Bernhard Schlink
Bernhard Schlink ( born July 6, 1944 in Großdornberg in Bielefeld) is a German jurist and writer. His novel The Reader, was an international bestseller.
Childhood and family
Schlink's father, Edmund Schlink, was professor of theology in Heidelberg, his aunt Basilea Schlink had protestant foundress, his grandfather Wilhelm Schlink Professor of Mechanics. His brother Wilhelm Schlink was until his retirement in the winter semester 2004/ 05 Professor of Art History at the University of Freiburg. His brother in law is Klaus Engelhardt, former Bishop of Baden. Bernhard Schlink's family moved shortly after his birth to Heidelberg; where he spent his childhood. He has a son who is a dentist.
Schlink as a lawyer
Schlink studied law at the Ruprecht -Karls- University of Heidelberg and the Free University of Berlin. As a research assistant, he worked at the Universities of Darmstadt, Bielefeld and Freiburg. He has a doctorate in law in 1975 in Heidelberg. PhD ( Thesis title: weighing in constitutional law, published 1976) and his habilitation in 1981 in Freiburg im Breisgau ( with a thesis on Assistance A contribution to a theory of the separation of powers in the administration, published in 1982. ). From 1982 to 1991 he was Professor of Public Law at the Rheinische Friedrich- Wilhelms- University Bonn and from 1991 to 1992 Professor of Public Law, Social Law and Philosophy of Law at the Johann -Wolfgang- Goethe- University Frankfurt am Main. 1992 to 2009 he was in Berlin held a chair of Public Law and Legal Philosophy at the Humboldt University. He was succeeded by Christoph Möller.
At Schlink's pupils was Ralf Poscher, Albert- Ludwigs- University of Freiburg. From 1987 to 2006, Bernhard Schlink judge of the Constitutional Court of the State of North Rhine -Westphalia in Münster.
In August 2005, he represented the Federal Government in the proceedings before the Federal Constitutional Court on the complaint of two Bundestag against the decision of the Federal President Köhler, dissolve the Bundestag and set new elections.
Bernhard Schlink is a member of the board of trustees of the first German legal online magazine Humboldt Forum right.
Schlink is a member of the SPD.
He now lives in Berkshire ( Massachusetts) and Berlin.
Schlink as a writer
1987 Bernhard Schlink was invited to the University of Aix -en- Provence. He lived for three months at his resident friend Walter Popp. Both were frequent reader of detective novels and decided to even write such. Their common Roman Selbs Justice is about the 68 -year-old private investigator Gerhard Selb, to an order back into his own past as lead prosecutor during the period of National Socialism.
After the success of the first album the next books Schlink followed without co-authors, the detective novel The Gordian loop of the Friedrich Glauser Prize was awarded in 1989. Once again, the protagonist is a former lawyer, George Polger who has dropped out as a translator to southern France and falls through the translation of construction plans for attack helicopters in the visor of a spy ring. With Selbs fraud, awarded the German Thriller Prize, and Selbs murder Schlink completed the trilogy about the private investigator Gerhard Selb.
Dorothee Nolte ruled on Schlink Selb novels: " There are peppy written, often witty novels - local knowledge will recognize streets and buildings - play in Mannheim and the surrounding area; refined built stories in which the political topicality and the German past are present. " Schlink himself saw the writing of detective novels as a way to face a problem and to solve it, what his work is comparable as a lawyer. In addition, social criticism let be packed in the plot.
In 1995 published the first non - mystery novel Schlink, The Reader, was a highly regarded international bestseller. The novel was translated into 39 languages , the American edition reached # 1 on the bestseller list of the New York Times. The Reader was awarded the Hans Fallada Prize (1998 ), the Italian literary prize Grinzane Cavour (1997) and the Prix Laure Battalion ( French bestdotierter price for translated literature ) (1997 ). 2008, the novel was made into a film directed by Stephen Daldry as The Reader.
Also, the short story collection Love getaways in 2000 became a bestseller. Richard Eyre in 2008 filmed the story of The Other from the band with Liam Neeson, Antonio Banderas and Laura Linney.
Schlink's books cover according to Beate Dreike often the complex law and justice. So turns out about the Selb novels the law as an unsuitable instrument for the establishment of justice dating back many deeds, and also in The Reader, the question arises, how about acts that were committed under a different legal system, is to judge. In this case, the book remains open in its position, which has also earned him criticism.
When asked about the motivation of his writing activity Schlink replied in an interview: "I write for the same reason, read from the other: They want to not only live a life. "
He is a member of the writers' association PEN Center Germany.
Works
Legal Reference Books
- Fundamental rights. Constitutional Law II with Bodo Pieroth, 27th edition, C. F. Müller, Heidelberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8114-9812-9
- Police and administrative law with the right of assembly, with Bodo Pieroth and Michael Kniesel, 7th edition, CH Beck, Munich, 2012. ISBN 978-3-406-64345-3
Fiction
By 2011, all in the Diogenes Verlag, Zurich published:
Audiobooks
- 2011: Selbs Justice, Diogenes Verlag Zurich, 7 CDs 488 mins, read by Hans Korte, ISBN 978-3257803075
Papers
- 2000 Home as a Utopia. ISBN 3-518-06613-7
- 2005 ascertainments - about politics, law, writing, and faith. ISBN 3-257-06483-7
- 2007 past debt. Contributions to a German theme. ISBN 3-257-06597-3
Awards
Secondary literature
- Christoph Cornelissen: 14th place Bernhard Schlink: The Reader. In: Christopher Jurgensen (ed. ): The favorite books of the Germans. Publisher Ludwig, Kiel 2006, ISBN 3-937719-34-2, pp. 39-59.
- William Collins Donahue: " Holocaust Lite. " Bernhard Schlink's " Nazi novels " and their film adaptations. Bielefeld: 2011 ISBN 978-3-89528-832-6 Aisthesis.
- Sascha Feuchert, Lars Hofmann: Lektüreschlüssel: Bernhard Schlink: The Reader. 2, aktualis. Edition. Reclam Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-15-015359-8. ( also available as a download)
- Manfred Heigenmoser (ed.): Bernhard Schlink, The Reader. Reclam Verlag, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-016050-2.
- Juliane Köster: Bernhard Schlink, The Reader. Interpretation. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-88745-9.
- Micha Ostermann: aporias of memory: Bernhard Schlink's novel The Reader. Publisher Marcel Dolega, Bochum 2004, ISBN 3-937376-03-8.