Botho Strauss

 ( 1944 Births ) 

Botho Strauss (; written as Botho Strauß) (born 2 December 1944) is a German playwright, novelist, and essayist.

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Early life His father was a chemist.

After finishing his secondary education, Strauss studied German, History of the Theatre and Sociology in Cologne and Munich. He never finished his dissertation on Thomas Mann und das Theater. During his studies, he worked as an extra at the Munich Kammerspiele.

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Career From 1967 to 1970, he was a critic and editorial journalist for the journal Theater heute ( Theater Today). Between 1970 and 1975, he worked as a Dramaturge assistant to Peter Stein at the West Berlin Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer.

After his first attempt as a writer, a Maxim Gorky film adaptation, he decided to work as a writer. Strauss had his first breakthrough as a dramatist with the 1977 Trilogie des Wiedersehens, five years after the publication of his first work. In 1984, he published Der Junge Mann ( The Young Man), translated by Roslyn Theobald in 1995.

With a 1993 Der Spiegel essay, Anschwellender Bocksgesang ("Swelling He-Goat Song")"He-goat song" is the translation of the Greek "" ("tragedy") a critical examination of modern civilisation, he triggered a major political controversy as his conservative politics was anathema to many.

In his theoretical work, Strauß showed the influence of Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Adorno, but his outlook was also radically anti-Bourgeoisie.

In 2014, Carl Hanser Verlag brought out a compendium of Strauß’s called Allein mit allen, spanning close to four decades from 1977 to 2013, and edited by German scholar Sebastian Kleinschmidt.

Strauss lives in Berlin as well as in the nearby Uckermark region. In 2017, he switched from his long-time publisher Carl Hanser Verlag to Rowohlt Verlag.

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Recognition

• 1974: Hannoverscher Dramatikerpreis
• 1977: Förderpreis of the Schiller Memorial Prize
• 1981: Großer Literaturpreis der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste
• 1982: Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis
• 1987: Jean-Paul-Preis
• 1989: Georg Büchner Prize
• 1993: Berlin Theatre Prize
• 2001:
• 2007: Schiller Memorial Prize

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Notes

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External links

• Botho Strauß: New German dramatic art. Website
• "Books in Brief: Fiction" on Couples, Passersby by Erik Burns, The New York Times (29 December 1996)

Categories: 1944 Births, 20th-century German Dramatists And Playwrights, 20th-century German Male Writers, 20th-century German Novelists, 20th-century German Essayists, 21st-century German Dramatists And Playwrights, 21st-century German Male Writers, 21st-century German Novelists, 21st-century German Essayists, Georg Büchner Prize Winners, German Male Dramatists And Playwrights, German Male Novelists, German Male Short Story Writers, German Short Story Writers, German-language Writers, Living People, People From Naumburg, Schiller Memorial Prize Winners

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