Marie Luise Kaschnitz was a German short story writer, novelist, essayist and poet. She is considered to be one of the leading post-war German poets. She married archaeologist Guido Freiherr Von Kaschnitz-Weinberg (the author of The Mediterranean Foundations of Ancient Art) in 1925, and travelled with him on archaeological expeditions.

She received high praise for her short stories, many of which were inspired by events in her life, complemented by her personal reminiscences. These stories were collected in books such as Orte and Engelsbrücke. She enjoyed travel greatly and her tales make use of diverse settings. They are thoughtful in nature, rather than eventful, often dealing with particular stages in a woman's life or a relationship. Her main collection is Lange Schatten ("Long Shadows"). Her favorite story was 1961's "Das dicke Kind".

Her post-war essay collection in Menschen und Dinge 1945 established her reputation in Germany. Her poems dealt with the war and the early post-war period, often expressing a yearning for a peaceful past, but also hope for the future. In the volume Dein Schweigen - meine Stimme she dealt with the death of her husband. After 1960 she became influenced by Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....

.

She briefly taught poetics at the University of Frankfurt

Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main

The Goethe University Frankfurt was founded in 1914 as a Citizens' University, which means that, while it was a State university of Prussia, it had been founded and financed by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt am Main, a unique feature in German university history...

. She was a member of PEN

International PEN

PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

. She won many prizes, including the Georg Büchner Prize

Georg Büchner Prize

The Georg Büchner Prize is the most important literary prize of Germany. It was created in 1923 in memory of Georg Büchner and was only given to artists who came from or were closely tied to Büchner's home of Hesse...

 in 1955 and the Roswitha Prize

Roswitha Prize

The Roswitha Prize is the oldest German language prize for literature that is given solely to women.The Roswitha-Medal has been given almost yearly since 1973 by the city of Bad Gandersheim....

 in 1973. The Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize

Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize

The Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize is a German literary prize, awarded every two years in the autumn by the Evangelical Academy of Tutzing. It recognizes the lifetime achievements of writers in the German language. The monetary value is €7500.The prize commemorates Marie Luise Kaschnitz, who died in...

 is named in her honor.

Works

• Liebe beginnt (1933) - novel
• Elissa (1936) - novel
• Griechische Mythen (1943) - Greek myths
• Menschen und Dinge 1945. Zwölf Essays (1946) - essays
• Gedichte (1947) - poetry
• Totentanz und Gedichte zur Zeit (1947) - a play and poetry
• Gustave Courbet. Roman eines Malerlebens (also: Die Wahrheit, nicht der Traum) (1950) - novel
• Zukunftsmusik (1950) - poetry
• Ewige Stadt (1952) - poetry about Rome
• Das dicke Kind (1952) - short stories
• Engelsbrücke. Römische Betrachtungen (1955) - reflections
• Das Haus der Kindheit (1956) - novel
• Der Zöllner Matthäus (1956) - radio play (script)
• Lange Schatten (1960) - short stories
• Ein Gartenfest (1961) - radio play (script)
• Dein Schweigen – meine Stimme (1962) - poetry
• Hörspiele (1962) - radio plays
• Einer von zweien (1962)
• Wohin denn ich : Aufzeichnungen (1963) - reflections
• Überallnie (1965) - selected poems
• Ein Wort weiter (1965) - poetry
• Ferngespräche (1966) - short stories
• Beschreibung eines Dorfes (1966) - experimental novel
• Tage, Tage, Jahre (1968) - reflections
• Vogel Rock. Unheimliche Geschichten (1969) - stories
• Steht noch dahin (1970) - autobiographical reflections
• Zwischen Immer und Nie. Gestalten und Themen der Dichtung (1971) - essays on poetry
• Gespräche im All (1971) - radio plays
• Eisbären (1972) - selected stories
• Kein Zauberspruch (1972) - poems 1962-1972
• Gesang vom Menschenleben (1974) - poetry
• Florens. Eichendorffs Jugend (1974)
• Der alte Garten. Ein modernes Märchen (1975)
• Orte (1975) - autobiographical reflections
• Die drei Wanderer (1980) - ballad
• Jennifers Träume. Unheimliche Geschichten (1984) - stories
• Notizen der Hoffnung (1984) - essays
• Orte und Menschen (1986) - reflections, posthumous
• Menschen und Dinge (1986) - reflections, posthumous
• Liebesgeschichten (ed. E. Borchers) (1986) - love stories
• Tagebücher aus den Jahren 1936-1966 (2000) - diaries

British/American editions

• The House of Childhood (Das Haus der Kindheit)
• Circe's Mountain - story selections
• Whether or Not (Steht noch dahin)
• Selected Later Poems of Marie Luise Kaschnitz (ed. Lisel Mueller)
• Long Shadows (Lange Schatten)

External links

• German site on Kaschnitz
• author page at Lyrikline.org
  Lyrikline.org
  lyrikline.org hosts contemporary international poetry as audio and text , plus bibliographies and biographies for each poet.lyrikline.org was started in November 1999 as a German-language site...
  
  , with audio and text (German).