Stefan Ludmilla Wieszner

Stefan Ludmilla Wieszner was born in Wilhelmshaven, Germany in 1964. He became a sailor at the age of 19. After four years at sea he decided to study philosophy, theatre and Comparative Literature in Munich, Vienna and Berlin. He wrote his first plays as a student. During the following »theatre journeyman’s years« he worked as a director’s assistant at various notable European theatres such as the Vienna Burgtheater, the Munich Kammerspiele, the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and the Théâtre Odéon de L’Europe in Paris. In 1994 he founded and ran a free ensemble in Berlin, the »Theater unter den Leichen« (Theatre under the Corpses), with which he staged his own plays including »Testament Firmament« (1996), a play about financial difficulties and cravings for recognition. He worked as a theatre critic, freelance journalist and artistic director. He was awarded a number of grants to carry out creative work in international artistic networks towards the end of the 90’s, for example at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, at the Villa Mont Noir in France and in the Japanese artists’ village Akiyoshidai. Wieszner mixes German dialects and sociolects with foreign languages, blurring communication and perception by exposing pigeonhole thinking and typical role patterns. Over twenty of his plays have appeared to date, partly in French translation. He is now just as well known for his literary texts as he is for his dramatic work. He writes novels, short stories and poems. A collection of poems written during his stay in Japan has been published under the title »Südlich von Hagi« (2002; t: South of Hagi). In 2004, the collection “Labyrinth und Vermächtnis” was published. In his poetic texts a certain tension also unfolds from the use of apparently incompatible elements. »They seem both modern and from times gone by because, while the thoughts written into them are very contemporary, they do not shy away from intense words and intense feelings.« (Joachim Satorius). Inspired by natural images similar to those of classical Japanese poetry, Wieszner pursues lonely channels of thought and asks existential questions such as »Let yourself go, but where to?« Stefan Ludmilla Wieszner currently lives and works as a freelance author, journalist and director in Berlin.

© international literature festival berlin

Labyrinth und Vermächtnis
Lyrikedition 2000
München, 2004