Charlotte Roche | |
|---|---|
 Roche at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015 | |
| Born | Charlotte Elisabeth Grace Roche 18 March 1978 High Wycombe, England |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1998–present |
| Spouses |
Martin Keß (m. 2007) |
| Children | 1 |
Charlotte Elisabeth Grace Roche (born 18 March 1978) is a British-German television presenter, author, producer, and actress. [1] She is best-known for her 2009 novel Wetlands .
Roche, the daughter of an engineer and a politically- and artistically-active mother was born in High Wycombe near London and raised in Germany. [2] In 1983, when Roche was five years old, her parents divorced, an event and experience that she later incorporated in her novels Feuchtgebiete ( Wetlands ) and Schoßgebete (Wrecked). She grew up in the Lower Rhine region, in a family with liberal views. Her primary school was in Niederkrüchten. In 1989, she went to the secondary school, St. Wolfhelm Gymnasium, in the neighbouring town of Schwalmtal. When she was 14 years old, she moved to Mönchengladbach, where she was educated at the Hugo Junkers Gymnasium in Rheydt. She left school after the 11th grade, at the age of 17. She obtained initial stage experience in drama groups during her time at school. [3]
Roche left home in 1993, still aged 17, and formed the garage rock group The Dubinskis with three female friends. The band never released an album, nor recorded any material, nor notably performed anywhere. There followed a period where she undertook anything that would shock and offend people—self-mutilation to paint with blood, drug experiments, or shaving her head. After successfully auditioning for the German music channel VIVA, she worked there for several years as a video jockey and presenter, as well on the sister channel Viva Zwei, where she presented her show Fast Forward.
In 2006, Roche played the female lead in the German film Eden , directed by Michael Hofmann . The film was widely distributed in Europe. Also in 2006, Roche was featured on the single "1. 2. 3. ..." with German musician Bela B., from Bela's debut album Bingo .
In an interview published in Der Spiegel in 2010, Roche proposed to have sex with German president Christian Wulff in exchange for his veto on a new regulation extending the life of nuclear reactors, [4] highlighting the controversial extension, and Wulff's role in passing it into law. [5] [6]
Roche's book Feuchtgebiete ( Wetlands ) was the world's best-selling novel at Amazon.com in March 2008. [7] Partly autobiographical, it explores cleanliness, sex and femininity, and had sold over 1,500,000 copies in Germany by early 2009. [8] For supporters it is an erotic literary novel; for critics it is cleverly-marketed shock-fiction bordering on pornography with a previously-exhibited habit of the author of offense for the sake of offense. [1]
Justin E. H. Smith wrote of the novel in a review in n+1 : "If Roche has hit on something true and heretofore unsaid, it is the insight that to write about bodily fluids is not to describe something exceptional in the course of human life. It is, rather, to describe something that is always there and always felt to be there, through all those other things people do and experience at that level that used to be the subject of novels (falling in love, challenging others to duels, talking about the buying and selling of land, etc)." [9]
Her second novel, Schoßgebete (Wrecked), was published in 2011. The novel makes reference to the death of her three brothers in 2001. [10]
In 2001, Roche's three brothers were killed in a traffic accident on the way to her wedding. [10]
Roche has a daughter, Polly, born in 2002, whose father Eric Pfeil was the producer and writer of Roche's program Fast Forward and Der Kindergeburtstag ist vorbei! ("The children's birthday-party is over"). Since 2007, Roche has been married to Martin Keß, co-founder of Brainpool, a media-company in Cologne.
Living in Germany and fearing difficulties after the Brexit-vote, Roche became a German citizen in 2017.
Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff is a retired German politician and lawyer who served as President of Germany from 2010 to 2012. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he previously served as minister president of the state of Lower Saxony from 2003 to 2010. He was elected to the presidency in the 30 June 2010 presidential election, defeating opposition candidate Joachim Gauck and taking office immediately, although he was not sworn in until 2 July. With the age of 51, he became Germany's youngest president.
