David E. Wellbery is an American professor of German Studies at the University of Chicago. As of 2022 he is the chair of the department of Germanic Studies and holds the LeRoy T. and Margaret Deffenbaugh Carlson University Professorship in the department. In 2020 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
Hermann Blumenthal was a German sculptor. He was a participating artist in the documenta 1.
The Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung was founded on 28 August 1949, on the 200th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. It is seated in Darmstadt, since 1971 in the Glückert House at the Darmstadt Artists' Colony. It is a society of writers and scholars on matters pertaining to German language and literature in the Deutsche sprachraum, or Germanosphere.
Karl-Markus Gauß is an Austrian contemporary writer, essayist and editor. He lives in Salzburg.
Karl Heinz Bohrer was a German literary scholar and essayist. He worked as chief editor for literature of the daily FAZ, and became co-publisher and author of the cultural magazine Merkur. He taught at the Bielefeld University for decades, and also at Stanford University, California. His autobiography appeared in two volumes in 2012 and 2017. Bohrer is regarded as a disputative intellectual thinker and critic, reflecting his time. He received notable awards for criticism, German language and literature, including the Johann Heinrich Merck Prize and the Heinrich Mann Prize. For his extensive work, Bohrer was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon (2014).
Christoph Hein is a German author and translator. He grew up in the village Bad Düben near Leipzig. Being a clergyman's son and thus not allowed to attend the Erweiterte Oberschule in the GDR, he received secondary education at a gymnasium in the western part of Berlin. After his Abitur he jobbed inter alia as assembler, bookseller and assistant director. From 1967 to 1971 Hein studied philosophy in Leipzig and Berlin. Upon graduation, he became a dramatic adviser at the Volksbühne in Berlin, where he worked as a resident writer from 1974. Since 1979 Hein has worked as a freelance writer.
Günter de Bruyn was a German author.
Werner Spies is a German art historian, journalist and exhibition organizer. From 1997 to 2000, he was a director of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Klaus Albrecht Schröder, director of the Albertina in Vienna, has called Spies "one of the most influential art historians of the 20th century."
Aris Fioretos is a Swedish writer, translator and scholar of Greek and Austrian extraction who writes in Swedish, German and English. Aside from his own literary career, he is also Professor of Aesthetics at Södertörn University and a member of both the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung and the Akademie der Künste.
Johann-Heinrich-Merck-Preis is a literary prize of Hesse awarded by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung since 1964. Since 2013 the prize winner receives €20,000. The award is donated by the Merck Group in memory of the German author and critic Johann Heinrich Merck (1741–1791).
Reinhard Jirgl is a German writer.
Kathrin Röggla is an Austrian writer, essayist and playwright. She was born in Salzburg and lives in Berlin since 1992 but moved to Cologne in 2020. She has written numerous prose works, including essays, as well as dramas and radio plays. For her literary works, she has won a wide range of awards.
Ulrike Draesner is a German author. She was awarded the 2016 Nicolas Born Prize.
Klaus Modick is a German author and literary translator.
Peter Hamm was a German poet, author, journalist, editor, and literary critic. He wrote several documentaries, including ones about Ingeborg Bachmann and Peter Handke. He wrote for the German weekly newspapers Der Spiegel and Die Zeit, among others. From 1964 to 2002, Hamm worked as contributing editor for culture for the broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk. He was also a jury member of literary prizes, and critic for a regular literary club of the Swiss television company Schweizer Fernsehen.
Paul Leonard Schäffer is a German composer, conductor and pianist.
Robert Schindel is an Austrian lyricist, director and author.
Stefan Weidner is a German scholar of Islamic cultures, writer, and translator. Due to his contributions to the reception of Arabic and other Middle Eastern literatures, the German scholar of Modern Oriental Studies Stefan Wild described him as a "leading mediator of Middle Eastern poetry and prose into German".
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.
