Elke Heidenreich (née Riegert; born 15 February 1943) is a German author, TV presenter, literary critic and journalist. She has written audio plays, a magazine column, scripts for television plays and books. Heidenreich is known as the ''

Kabarett Kabarett (; from French ''cabaret'' = tavern) is satirical revue, a form of cabaret which was developed in France by Rodolphe Salis in 1881 as the ''cabaret artistique''. It was named Le Chat Noir and was centered on political events and satire. ...

ist'' who created a character, Else Stratmann. She is a literary critic in the television ''Literaturclub'' of the ''

Schweizer Fernsehen Schweizer Fernsehen (SF; "Swiss Television") was the German-language division of SRG SSR, in charge of production and distribution of television programmes in Switzerland for German-speaking Switzerland. It had its head office in Zürich.

''. She was awarded a

Goldene Kamera The Goldene Kamera ("Golden Camera") is an annual German film and television award, awarded by the Funke Mediengruppe. The award show was usually held in early February in Hamburg, but also took place in Berlin on occasion. It has been paused ...

in 1981, and the

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American Animated film, animated Coming of age, coming-of-age drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Loosely based on Felix Salten's 1923 novel ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'', the ...

in 2003 for her series ''Lesen!'', aimed at making reading of literature more popular. In 2006, she received the Grimme Award for her life's work in television. Her children's book ''Nero Corleone'' was translated to many languages and received several international prizes. She wrote '' Alte Liebe'' in collaboration with Bernd Schroeder, with whom she was married from 1972 but separated in the 1990s. Passionate about opera, she worked for children's operas at the

Cologne Opera The Cologne Opera (German language, German: Oper der Stadt Köln or Oper Köln) refers to both the main opera house in Cologne, Germany and its resident opera company. History of the company From the mid 18th century, opera was performed in the ...

for 12 years, and wrote

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

s and books, introducing a broader public to its culture.

Life

Heidenreich was born Elke Helene Riegert in

Korbach Korbach (), officially the Hanseatic City of Korbach (German language, German: Hansestadt Korbach), is the district seat of Waldeck-Frankenberg in northern Hesse, Germany. It is over a thousand years old and is located on the German Timber-Frame Ro ...

and grew up in

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

. From 1963 to 1969, she studied German, publication, religion and theatre history at the universities of Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. She married Gert Heidenreich in 1965. They separated, and she married Bernd Schroeder, an author of books and film scripts, in 1972. She was a freelance journalist for the SWR television and radio from 1970. With her husband, she wrote the audio play ''Die Geburtstage der Gaby Hambacher'' in 1971, and the script for the 1977 film '. She wrote a regular column for '' Brigitte'' magazine from 1983 to 1999, entitled ''Also''. From 1975, she was successful as a ''

ist'', creating the character Else Stratmann. She became known for writing TV shows, often about literature, such as ''Lesen'' (Reading), ''Literaturmagazin'' (Literary magazine), ''Durchblick'', ''Kölner Treff'' (Meeting in Cologne) and ''live''. In 1993 and 1994 she presented the ''Literaturclub'' of the ''

'' and has been a critic in its team since 2012. Heidenreich has written several books, audio books and film scripts. In 1995, she wrote ''Nero Corleone'', a story with a tomcat as the bullying protagonist. It was translated into 24 languages and received a Dutch prize for the best children's book for readers age six and older. In 1988, the translation to English was honoured with the

Mildred L. Batchelder Award The Mildred L. Batchelder Award, or Batchelder Award, is an American Library Association literary award that annually recognizes the publisher of the year's "most outstanding" children's book translated into English-language, English and published ...

.Batchelder Award winners, 1968-Present
ala.org She and her husband separated in 1995, but kept up literary collaboration, writing ''Rudernde Hunde'' in 2002 and '' Alte Liebe'' in 2010. She wrote ''Kolonien der Liebe'' and ''Am Südpol, denkt man, ist es heiß'' in 1998, ''Der Welt den Rücken'' in 2002, and ''Mit unseren Augen'' in 2007. Heidenreich lives in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. Heidenreich is passionate about

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

. Her mother bought her a ticket for ''

Die Zauberflöte ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...

