Christoph Hein


Christoph Hein is a German author and translator.
He grew up in the town 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.
Hein first became known for his 1982 novella Der fremde Freund. From 1998 to 2000 Hein was the first president of the pan-German PEN-Centre.
According to Hein, the acclaimed film drama The Lives of Others is loosely based on his life story. In a 2019 article, he claims that after attending the premiere screening, he asked author and director von Donnersmarck to have his name removed from the credits, because he felt that the movie was a "scary tale taking place in a fantasy land, comparable to Tolkien's Middle-earth," that "does not depict the 1980s in the GDR".

Awards

Source:

Works

  • Die Witwe des Maurers
  • Frank, eine Kindheit mit Vätern
  • Einladung zum Lever Bourgeois
  • Cromwell und andere Stücke
  • Der fremde Freund
  • Die wahre Geschichte des Ah Q
  • Das Wildpferd unterm Kachelofen
  • Horns Ende
  • Schlötel oder Was solls
  • Öffentlich arbeiten
  • Passage – ein Kammerspiel in drei Akten
  • Die Ritter der Tafelrunde
  • Der Tangospieler
  • Als Kind habe ich Stalin gesehen
  • Das Napoleon-Spiel
  • Exekution eines Kalbes und andere Erzählungen
  • Randow – eine Komödie
  • Von allem Anfang an
  • Willenbrock
  • Mama ist gegangen
  • Landnahme
  • In seiner frühen Kindheit ein Garten
  • Frau Paula Trousseau
  • Über die Schädlichkeit des Tabaks. Rede an die Abiturienten des Jahrgangs 2009Das Narrenschiff. 2025. Novel, Ship of Fools, not yet translated into English.