Sabrina Setlur, formerly known as Schwester S., is a German rapper. Her debut was in 1995 under the guidance of 3p Records executive and mentor Moses Pelham, producer of her breakthrough single "Ja Klar". Following the drop of her pseudonym and a number-one single, "Du liebst mich nicht", in 1997, a series of hit records established her position as Germany's "best known and highest-selling female rap act" to date.
Monica-Christiane Lierhaus is a German sports journalist.
Gudrun Pausewang, less commonly known by her married name, Gudrun Wilcke, was a German author of children's and young adult literature. She was known for books such as The Last Children of Schewenborn and Die Wolke which became part of the German school canon. Her key interests included peace and protection of the environment, and she warned of the alleged dangers of nuclear energy. Her books have been translated into English and received international recognition and awards.
Lee Parry was a German film actress of the silent era. She appeared in more than 40 films between 1919 and 1939.
Wetlands is Charlotte Roche's debut novel. Partly autobiographical, it was first published in German in 2008 by M. DuMont Schauberg and was the world's best-selling novel in March 2008. For supporters it is a piece of erotic literature; according to critics it is cleverly marketed pornography. It was published in English as Wetlands by Grove Press in April 2009.
Joachim Wilhelm Gauck is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany.
An indirect presidential election was held in Germany on 30 June 2010 following the resignation of Horst Köhler as president of Germany on 31 May 2010. Christian Wulff, the candidate nominated by the three governing parties, the Christian Democratic Union, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria and the Free Democratic Party, was elected president in the third ballot. His main contender was the candidate of two opposition parties, the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance '90/The Greens, independent human rights activist Joachim Gauck.
Tim Mohr is a New York-based translator, writer, and editor.
Helga Guitton is a German radio and television presenter. She was a disc jockey and interviewer for RTL and was presenter of the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest.
Die Wolke is a German novel for young adults by German author Gudrun Pausewang, published in 1987. The story was written after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, with a 14-year-old girl having to deal with the consequences of a fictional similar disaster in Germany. It was translated into English by Patricia Crampton, published in 1997, as Fall-Out. Die Wolke, which received several awards, became a popular book for reading in class and was adapted for film and stage, has been regarded as Pausewang's signature work.
Wetlands is a 2013 German drama film directed by David Wnendt. It is based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Charlotte Roche and focuses on feminist issues, sexuality and coming of age. The film premiered in International competition at the 2013 Locarno International Film Festival on 11 August 2013.
Carla Juri is a Swiss actress. Her acting credits include 180°, Wetlands, Finsterworld and Blade Runner 2049.
Ruf! Mich! An! is a German novel published in 2000, Else Buschheuer's first. Widely described as soft porn, it was a best-seller, and although disliked by most reviewers when it first appeared, has since been much discussed by critics, some of whom argue that its seriousness was underrated.
Robert Habeck is a German politician and writer who has been serving as Vice Chancellor of Germany, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and as a Member of the German Bundestag for Flensburg – Schleswig since 2021. From 2018 to 2022, he also served as co-leader of Alliance 90/The Greens, alongside Annalena Baerbock. For the 2021 German federal election, he was a member of the leading duo, alongside Baerbock, who ran for chancellor of Germany.
Linda Zervakis is a German-Greek television presenter as well as newsreader and journalist. She was the first Tagesschau presenter with an immigrant background.
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Silvia Maria Breher is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a Member of the Bundestag for the constituency of Cloppenburg – Vechta since the 2017 federal election. At the CDU conference in November 2019 she was elected as one of the deputy leaders of her party; she succeeded Ursula von der Leyen who had been elected to the Presidency of the European Commission.
Anne Spiegel is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens. She served as Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 8 December 2021; she announced her resignation on 11 April and was dismissed by the President on 25 April 2022
Suzanna Randall is a German astrophysicist working at the European Southern Observatory. In 2018, Randall was selected as an astronaut candidate by the private spaceflight organisation Die Astronautin, which aims to send the first German woman into space.
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