Capote
    Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...

    , 2007
  • Triptychon (with Dieter Meier
    Dieter Meier
    Dieter Meier is a Swiss musician and conceptual artist who is best known for the electronic music group Yello he formed with music producer Boris Blank...

    , Schorsch Kamerun
    Schorsch Kamerun
    Schorsch Kamerun, whose real name is Thomas Sehl, is a German musician, singer, author, theatre director, and club proprietor....

     and Dirk von Lowtzow
    Dirk von Lowtzow
    Dirk von Lowtzow is a German musician. He is the singer and guitarist with the German rock band Tocotronic since 1994. Since 2001 he is also active in the German electronic music project Phantom/Ghost....

    ), 2011

Translations of Kracht

  • Arabic
    Arabic language
    Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

    : New Wave, 2009 (original New Wave)
  • Bulgarian
    Bulgarian language
    Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...

    : Аз ще бъда тук, в слънце и в сянка, 2009 (original Ich werde hier sein im Sonnenschein und im Schatten, abbr. henceforth IWHS)
  • Croatian
    Croatian language
    Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

    : Ja bit ću tu, na suncu i u sjeni, 2009 (IWHS)
  • Czech
    Czech language
    Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

    : Faserland, 2010 (original Faserland, abbr. henceforth FL)
  • Danish
    Danish language
    Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...

    : 1979, 2004 (original 1979)
  • Dutch
    Dutch language
    Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

    : 1979, 2002 (1979); Ik zal hier zijn bij zonneschijn en bij schaduw, 2010 (IWHS)
  • English
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

    : The Ministry of Truth, 2007 (original Die totale Erinnerung)
  • Estonian
    Estonian language
    Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...

    : 1979, 2002 (1979)
  • French
    French language
    French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

    : Fin de Party, 2003 (1979); Je serais alors au soleil et à l´ombre, 2010 (IWHS)
  • Hebrew
    Hebrew language
    Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

    : 1979, 2003 (1979); שם כותר, 2009 (FL)
  • Italian
    Italian language
    Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

    : 1979, 2002 (1979)
  • Japanese
    Japanese language
    is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

    : Fāzaranto, 2000 (FL)
  • Latvian
    Latvian language
    Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...

    : Fāzerlande, 2003 (FL); 1979, 2005 (1979); Metāns, 2007 (original Metan, abbr. henceforth ME)
  • Lithuanian
    Lithuanian language
    Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...

    : Fazerland, 2007 (FL); 1979, 2008 (1979)
  • Polish
    Polish language
    Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

    : Tu będę w słońcu i cieniu, 2011 (IWHS)
  • Romanian
    Romanian language
    Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

    : Faserland, 2009 (FL)
  • Russian
    Russian language
    Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

    : Faserland, 2001 (FL); 1979, 2002 (1979); Метан, 2008 (ME); Карта мира, 2009; Я буду здесь, на солнце и в тени, 2009 (IWHS)
  • Spanish
    Spanish language
    Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

    : 1979, 2004 (1979)
  • Swedish
    Swedish language
    Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

    : Jag kommer vara här i solsken och i skugga, 2011 (IWHS)

Distinctions

  • 1993 - Axel Springer Prize for Young Journalists
  • 2009 - Phantastik-Preis der Stadt Wetzlar
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