23. ilb 06. – 16.09.2023

Alexander Osang

Alexander Osang was born in 1962 in East Berlin. He studied journalism in Leipzig and worked in the years after the reunification for the »Berliner Zeitung«, where he swiftly became chief reporter. In 1999, he went to New York as a correspondent for »Der Spiegel« for seven years before returning to his home town.

Now one of Germany’s most prominent journalists, he published his first collection of articles in 1992, »Aufsteiger – Absteiger« (tr: Winners – Losers). The regularly-published collections of his reports and columns are mainly concerned with social developments in Eastern Germany since 1989. Osang’s first novel, »Die Nachrichten« (2000; tr: The News), which was adapted for the cinema to great success in 2005, is also guided by this interest. The book is about the television host Jan Landers, born in the former GDR, who works his way into the »Tagesschau« studio in Hamburg, but goes on to learn that he will never entirely fit into the West German (media) system. Landers has to put up with a rumour that he used to work for the Stasi. This teaches him not only how fragile his status as a »westernised« East German is, but also the extent to which the media business is riddled with intrigues. In his subsequent literary work, the collection »Lunkebergs Fest« (2003; tr: Lunkeberg’s Party) and his second novel »Lennon ist tot« (2007; tr: Lennon is Dead), Osang distances himself from the East-West themes. What remains is his preference for characters who are in danger of failing or of losing themselves in unexpected developments. »Im nächsten Leben« (2010; tr: In the Next Life), a collection of his reports, which were first published in »Der Spiegel«, deals with the ruptures in biographies – whether of the German Chancellor or of an unknown American war veteran – which leave such unmistakable traces in someone’s life. Osang has won numerous prizes for his journalistic work, including the Theodor Wolff Prize and the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize for the best German-language report (which he has won three times). In 2009, he was named »Reporter of the Year«. Osang lives in Berlin.

Bibliographie

Aufsteiger – Absteiger

Ch. Links

Berlin, 1992

 

Das Jahr eins

Volk und Welt

Berlin, 1992

 

Die stumpfe Ecke

Ch. Links

Berlin, 1994

 

Das Buch der Versuchungen

Ch. Links

Berlin, 1996

 

Tamara Danz

Ch. Links

Berlin, 1997

 

Hannelore auf Kaffeefahrt

S. Fischer

Frankfurt a. M., 1998

 

Ankunft in der neuen Mitte

Ch. Links

Berlin, 1999

 

Die Nachrichten

S. Fischer

Frankfurt a. M., 2000

 

Schöne neue Welt

Ch. Links

Berlin, 2001

 

Neunundachtzig

Ch. Links

Berlin, 2002

 

Lunkebergs Fest

S. Fischer

Frankfurt a. M., 2003

 

Berlin–New York

Ch. Links

Berlin, 2004

 

Lennon ist tot

S. Fischer

Frankfurt a. M., 2007

 

Im nächsten Leben

Ch. Links

Berlin, 2010

 

Königstorkinder

S. Fischer

Frankfurt a. M., 2010

 

Wo warst Du? Ein Septembertag in New York

[Mit Anja Reich]

Piper

München, 2011

 

Comeback

S. Fischer

Frankfurt a. M., 2015

 

Winterschwimmer

Aufbau

Berlin, 2017

 

Die Leben der Elena Silber

S. Fischer

Frankfurt a. M., 2019