Bastian Sick (; born 17 July 1965) is a German

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

History

Bastian Sick grew up in

Ratekau Ratekau is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approximately 10 km northeast of Lübeck. It is the place where Blücher surrendered after the Battle of Lübeck in 1806. The vil ...

, in the north of Germany near

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

. He attended the “Leibniz Gymnasium” in

Bad Schwartau Bad Schwartau is the largest city in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the river Trave and the Schwartau creek, approx. 5 km north of Lübeck. Bad Schwartau is a spa, well known for its iodide sali ...

where he did his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen yea ...

(A-level) in 1984. After his military service he studied

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

and Romance

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

. He graduated Magister Artium. During his studies he worked as a corrector and translator for the Carlsen-Verlag (Carlsen-press). Sick explains in the foreword of the Carlsen anniversary issue “Spirou & Fantasio” that the work experience as a translator and corrector coined his sense for orthography and punctuation. In 1995 Bastian Sick started working as a documentation journalist in the photo archive of German

news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or n ...

'' Der Spiegel''. In 1999 he joined the editorial team of the magazine “Spiegel online” and became a

literary editor A literary editor is an editor in a newspaper, magazine or similar publication who deals with aspects concerning literature and books, especially reviews.

. In 2003 he became famous as the author of the column “Zwiebelfisch”. In those columns he writes in a funny and entertaining way about the case of doubt in the German language, for example grammar, spelling, punctuation and style. In 2004, 50 of these columns were published in print by

Kiepenheuer & Witsch Kiepenheuer & Witsch is a German publishing house, established in 1948 by Joseph C. Witsch and on behalf of Gustav Kiepenheuer (who was already terminally ill). The partners initially held respectively 30% and 40% of the company's share capital ...

in Cologne. The title of the book called ''

Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod ''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod'' ( en, The Dative is the Death of the Genitive) is a series of books by Bastian Sick which deal in an entertaining manner with unappealing or clumsy use of the German language, as well as areas of contention ...

'' (literally ''The

Dative In grammar, the dative case ( abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jaco ...

is to the

Genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

its Death'') use puns employing the

his genitive The his genitive is a means of forming a genitive construction by linking two nouns with a possessive pronoun such as "his" (e.g. "my friend his car" instead of "my friend's car"). This construction enjoyed only a brief heyday in English in the l ...

, which is not used in

standard German Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (not to be confused with High German dialects, more precisely Upper German dialects) (german: Standardhochdeutsch, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the standardized variety ...

and often considered unaesthetic, instead of the normative genitive case. More than 2 million copies of this book were sold within two year

Two sequels have been published within the same time perio

The “Zwiebelfisch” was the first Internet column which became a bestseller after it was published as a book. Besides his columns Bastian Sick published other books about language curiosities. For instance “Happy Aua”, part 1-4. From the content of the book series “Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod” board games, computer games and calendar were produced. Sick has done several tours of reading where he also performed as an entertainer. On the 13 of March 2006, Bastian Sick performed in the Cologne Arena in front of an audience of 15.000 people in “the biggest German lesson of the world”. Therefore, he was supported by others such as Thomas Bug, Joachim Hermann Luger, Jürgen Rüttgers,

Frank Plasberg Frank Plasberg (born 18 May 1957) is a German journalist and television presenter. Biography Born in Remscheid, Plasberg has an education in theatre, politics and pedagogy and works as television presenter on German broadcaster WDR. From 1987 t ...

, Frank Rost, Cordula Stratmann, and Annette Frier. Recordings from this event and recordings from his tours were published as audio books. Due to an invitation of the Sony-BMG in 2007, Bastian Sick published a CD called “Lieder voller Poesie”, a homage to the musician and singer

Udo Jürgens Udo Jürgens (born Jürgen Udo Bockelmann; 30 September 1934 – 21 December 2014) was an Austrian composer and singer of popular music whose career spanned over 50 years. He won the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria, composed close ...

. In the year 2008 Sick hosted a temporary TV-Show on WDR. With artists like

Jochen Busse Jochen Busse (born 28 January 1941 in Iserlohn) is a German television actor. He began work as a stage actor at the Kammerspiele in Munich in 1960 and made his TV debut the same year. He has made 80 appearances in television since 1960. Joc ...

