Tilman Spengler

Tilman Spengler ( born March 2, 1947 in Oberhausen ) is a German sinologist, author and journalist.

Life and work

Spengler studied Sinology, political science and modern history in Heidelberg, Taipei and Munich and worked for several years at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of the living conditions of the scientific and technical world ( brief name "Max - Planck - Institute for the Social Sciences " ) in Starnberg active. In 1972 he completed his doctorate in Munich.

He then spent six years as a research associate of the philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. In addition to his academic work, he published regularly, among other things at the time and in GEO. In 1991 he published the novel biography " Lenin's brain ," which has been translated into twenty languages. In 1992 Spengler literary editor of the weekly magazine The Week. In 2003, his short story collection " When men hurting your back up ."

Spengler is a founding member of the Lübeck " Group 05 ". Since May 2006 he is the " Sinology Heidelberg Alumni Network" ( SHAN ) eV ( Sino Logic Seminar, University of Heidelberg ) as a board member to the side. From 1980 until 2008 he was their attitude Associate Editor of course book. He is a member of the PEN center of Germany.

Spengler is a China expert and in 1976 was the big earthquake in China. He traveled with Chancellor Schroeder to China in 2001 and Japan in May 2008 and accompanied the Foreign Minister Steinmeier to China. In an interview, he describes his relationship with China: "For the intensity of accurate observation me the feeling of strangeness is very important. After a few weeks sees, hears and smells so much more to the specifics. [ ... ] China is for me a place with fairly high compression in many areas of life. How long that stimulates thinking, I do not know. I always leave China soon enough before it could turn into a flat phase. " Recently Spengler stated that large parts of the German Sinology silent on the current Chinese political conditions. After all, this stands in contrast to the earlier adulation of Maoism. In 2010 Spengler gave the eulogy at the presentation of the Hermann Kesten Prize to Liu Xiaobo, who was also honored a little later with the Nobel Peace Prize. The sinologist was involved in the preparation of the exhibition Art of the Enlightenment in the Chinese National Museum in Beijing. In March 2011, Spengler was denied entry to China as accompanied by Foreign Minister Westerwelle for his efforts for Liu Xiaobo and other dissidents, who during this visit to China opened the exhibition. The reason for the ban, it was part of a Chinese cultural functionary, had Spengler, " the feelings of the Chinese people injured ." In an interview Spengler described the project as a "meaningful event," but went from such events as " legitimating impulses " from.

Wrote for the TV channel BR alpha and moderated Spengler 2010, the 101- part series "Classics of World Literature".

Spengler lives in Ambach am Starnberger See and Berlin. He is married to actress Daphne Wagner and has a daughter.

Awards

Works

  • Projected population growth in the decision-making process of economic and social policies of the PRC, 1975
  • The fall of Lin Piao. Paradigm for civil-military conflicts in the PRC ". Releases d Institut f Asian Affairs Hamburg No. 76, ISBN 978-3-921-46923-1
  • Lenin's brain, Rowohlt, Reinbek 1991, ISBN 978-3-498-06256-9
  • Spirits walls. Chinese travel images, Rowohlt, Reinbek 1991, ISBN 978-3-404-14385-6
  • The painter of Beijing, Rowohlt, Reinbek 1993, ISBN 978-3-498-06273-6
  • If men are hurting your back. A tale of woe in 24 vertebrae, Rowohlt, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-87134-272-6
  • The forehead, the eyes and the mouth. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1999. 320 pages, ISBN 3-498-06274-3
  • My society. Course book a work in progress, Berlin Verlag, Berlin, 2001. ISBN 3-8270-0381-4.
  • The happiness waits outside the city. Reports and stories from China. Berliner Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 978-3-442-76119-7.
  • Staying with Wagner. Art, culture and cuisine in the Villa Wahnfried. Together with Daphne Wagner and Barbara Beck Lutter, Collection Rolf Heyne, Munich 2002, ISBN 3899101413
  • Mallorca: from black pigs and Madonnas. Oasis for the senses. Sanssouci Verlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-725-41233-4
  • 15 monkeys for Ida. Or 15 monkeys for Ida, who once made ​​a very wise question. Together with Jörg Immendorff, Bloomsbury Children's Books and Art Books, Cologne 2005, 58 pages, ISBN 3-8270-5071-5.
  • Are you come here often? The art of leading a clever conversation. Ullsteinhaus, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-550-08768-4.
  • True it must be, otherwise I could not tell. 30 strokes of luck in the world literature. Ullsteinhaus, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-550-08839-1.
  • Joseph Needham. Scientific universalism. About importance and specialty of Chinese science. Edited, introduced and translated by Tilman Spengler. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-518-07455-5
  • Lenin's last days. A reconstruction of Alexei and Boris Chanjutin Rawdin, Rowohlt Berlin, Berlin 1994, ISBN 978-3-871-34097-0
  • Moscow Berlin. Stereograms, Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3-827-00413-0
  • Leonora Carrington: The ear trumpet, trans. from English. Island, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-458-04919-3
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