Peter Schneider (writer)

Peter Schneider (born 21 April 1940 in Lübeck) is a German novelist.

Life

Peter Schneider is the son of a conductor and composer. He spent his early childhood in Königsberg and Saxony; from 1945 to 1950 he lived in Grainau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen and from 1950 in Freiburg im Breisgau. After gaining his Abitur in 1959 he studied German, History and Philosophy at the Universities of |Freiburg and Munich. In 1962 he continued his studies at the Free University of Berlin. In the Federal election campaign of 1965 he worked together with a number of well-known writers in the electoral office "Wahlkampfkontor" of the SPD.

During the 1960s Schneider experienced a political radicalisation that led him to become one of the spokespersons and organisers of the Berlin German student movement. In 1967 he was involved in the preparation of the so-called "Springer-Tribunal". He was a member of a group aiming to found a proletarian political party and rouse the working-class. For this reaon Schneider worked temporarily as an unskilled worker in one of the Bosch-factories. Later he taught in a private school and work free-lance in broadcasting. In 1972 he took his degree, but in 1973 the education authorities in Berlin refused to appoint him as a trainee teacher on account of his political activity. This decision was only overturned by a Berlin court decision in 1976.

Having in the meantime established himself as a writer, Schneider gave up the idea of teaching. His novel "Lenz", published in 1973, had become a cult text for the Left, caturing the feelings of those disappointed by the failure of their utopian revolt. Since then, Peter Schneider has written novels, short stories and film scripts, that often deal with the fate of members of his generation. Other works deal with the situation of Berlin before and after German reunification. Schneider is also a major Essayist; having moved away from the radicalism of 1968, his work now appears predominantly in bourgeois publications. Schneider has frequently held posts as visiting professor or writer in residence at universities in the United States including Stanford, Harvard and Princeton. Since 2001, he has been the Roth Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Georgetown University. He lives in Berlin.

Peter Schneider is a member of the German PEN-Club. He is a recipient of a Villa Massimo scholarship (1979) and the "Förderpreis für Literatur des Kulturkreises" of the "Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie" (1983).

Works

* "Ansprachen", Berlin 1970
* "Kulturrevolution", 's Gravenhage 1973 (with Walter Kreipe)
* "Lenz", Berlin 1973
* "Schon bist du ein Verfassungsfeind", Berlin 1975
* "Atempause", Reinbek bei Hamburg 1977
* "Die Wette", Berlin 1978
* "Messer im Kopf", Berlin 1979
* "Die Botschaft des Pferdekopfs und andere Essais aus einem friedlichen Jahrzehnt", Darmstadt u. a. 1981
* "Der Mauerspringer", Darmstadt u. a. 1982
* "Niemands Land", Berlin 1982 (zusammen mit Monika Hasse)
* "Ratte – tot", Darmstadt u. a. 1985 (with Peter-Jürgen Boock)
* "Totoloque", Darmstadt u. a. 1985
* "Das Ende der Befangenheit?", Paderborn 1987
* "Vati", Darmstadt u. a. 1987
* "Deutsche Ängste", Darmstadt 1988
* "Extreme Mittellage", Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990
* "Nicaragua – oder Die Arbeit der Ameisen am Fuße der Wahrheit", Basel u. a. 1990
* "Wie die Spree in den Bosporus fließt", Berlin 1991 (with Aras Ören)
* "Leyla und Medjnun", Berlin 1992 (with Aras Ören)
* "Paarungen", Berlin 1992
* "Vom Ende der Gewißheit", Berlin 1994
* "Das Versprechen oder Die Jahre der Mauer", Berlin 1995 (with Margarethe von Trotta)
* "Eduards Heimkehr", Berlin 1999
* "Die Diktatur der Geschwindigkeit", Berlin 2000
* "Und wenn wir nur eine Stunde gewinnen ..." Wie ein jüdischer Musiker die Nazi-Jahre überlebte.", Berlin 2001
* "Das Fest der Missverständnisse", Reinbek bei Hamburg 2003
* "Skylla", Berlin 2005
* "Rebellion und Wahn", Köln 2008

Works translated into English

* "The Walljumper", New York 1984
* "The German Comedy", New York 1990
* "Couplings", New York 1996
* "Eduard's Homecoming", New York 2000
* "Lenz", in "Three Contemporary German Novellas", The German Library, Vol. 88, New York, 2001

econdary Literature

* Alois Prinz: "Der poetische Mensch im Schatten der Utopie", Würzburg 1990
* Colin Riordan (ed.): "Peter Schneider", Cardiff 1995
* Markus Meik: "Peter Schneiders Erzählung "Lenz", Siegen 1997
* Elizabeth Snyder Hook: "Family secrets and the contemporary German novel", Rochester, NY [u. a.] 2001
* Gundula M. Sharman: "Twentieth century reworkings of German literature", Rochester, NY [u. a.] 2002

External links

* [http://www.peterschneider-autor.de/ Internetpräsenz von Peter Schneider]
*
* [http://halleinstitute.emory.edu/schneider/schneider.html/ Biography]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1597003,00.html/ Review of "The Wall Jumper" by ] Ian McEwan