''Lettre International'' is the title of a number of cultural magazines published in various languages in Europe. The history of ''Lettre International'' dates back to 1984, the year that the original French edition (''Lettre Internationale'') first came out. Publication of the French magazine ceased in 1993. The corresponding German ''Lettre International'', founded by Frank Berberich, has come out continuously since its inception in 1988.

History

The original French edition was founded by Czech writer and scholar

Antonín Jaroslav Liehm Antonin, Antonín, and Antoñín are masculine given names. Antonín, a Czech name in use in the Czech Republic, and Antonin, a French name in use in France, and French-speaking countries, are both considered alternate forms of Antonino. Antoñí ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, 1984. This was followed by the establishment of an Italian edition, ''Lettera Internazionale'' (1985) and a Spanish one, ''Letra Internacional'' (1986). The German ''Lettre International'' was founded in 1988. Shortly after the upheavals of 1989, intellectuals in Central and Eastern Europe joined the project and established editions of ''Lettre International'' in their respective languages. At most, ''Lettre International'' came out in twelve different versions at once, but some editions eventually ceased publication due to financial constraints and other circumstances. The French ''Lettre Internationale'' ceased publication in 1993. ''Lettre'' currently appears in German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Romanian and, occasionally, in Danish language editions.

Lettre International, Berlin

In 1988, the German ''Lettre International'' was founded in Berlin, by chief editor Frank Berberich. To begin with, ''Lettre International'' was published in cooperation with the Berlin daily newspaper, ''Die Tageszeitung'', but has since the mid-1990 been the property of the independent Lettre International publishing company. The German edition comes out four times a year, with a circulation of 20,000 copies. Each issue of the German edition is printed in tabloid format, roughly 10.6 inches wide by 14.6 inches tall. Every issue features 30 to 40 texts by different authors, the majority of which are translations, all of them first appearances in German. For each issue, ''Lettre International'' recruits a single visual artist to design the title page and up to ten pages of the magazine's middle section. Each issue also presents a freestanding six to eight page photo portfolio, consisting of a photo report, conceptual or essayistic photography.

Special issues

Issue 1, published in 1988, was printed and distributed in 100,000 copies. Issue 31, published in winter 1995, was dedicated to the ongoing

siege of Sarajevo The Siege of Sarajevo ( sh, Opsada Sarajeva) was a prolonged blockade of Sarajevo, the capital of Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War. After it was initially besieged by the forces of the Yugoslav ...

, and titled ''Hommage à Sarajevo''. The issue, which featured contributions from

Jean Baudrillard Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as w ...

Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her ...

and

Heiner Müller Heiner Müller (; 9 January 1929 – 30 December 1995) was a German (formerly East German) dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. His "enigmatic, fragmentary pieces" are a significant contribution to postmodern drama and postdr ...

, among 46 other authors, appeared in German and Serbo-Croatian simultaneously. The issue featured artworks from twelve artists, including

Sophie Calle Sophie Calle (born 9 October 1953) is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist. Calle's work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and evokes the French literary movement known as Oulipo. ...

Rebecca Horn Rebecca Horn (born 24 March 1944, in Michelstadt, Hesse) is a German visual artist, who is best known for her installation art, film directing, and her body modifications such a''Einhorn'' (Unicorn) a body-suit with a very large horn projecting ve ...

Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of Jo ...

and

Lawrence Weiner Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942December 2, 2021) was an American conceptual artist. He was one of the central figures in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s. His work often took the form of typographic texts, a form of word a ...

. Issue 81, published in summer 2008, is a 250 page long double-issue, featuring artworks and photography from 85 artists and written contributions from over 50 authors, celebrating the German edition's 20th anniversary. The issue was titled ''So Leben Wir Jetzt'', featuring cover-artwork from Georg Baselitz. Issue 86, published in autumn 2009, was titled ''Berlin auf der Couch'' or ''Berlin on the Couch'', featuring Ewa Einhorn's drawing ''Bear'' as cover art. The main theme of the issue was Germany's capital and its development, culturally and otherwise, since the 1989 end of the Berlin wall. Among contributors to this issue were

Boris Groys Boris Efimovich Groys (born 19 March 1947) is an art critic, media theorist, and philosopher. He is currently a global distinguished professor of Russian and Slavic studies at New York University and senior research fellow at the Karlsruhe Univer ...

Iain Sinclair Iain Sinclair FRSL (born 11 June 1943) is a writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London, recently within the influences of psychogeography. Biography Education Sinclair was born in Cardiff in 1943. From 1956 to 1961, he was educate ...

, Jacques Rupnik, Angelo Bolaffi, Michail Ryklin, Wolfgang Müller,

Sylvère Lotringer Sylvère Lotringer (15 October 1938 – 8 November 2021) was a French-born Literary critics, literary critic and cultural theorist. Initially based in New York City, he later lived in Los Angeles and Baja California, Mexico.Hultkrans, Andrew"Boo ...

Eliot Weinberger Eliot Weinberger (born 6 February 1949 in New York City) is a contemporary American literature, American writer, essayist, editing, editor, and translation, translator. He is primarily known for his literary writings (essays) and political articles ...

Svetlana Alexievich Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich (born 31 May 1948) is a Belarusian investigative journalist, essayist and oral historian who writes in Russian. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suf ...

and

Václav Bělohradský Václav Bělohradský (born January 17, 1944 Prague) is a Czech philosopher and sociologist. Life and career A graduate in philosophy and Czech from Charles University, Prague, from 1970 to 2010s he lived in Italy, where he was Professor of Poli ...

. An interview in issue 86, with politician and writer

Thilo Sarrazin Thilo Sarrazin (born 12 February 1945) is a German politician and former member of the SPD, writer, senator of finance for the State of Berlin from January 2002 until April 2009, former member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank u ...

, in which he expressed a strong anti-immigration and anti-Muslim disposition, caused a furore in the German media. In March 2013, ''Lettre International'' celebrated its 25th anniversary with issue 100, featuring artworks and photography from 36 artists, including Max Grüter,

and Daniel Richter. The issue's title stems from Max Grüter's cover artwork: ''Niveau sans frontieres''.

Lettre Ulysses Award

In 2003–2006, the German edition of Lettre International initiated and organized the '' Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage'', in partnership with the Aventis foundation and in cooperation with the Goethe-institute. It was the first world prize in the genre of literary reportage.

History

Lettre International, Berlin

Special issues

Lettre Ulysses Award

References

External links