Elke Erb (born 18 February 1938) is a German author-poet based in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

. She has also worked as a literary editor and translator.

Biography

Family provenance and early years

Elke Erb was born at Scherbach (today part of

Rheinbach Rheinbach is a town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis district (Landkreis), in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It belongs to the administrative district (Regierungsbezirk) of Cologne. Geography Situated south-west of Bonn and south of Cologne, Rheinbac ...

) in the hills south of

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

. Her parents had moved there with her uncle Otto and his family in 1937 in order, as her father put it, to "overwinter National Socialism". Ewald Erb (1903–1978), her father, worked at the local tax office, having lost his academic post as a Marxist literary historian at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...

on account of "Communist activities". Her mother Elisabeth worked on the land. Elke was the eldest of her parents' three daughters, all born in Scherbach between 1938 and 1941 when her father was conscripted for military service. Youngest of the three sisters is the author-poet

Ute Erb Ute Erb (born 25 December 1940) is a German writer, poet and translator. She grew up in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany); but when she was 16 she escaped illegally to the west, without telling her parents, and ended up living in Co ...

. As a member of the wartime German army Ewald Erb was at one stage charged with a form of sedition (''"Wehrkraftzersetzung"''), subsequently ending up as a prisoner of war. As far as the family were concerned, he was out of the picture between 1941 and 1949. In 1949 the family were reunited when Ewald Erb arranged for his wife and daughters to rejoin him at

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...

in the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...

. By this time, he had already been working at

Halle University Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university in ...

for two years, having arrived directly from a British prisoner-of-war facility in 1947. However, Ewald Erb was living in Halle in a single rented room containing one writing desk and one bed. There was space for the girls' mother, but the children were sent to live in a "home" (a recently reassigned boarding school) for the next two years. For Elke Erb, approaching her teenage years, the result of the disruption and uncertainty was a lasting alienation from her parents.

Education

After the war ended she attended school locally. At this point, the family all believed that her father was "missing in action". The move to Halle involved a change of school when Elke Erb was eleven. She successfully concluded her school career by passing the Abitur (final exams) in 1957. That was followed by a year as a farm worker during 1958/59 in the context of the Free German Youth (''"Freie Deutsche Jugend"'' / FDJ) land-improvement project with a farm collective at

Altmärkische Wische Altmärkische Wische is a municipality in the district of Stendal, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was formed on 1 January 2010 by the merger of the former municipalities Falkenberg, Lichterfelde, Neukirchen and Wendemark.the German Democratic Republic at this time. (The postwar

had been relaunched and rebranded as the Soviet sponsored "German Democratic Republic" – East Germany - in October 1949.) She then, between 1959 and 1963, undertook a four-year degree course at

in order to qualify as a teacher of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

. She emerged with the necessary qualification along with the insight that for her a career in teaching would be nightmarish.

Literary editor

Erb then worked first as a volunteer and then as 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.

with Mitteldeutscher Verlag between 1963 and 1966. This brought her into contact with several successful members of the East German literary establishment. She left after two years, however. In the second half of 1965 and early 1966 she was as a patient at a mental hospital. Later, she moved to

and set about starting a career as a freelance writer. Initially she lived in a one-room top-floor apartment in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. She worked on texts of her own, writing reviews for publishers on Russian dramas and on works of fiction. Soon she moved into a shared apartment with the author-poet

Adolf Endler Adolf Endler (20 September 1930 – 2 August 2009) was a lyric poet, essayist and prose author who played a central role in subcultural activities that attacked and challenged an outdated model of socialist realism in the German Democratic Rep ...

in the centre of

"five floors up, with an outdoor toilet". They married in 1968. Her first published poems appeared in 1968. By this time she had relocated permanently to

Writer and translator

In 1969 she undertook a lengthy visit to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

. Her first major pieces of translation, which appeared in 1974, were of texts by

Marina Tsvetaeva Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (russian: Марина Ивановна Цветаева, p=mɐˈrʲinə ɪˈvanəvnə tsvʲɪˈtaɪvə; 31 August 1941) was a Russian poet. Her work is considered among some of the greatest in twentieth century Russia ...

. She produced poetry and prose works and further translations, notably of novels by Oleg Alexandrovitch Yuryev and poems by

Olga Martynova Olga Martynova (born in 1962 in Dudinka, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia) is a Russian-German writer. She writes poems in Russian, and prose and essays in German. Olga Martynova grew up in Leningrad where she studied Russian literature and language and ...

