Reinhard Lettau
Reinhard Lettau (10 September 1929, Erfurt - 17 June 1996, Karlsruhe) was a German-American writer. He never used his middle name, Adolf, if he could avoid it. He emigrated to the US in the middle of the 1950s and was a professor for German Literature at the University of California, San Diego from 1967. He was an active member of the Group 47. He gave incedentary speeches at the Freie Universität Berlin denouncing the Springer Press. He was thereupon expunged from the BRD because he was a foreigner - he carried an American Passport.
He returned to Germany in 1991 after the German Reunification. He received the War Blind Prize for radio plays in 1979, the Berlin Literature Prize in 1993, and the Bremen Literature Prize in 1995.
He had studied German, philosophy and literature in Heidelberg and at Harvard. His dissertation at Harvard in 1960 was titled "Utopie und Roman; Untersuchungen zur Form des deutschen utopischen Romans im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert.", about utopian novels in the 20th century.
He was a member of the PEN-Zentrum in Germany, the Germany Acadamy of Art (Deutsche Akademie der darstellenden Künste). He was "Poet in Residence" at the University of Essen in German in the winter term 1979/1980.
His books include:
- Schwierigkeiten beim Haeuserbauen (1962)
- 21 stories of the absurd, or rather, normal situations which become absurd
- Auftritt Manigs (1963)
- 51 short (usually less than one page) descriptions of Manig. We learn a lot about Manig, despite the extremely short but acutely precise observations
- Die Gruppe 47 - Bericht, Kritik, Polemik (1967)
- Feinde (1968)
- Three longer and three short stories. The main story, "Der Feind" is a collection of short, grotesque stories about the senseless absurdity of the military.
- Fruehstuecksgespraeche im Miami (1977)
- Where do dictators go when they have been deposed? Well, to Miami, to await the news that they may return. Lettau imagines dictators meeting for breakfast and discussing business. 43 short breakfast discussions on topics ranging from avoiding assassination to the advantages of smoking.
- Zerstreutes Hinschauen - Vom Schreiben über Vorgänge in direkter Nähe oder in der Entfernung von Schreibtischen (1980)
- 35 short chapters (but long by Lettauesque standards) looking to Germany and to the problems caused by Lettau taking part in a demonstration in Berlin and being deported.
- Herr Strich schreitet zum Äussersten. Geschichten (1982)
- Täglicher Faschismus (1982)
- Lettau analyzes six months of selected newspaper articles from the USA and discusses the fascist tendencies that he sees in them. Topics are worker's problems, the student protests, press manipulation and racism.
- Immer kürzer werdende Geschichten. Und Gedichte und Porträts. (1985)
- Zur Frage der Himmelsrichtungen (1988)
- What does East mean? Where is West? If you stand in San Francisco and look out over the ocean, you are looking at China and Russia - most certainly the East. If you are in Erfurt (or Berlin!) any way you look - North, South, East or West - is East. 52 short chapters.
- Flucht vor Gästen (1994)
- Lettau describes his return to Germany from America with his second wife, Dawn. Five chapters of unnumbered stories about terrible guests and about coming back to Germany.
- Reisekosten Abrechnungen 1-7 Tage 2004. Formularblock. (2004, posthum)
External link
- A picture of Reinhard Lettau speaking with Stephan Hermlin
- Urs Widmer writes an interesting biography in the "Neue Züricher Zeitung", to be found at Amazon. (in German)