Max Goldt | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Matthias Ernst |
Born | 23 November 1958 |
Origin | Germany |
Occupation(s) | Author, singer |
Max Goldt (pseudonym of Matthias Ernst) (born 23 November 1958) is a German writer, columnist and musician.
Goldt was born in the town of Weende, now Göttingen, to working-class parents originally from Silesia. In 1977, he moved to West Berlin to avoid conscription. He started training as a photographer, but soon turned to making music full-time, working in various daytime jobs to support himself, including as a tourist guide. It was during this time that he chose the pseudonym Max Goldt. In 1989, Goldt married East German performance artist Else Gabriel, enabling Gabriel to leave the GDR.
In 1978, Goldt joined Gerd Pasemann to form the core of the underground band Aroma Plus , who issued two self-released albums before disbanding. In 1981 Goldt and Pasemann formed the duo Foyer des Arts, with Goldt providing lyrics and vocals. Foyer des Arts was signed by Warner Music's German branch WEA and enjoyed moderate commercial during the New German Wave. Their only hit (#36 on the West German singles chart) was Wissenswertes über Erlangen ("Things Worth Knowing About Erlangen"), a satirical take at Goldt's experience as a tourist guide (1982). Although Foyer des Arts did not formally disband until 1995, they were on hiatus most of the time and Goldt started to home record solo albums with experimental, often instrumental music and as well as Sprechgesang and spoken word tracks with background music and various effects. Goldt also published much of the (often quite bizarre) lyrics as books.
From 1987, Goldt had a regular column in the Berlin underground magazine Ich und mein Staubsauger ("Me and my vacuum cleaner"), in which he wrote more "straightforward" yet humorous essays with a distinctive style. After the magazine's demise in 1988, Goldt's column began to appear in Titanic , Germany's premier satirical magazine, on a monthly basis. The change marked the beginning of Goldt's second career as a writer of essays. The column appeared under varying headlines (Aus Onkel Max’ Kulturtagebuch ["From Uncle Max's cultural diary"], Diese Kolumne hat vorübergehend keinen Namen ["This column is temporarily without a name"], Manfred Meyer berichtet aus Stuttgart ["Manfred Meyer reporting from Stuttgart"], and Informationen für Erwachsene ["Information for adults"]. Regularly reprinted (some in revised form) in book format, these essays established Goldt as a major author. Goldt regularly travels the German-speaking areas reading from his books, often drawing large crowds. Recordings from these performances have been released on a series of compact discs. Apart from that, he continues to record music (in the broadest sense), solo and with Stephan Winkler (as NUUK).
In 1998, Goldt suspended his regular contributions to Titanic, although one-off articles continued to appear, but eventually resumed them in 2005. Since 1996, Goldt has cooperated with cartoonist Stephan Katz as the cartoon duo Katz & Goldt. Their comic strips have appeared in Titanic, Die Zeit and in a series of books. In 2008, on the recommendation of Daniel Kehlmann, he was awarded the Kleist Prize. Since the 2010s, Goldt suffers from writer's block but continues to write comic scenarios. [1]
Max Goldt's writing style is characterised by an ironic perspective on familiar aspects of everyday life; creative use of language, often combined with a critique of linguistic conventions in journalese and everyday language; frequent references to pop culture; ambiguity as to whether or not the narrator is relating the first-hand experience, opinions and sentiments of the author. [2]
see Foyer des Arts for more
(with Stephan Katz, "Katz und Goldt")
Adolf Holl was an Austrian Catholic writer and theologian. He lived in Vienna, where he was Chaplain of the University of Vienna and a lecturer in its Department of Catholic Theology. Because of conflicts with Church authorities, he was suspended from his teaching and priestly duties. He wrote many books, including Jesus in Bad Company and The Last Christian: A Biography of Francis of Assisi.
Lena Valaitis is a Lithuanian–German schlager singer who had her greatest success during the 1970s and 1980s. She finished second at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest.
Notker Wolf was a German Benedictine monk, priest, abbot, musician, and author. He was a member of St. Ottilien Archabbey located in Bavaria, Germany, which is part of the Benedictine Congregation of Saint Ottilien. He served as the ninth Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict from 2000 to 2016. He was known as the "rock abbot", for playing flute and sometimes e-guitar with the rock band Feedback in concerts and recordings.
Günter Kunert was a German writer. Based in East Berlin, he published poetry from 1947, supported by Bertold Brecht. After he had signed a petition against the deprivation of the citizenship of Wolf Biermann in 1976, he lost his SED membership, and moved to the West two years later. He is regarded as a versatile German writer who wrote short stories, essays, autobiographical works, film scripts and novels. He received international honorary doctorates and awards.
Arnold Stadler is a German writer, essayist and translator.
Peter Rühmkorf was a German writer who significantly influenced German post-war literature.
Wolf Dietrich Schneider was a German journalist, author, and language critic. After World War II, he learned journalism on the job with Die Neue Zeitung, a newspaper published by the US military government. He later worked as a correspondent in Washington for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, then as editor-in-chief and from 1969 manager of the publishing house of Stern. He moved to the Springer Press in 1971. From 1979 to 1995, he was the first director of a school for journalists in Hamburg, shaping generations of journalists. He wrote many publications about the German language, becoming an authority. He promoted a concise style, and opposed anglicisms and the German orthography reform.
Andreas Steinhöfel is a German author for children and young adult books, and a translator.
Volkslied is a genre of popular songs in German which are traditionally sung. While many of them were first passed orally, several collections were published from the late 18th century. Later, some popular songs were also included in this classification.
Ernst Peter Fischer is a German Historian of Science and Publicist.
Fritz Graßhoff was a German painter, poet and songwriter. He was known for hits sung by Lale Andersen, Freddy Quinn and Hans Albers. As a painter, he participated in important exhibitions; as a writer, he was known for his lyric volume Halunkenpostille and his autobiographical novel Der blaue Heinrich. He translated poetry by the Ancient Roman Martial and the Swede Carl Michael Bellman. Many of his writings have been set to music by composers such as James Last, Norbert Schultze and Siegfried Strohbach.
Hans-Michael Bock is a German film historian, filmmaker, translator and writer.
F. W. Bernstein was a German poet, cartoonist, satirist, and academic. He worked for the satirical biweekly pardon. After teaching at schools, he was professor of caricature and comics at the Berlin Academy of the Arts from 1984 to 1999. He was one of the founding members of the Neue Frankfurter Schule, which published the satirical magazine Titanic.
Karl Krolow was a German poet and translator. In 1956 he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize. He was born in Hanover, Germany, and died in Darmstadt, Germany.
Hanns Grössel was a German literary translator and broadcasting journalist.
Volker Hage is a retired German journalist, author and literary critic, who has reinvented himself as a novelist.
Heinz Ludwig Arnold was a German literary journalist and publisher. He was also a leading advocate for contemporary literature.
Fritz Joachim Raddatz was a German feuilletonist, essayist, biographer, journalist and romancier.
Horst Tomayer was a German poet, columnist, and actor. His column, Tomayers ehrliches Tagebuch, was published from 1982 to 2013 in the monthly magazine Konkret.
Nicolas Mahler is an Austrian cartoonist and illustrator. Die Zeit, NZZ am Sonntag, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and Titanic print his comics. He is known for his comics Flaschko and Kratochvil and for his literary adaptations in comic form. His comics have been adapted into films and theatre plays. He was awarded the Max & Moritz Prize and the Preis der Literaturhäuser.