. There were German language adaptations, mostly from Russian texts, but also from English, Italian and Georgian ones. She worked as an editor-compiler, at one point, for instance, of the annual "

Jahrbuch der Lyrik ''Jahrbuch'' (German for ''yearbook'') may refer to: * ''Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch'' * ''Gutenberg-Jahrbuch'' * ''Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung'' * ''Jahrbuch Medien und Geschichte'' * ''Jahrbuch über die For ...

". Elke Erb became, over the years, something of an inspiration and mentor for the Prenzlauer-Berg literary set. Her closeness to the evolving independent peace movement, her involvement in 1981 with an "unofficial" anthology of lyric poetry and her protests (with others) in 1983 against the deprivation of citizenship of the young civil rights activist Roland Jahn all combined to make her a focus for

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maintaining state author ...

surveillance. There was an attempt by the national executive of the (East) German Writers' Association under the chairmanship of

Hermann Kant Hermann Kant (; 14 June 1926 – 14 August 2016) was a German writer noted for his writings during the time of East Germany. He won the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1967. He served the Stasi as an informer under the codename ''IM Martin''. Early life ...

to exclude her from membership or at least to restrict her travel privileges, which would have severely restricted her ability to earn a living by writing, but the exclusion was never carried through by her local Berlin branch.

Published output (selection)

Poetry and prose

* ''Gutachten. Poesie und Prosa''.

Aufbau Verlag Aufbau Verlag is a German publisher. It was founded in Berlin in 1945 and became the biggest publisher in East Germany (GDR). During that time it specialised in socialist and Russian literature. It is currently led by Matthias Koch, René Stri ...

, Berlin, Weimar 1975 * ''Einer schreit: Nicht! Geschichten und Gedichte''. Wagenbach, Berlin 1976 * ''Der Faden der Geduld''. Aufbau Verlag, Berlin, Weimar 1978. * ''Trost. Gedichte und Prosa''. Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1982 (ausgewählt von

Sarah Kirsch Sarah Kirsch (; 16 April 1935 – 5 May 2013) was a German poet. Biography Sarah Kirsch was originally born Ingrid Bernstein in Limlingerode, Prussian Saxony but had changed her first name to Sarah in order to protest against her father's a ...

) * ''Vexierbild''. Aufbau Verlag, Berlin, Weimar 1983. * ''Kastanienallee. Texte und Kommentare''. Aufbau Verlag, Berlin, Weimar 1987. * ''Winkelzüge oder Nicht vermutete, aufschlußreiche Verhältnisse''. (Illustrationen:

Angela Hampel Angela Hampel (born 1956) is a German painter, graphic artist, and installation artist best known for her Neo-expressive prints and paintings of strong female figures from mythology and the Bible. Early life Born in 1956 in Räckelwitz near Ka ...

) Druckhaus Galrev, Berlin 1991 * ''Nachts, halb zwei, zu Hause. Texte aus drei Jahrzehnten''. Reclam Leipzig, Leipzig 1991 (ausgewählt von Brigitte Struzyk) * ''Poets Corner 3: Elke Erb'', Unabhängige Verlagsbuchhandlung Ackerstraße, Berlin 1991. * ''Unschuld, du Licht meiner Augen''. Gedichte, Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1994 * ''Der wilde Forst, der tiefe Wald. Auskünfte in Prosa'', Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1995. * ''Mensch sein, nicht. Gedichte und andere Tagebuchnotizen''.

Urs Engeler Urs (from ''‘Urs'') or ''Urus'' (literal meaning wedding), is the death anniversary of a Sufi saint, usually held at the saint's dargah (shrine or tomb). In most Sufi orders such as Naqshbandiyyah, Suhrawardiyya, Chishtiyya, Qadiriyya, e ...

, Basel und Weil am Rhein 1998 * ''Leibhaftig lesen''. Gedichte, Verlag Ulrich Keicher, Warmbronn 1999 * ''Sachverstand''. Werkbuch, Gedichte, Urs Engeler Editor, Basel und Weil am Rhein 2000. * ''Lust. 2 Gedichte''. Verlag Ulrich Keicher, Warmbronn 2001. * ''Parabel''. Verlag Unartig 2002. * ''die crux''. Gedichte, Urs Engeler Editor, Basel und Weil am Rhein 2003. * ''Gänsesommer''. Gedichte, Urs Engeler Editor, Basel und Weil am Rhein 2005. * ''Freunde hin, Freunde her''. Gedichte (= '' Lyrikedition 2000''). BUCH&media, München 2005, . * ''Sonanz. 5-Minuten-Notate''. Gedichte, Urs Engeler Editor, Basel und Weil am Rhein 2008. * ''Wegerich. Wahn. Denn Wieso?'' Gedichte (aus ''Sonanz''), Verlag Ulrich Keicher, Warmbronn 2008. * ''Meins''. Gedichte, roughbooks, Wuischke, Berlin und Holderbank 2010 * '
Elke Erb.
' (= '' Poesiealbum.'' 301). Märkischer Verlag Wilhelmshorst 2012, . * ''Das Hündle kam weiter auf drein''. Gedichte, roughbooks, Berlin, Wuischke und Solothurn 2013. * ''Sonnenklar''. Gedichte, roughbooks, Berlin, Wuischke und Solothurn 2015.

