Patrick Süskind
Encyclopedia
Patrick Süskind is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 writer and screenwriter.

Life and work

The public knows little about Patrick Süskind. He has withdrawn from the literary scene in Germany and never grants interviews or allows photos. He was born in Ambach
Münsing
Münsing is a municipality in the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen in Bavaria in Germany....

 am Starnberger See, near Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. His father was writer and journalist Wilhelm Emanuel Süskind
Wilhelm Emanuel Süskind
Wilhelm Emanuel Süskind was a German writer, journalist and translator.Süskind was editorial journalist for politics with Süddeutsche Zeitung. Along with his own works he translated books into German, e.g...

, who worked for the well-established 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...

 and is famous as the co-author of the well-known "Aus dem Wörterbuch des Unmenschen" ("From the Dictionary of an Inhuman"), a critical collection of essays on the language of the Nazi era. Patrick Süskind went to school in Holzhausen, a little Bavarian village. His mother worked as a sports trainer; his older brother Martin E. Süskind is also a journalist. Süskind has many relatives from the aristocracy in Württemberg, making him one of the descendants of the exegete Johann Albrecht Bengel
Johann Albrecht Bengel
Johann Albrecht Bengel , Lutheran pietist clergyman and Greek-language scholar known for his edition of the Greek New Testament and his commentaries on it.-Life and career:Bengel was born at Winnenden in Württemberg, Germany....

 and of the reformer Johannes Brenz
Johannes Brenz
Johann Brenz was a German theologian and the Protestant Reformer of the Duchy of Württemberg.-Early Advocacy of the Reformation:...

. After his Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...

 and his Zivildienst
Zivildienst
Zivildienst is the civilian branch of the national service systems in Austria and Switzerland. In Germany as well Zivildienst was the alternative service to military service until suspension of conscription in 2011...

, he studied Medieval and Modern History at the University of Munich and in Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence
Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

 from 1968-1974. Süskind also attended lessons in English, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Politics, Art and Theology but, apparently, never graduated. Financially supported by his parents, he moved to Paris where he wrote "mainly short, unpublished fiction and longer screenplays which were not made into films" as he once said self-deprecatingly.

In 1981 he had his breakthrough with the play Der Kontrabaß (The Double Bass), which was originally conceived as a radio play. In the season 1984/85 the play was performed more than 500 times, the German language play performed most that season. The only role is tragi-comical orchestral musician, who has so many problems with his instrument and his insignificance that he falls into nagging fatalism. In the 1980s Süskind was also successful as a screenwriter for the TV productions Kir Royal (1987) and Monaco Franze (1983), among others. For his screenplay of Rossini, directed by Helmut Dietl
Helmut Dietl
Helmut Dietl is a German film director and author from Bad Wiessee.- Work :After completion of grammar school in 1958, Dietl studied theatre science and the history of art. Afterwards, he became head of photography and later assistant director to the Munich Kammerspiele theatre...

 he gained the Screenplay Prize of the German Department for Culture in 1996. He rejected other awards, like the respectable FAZ-Literaturpreis by a conservative German newspaper, the Tukanpreis and the Gutenbergpreis.

His best-known work is the internationally acclaimed bestseller Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985). This was made into a film in 2006 by Tom Tykwer
Tom Tykwer
Tom Tykwer is a German film director, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing Run Lola Run , Heaven , Perfume: The Story of a Murderer , and The International ....

 and is the only story of his to have reached the cinema to date. With more than 12 million copies sold and translations into 46 languages, he is probably the most well-known contemporary German writer in the world. His novel was on the bestselling list of the German weekly news magazine "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:...

" for nine years. He is also the author of a novella, The Pigeon
The Pigeon
The Pigeon is a novella by Patrick Süskind about the fictional character Jonathan Noel, a solitary Parisian bank security guard who undergoes an existential crisis when a pigeon roosts in front of his one-room apartment's door, prohibiting him entrance to his private sanctuary...

 (1988), The Story of Mr. Sommer
The Story of Mr Sommer
The Story of Mr Sommer is a novella by the German writer Patrick Süskind.The story portrays the childhood of a boy in a small village in Germany. The appearance...

 (1991), Three Stories and a Reflection (1996), and a collection of essays, On Love and Death
On Love and Death
On Love and Death is a collection of essays written by Patrick Süskind concerning the connection between "the two elemental forces of human existence."-Summary:...

 (2006).

Süskind lives reclusively in Munich, in Seeheim (Lake Starnberg
Lake Starnberg
Lake Starnberg , 25 kilometers southwest of Munich in southern Bavaria, is Germany's fifth largest freshwater lake and, due to its large average depth, the second richest in water...

) and in France (probably Paris and Montolieu).

Selected works

  • The Double Bass (play, 1981)
  • Perfume (1985)
  • The Pigeon
    The Pigeon
    The Pigeon is a novella by Patrick Süskind about the fictional character Jonathan Noel, a solitary Parisian bank security guard who undergoes an existential crisis when a pigeon roosts in front of his one-room apartment's door, prohibiting him entrance to his private sanctuary...

     (1988)
  • The Story of Mr Sommer
    The Story of Mr Sommer
    The Story of Mr Sommer is a novella by the German writer Patrick Süskind.The story portrays the childhood of a boy in a small village in Germany. The appearance...

     (1991)
  • Three Stories and a Reflection (1996)
  • Rossini (film, 1997)
  • On Love and Death
    On Love and Death
    On Love and Death is a collection of essays written by Patrick Süskind concerning the connection between "the two elemental forces of human existence."-Summary:...

     (essays)


A movie
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (film)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a 2006 German thriller film directed by Tom Tykwer and written by Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger and Tykwer. It is based on the 1985 novel Perfume by Patrick Süskind. Set in 18th century France, the film tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille , an olfactory...

 based on Perfume was released in 2006.

Further reading

  • Delseit, Wolfgang and Drost, Ralf. Patrick Süskind. Das Parfum. Erläuterungen und Dokumente. Stuttgart: Reclam 2000.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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