, Konrad Beikircher and Susanne Pätzold Sick presented in his thirty minutes show oddities out of the language everyday life. In the following year Sick left the Spiegel publishing company and became a self-employed author and speaker. With his program “Nur aus Jux und Tolleranz”A pun of German ''Tollerei'' meaning nonsense and German ''Toleranz'' meaning tolerance he went on tour through Germany in 2011 and 2013. Invited by the Goethe Institute, German schools and other educational establishments Sick did many performances in foreign countries, for example in Montréal (Canada), Hungary, Spain, Portugal, South Tyrol (Italy), Great Britain and Egypt. In addition he did a South-America tour with eight performances in six countries in 2008. Bastian Sick lives and works in Hamburg.

Works

Books

* ''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod. Ein Wegweiser durch den Irrgarten der deutschen Sprache''. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2004, . (Hörbuch: ) * ''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod. Folge 2. Neues aus dem Irrgarten der deutschen Sprache''. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2005, . (Hörbuch: ) * ''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod. Folge 3. Noch mehr Neues aus dem Irrgarten der deutschen Sprache''. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2006, . (Hörbuch: ) * ''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod. Folge 4. Das Allerneueste aus dem Irrgarten der deutschen Sprache''. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2009, . * ''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod. Folge 5''. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2013, . * ''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod. Folge 6''. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2015, . * ''Füllen Sie sich wie zu Hause. Ein Bilderbuch aus dem Irrgarten der deutschen Sprache.'' Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2014, . * ''Happy Aua. Ein Bilderbuch aus dem Irrgarten der deutschen Sprache.'' Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2007, . * ''Happy Aua 2. Ein Bilderbuch aus dem Irrgarten der deutschen Sprache.'' Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2008, . * ''Hier ist Spaß gratiniert. Ein Bilderbuch aus dem Irrgarten der deutschen Sprache.'' Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2010, . * ''Wegweiser durch den Irrgarten der deutschen Sprache.'' Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2012, . * ''Wie gut ist Ihr Deutsch? Der große Test.'' Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2011, . * ''Wie gut ist ihr Deutsch? 2. Der neue große Test'' Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2019, . * ''Wie gut ist Ihr Deutsch? 3 Dem großen Test sein dritter Teil.'' Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2021, . * ''Wir braten Sie gern! Ein Bilderbuch aus dem Irrgarten der deutschen Sprache.'' Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2013, . * ''Wir sind Urlaub! Das Happy-Aua-Postkartenbuch.'' Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 2010, .

CDs

*''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod''. Read by Rudolf Kowalski,

Der Audio Verlag Der or DER may refer to: Places * Darkənd, Azerbaijan * Dearborn (Amtrak station) (station code), in Michigan, US * Der (Sumer), an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq * d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Ocea ...

(DAV), Berlin, 2005, (Lesung, 2 CDs, 153 Min.) *''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod, Folge 2''. Read by Bastian Sick, Der Audio Verlag (DAV), Berlin, 2005, (Lesung, 2 CDs, 151 Min.) *''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod, Folge 3''. Read by Bastian Sick, Der Audio Verlag (DAV), Berlin, 2006, (Lesung, 2 CDs, 146 Min.) *''Bastian Sick Live''. Der Audio Verlag (DAV), Berlin, 2007, (Live-Show, 1 CD, 76 Min.) *''"Happy Aua" - Tour 2008''. Der Audio Verlag (DAV), Berlin, 2008, (Live-Show, 1 CD, 73 Min.) *''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod, Folge 4''. Read by Bastian Sick, Der Audio Verlag (DAV), Berlin, 2009, (Lesung, 2 CDs, 159 Min.) *''Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod, Folge 5''. Read by Bastian Sick, Der Audio Verlag (DAV), Berlin, 2012, (Lesung, 2 CDs, 168 Min.)

Singles

*''Keine andere Sprache''. 2014. Music and lyrics: Bastian Sick. ASIN: B00K6I4KXY *''Würde Goethe heut noch leben''. 2014. Music and lyrics: Bastian Sick. ASIN: B00K6I6WIA

References

External links

'Zwiebelfisch' - A regular series of articles written by Sick on Spiegel Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sick, Bastian 1965 births German LGBT journalists German male journalists Living people Writers from Lübeck German LGBT writers 20th-century German male writers 21st-century German male writers Der Spiegel people 21st-century LGBT people