Audio-book

* in: ''Dichtung des 20. Jahrhunderts: Meine 24 sächsischen Dichter.'' Hrsg.

Gerhard Pötzsch Gerhard is a name of Germanic origin and may refer to: Given name * Gerhard (bishop of Passau) (fl. 932–946), German prelate * Gerhard III, Count of Holstein-Rendsburg (1292–1340), German prince, regent of Denmark * Gerhard Barkhorn (1919–19 ...

, 2 CDs, Militzke Verlag, Leipzig 2009, .

Translations

* Oleg Jurjew: ''Halbinsel Judatin'', Roman. Vom Autor neugeordnete u. durchges. Fassung. Aus dem Russ. von Elke Erb unter Mitw. von Sergej Gladkich. Verlag Jung & Jung, Salzburg 2014, .

Personal

Elke Erb was married with

between 1968 and 1978. Their son, the writer-musician Konrad Endler, was born in 1971.

Awards and prizes

* 1988 Peter Huchel Prize for ''Kastanienallee'' * 1990

Heinrich Mann Prize The Heinrich Mann Prize () is an essay prize that has been awarded since 1953, first by the East German Academy of Arts, then by the Academy of Arts, Berlin. The prize, which comes with a €10,000 purse, is given annually on 27 March, Heinrich ...

(jointly with Adolf Endler) * 1993 Ehrengabe der Schillerstiftung (Honorary award of the Schiller Foundation) * 1994 * 1995

Erich Fried Prize The Erich Fried Prize (german: Erich-Fried-Preis) is a literary prize in honour of the Austrian poet Erich Fried, and is awarded annually by the for Literature and Language, based in Vienna. The value of the prize, endowed by the office of the Chan ...

* 1995 Honoured guest of the

Villa Massimo Villa Massimo, short for Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo ( it, Accademia Tedesca Roma Villa Massimo), is a German cultural institution in Rome, established in 1910 and located in the Villa Massimo. The fellowship of the German Academy in Rom ...

in Rome * 1995 Ida Dehmel Literature Prize * 1999

Norbert Conrad Kaser Norbert Conrad Kaser (19 April 1947 – 21 August 1978) was a writer and poet from South Tyrolean Liberation Committee, the ethnically conflicted South Tyrol, South Tyrol / Alto Adige region of north-eastern (Treaty of London (1915), since 1918) I ...

Prize for Lyric Poetry * 1999 F.-C. Weiskopf Prize of the Berlin Academy of Arts * 2002 Stipendium beneficiary of the * 2007 Hans Erich Nossack prize for her overall output * 2011 Prize of the Literature Houses (''Preis der Literaturhäuser'') * 2011 * 2012

Roswitha Prize The Roswitha Prize (german: Roswitha-Preis) is the oldest German language prize for literature that is given solely to women. The Roswitha-Medal has been given almost yearly since 1973 by the city of Bad Gandersheim. In 1998 it received its moder ...

* 2012 * 2013 Autorin Erb erhält Ernst-Jandl-Preis für Lyrik
* 2014 Anke Bennholdt Thomsen Prize for Lyric Poetry from the

German Schiller Foundation The Deutsche Schillerstiftung (German Schiller Foundation), headquartered in Weimar, is the oldest private foundation for the assistance of writers in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in C ...

* 2016 for Lyric Poetry * 2018 Mörike Prize from the Town of

Fellbach Fellbach () is a mid-sized town on the north-east edge of Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of approximately 45.430 is the second largest town in the District Rems-Murr-Kreis. The area of the town is . Fellbach was f ...

* 2019:

Bundesverdienstkreuz The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

* 2020:

Georg Büchner Prize The Georg Büchner Prize (german: link=no, Georg-Büchner-Preis) is the most important literary prize for German language literature, along with the Goethe Prize. The award is named after dramatist and writer Georg Büchner, author of ''Woyzeck ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erb, Elke Writers from Berlin 20th-century German poets German women poets East German writers Translators to German Translators from Russian Literary editors Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century German women writers 1938 births Living people Georg Büchner Prize winners