'' at the Essen Opera in 1956 when she was age 13. She worked for the

with managers Günter Krämer, Christoph Dammann and

Uwe Eric Laufenberg Uwe Eric Laufenberg (born 11 December 1960) is a German actor, stage director for play and opera, and theatre manager who has directed at international opera houses and festivals, such as '' Elektra'' at the Vienna State Opera and ''Parsifal'' at t ...

, especially 12 years for the ''Kinderoper'' (operas for children). In 2004, she produced a CD together with Christian Schullen, entitled ''Oper! – Eine Liebeserklärung'' (Opera! – A declaration of love). When Laufenberg became manager at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, she began a series of opera introductions, entitled ''Passione'', in 2014, presented in dialogue with an expert. She wrote the

for the opera ''Adriana'' by Marc-Aurel Floros, premiered at the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg in 2015. She called opera a "power plant of emotions" (''Gefühlskraftwerk''), and wrote books on the topic, aiming at a broader interest in its culture.

Works

Heidenreich's works are held by the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

, including:

Books

* ''Darf’s ein bisschen mehr sein?'', 1984 * ''Geschnitten oder am Stück?'', 1985 * ''Kein schöner Land – ein Deutschlandlied in sechs Sätzen'', 1985 * ''Mit oder ohne Knochen?'', 1986 * ''Unternehmen Arche Noah'', 1986 * ''„Also …“ – Kolumnen aus der Brigitte'', 1988 * '' – Else Stratmann über Sport, Olympia und Dingens'', 1988 * ''Kolonien der Liebe'', 1992 * ''Nero Corleone'', 1995 ** * ''Am Südpol, denkt man, ist es heiß'', 1998 ** * ''Sonst noch was'', 1999 * ''Der Welt den Rücken'' (short stories), 2002 * ''Rudernde Hunde'' (short stories, together with Bernd Schroeder), 2002 * ''Schlafes Mörder – über Shakespeares Macbeth'' (together with Tom Krausz), 2002 * ''Nurejews Hund – Was Sehnsucht vermag'', 2002 * ''Erika – oder der verborgene Sinn des Lebens''. Sanssouci Verlag. Munich 2002. * ''Mit unseren Augen – Reisegeschichten'' (together with Tom Krausz), 2007 * ''Die Liebe'', 2008 * ''Eine Reise durch Verdis Italien'', 2008 * ''Passione. Liebeserklärung an die Musik''.

Carl Hanser Verlag The Carl Hanser Verlag was founded in 1928 by Carl Hanser in Munich and is one of the few medium-sized publishing companies in the German-speaking area still owned by the founding family. History From the very beginning, the publishing house h ...

, Munich 2009. . * '' Alte Liebe. Geschichten'' (together with Bernd Schroeder).

. Munich 2009. . * ''Nero Corleone kehrt zurück''. Carl Hanser Verlag. Munich 2011. . * With Tom Krausz: ''Dylan Thomas – Waliser. Dichter. Trinker''. Munich 2011. .

Filmography

* '. Film, 2003. * ''Elke Heidenreich: Ganz so leicht muss es auch nicht sein''. Documentary, Germany 2003 * ''Elke Heidenreich – höchstpersönlich!'' TV report,

Radio Bremen Radio Bremen (), shortened to RB () is Germany's smallest Public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster and the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (which includes Bremerha ...

, 2008 * ''Die Besten im Westen – Elke Heidenreich''. Documentary, Germany 2008

Awards

* 1981:

in the category Best AuthorGoldene Kamera 1981 – 16. Verleihung
(in German) * 1984: Goldene Europa * 1985: Adolf Grimme Award * 1988:

for ''Nero Corleone'' * 2003:

for ''Lesen!'' * 2006: Adolf Grimme Award * 2011: Corine Literature Prize

References

External links

* * Martin Helg
"Sex und Leidenschaft gehören zusammen. Liebe ist etwas für sich"
(in German)

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...

27 May 2016
Nie wieder ekelhafte Altmännerliteratur
(in German) cicero.de
Oper! Eine Liebeserklärung
lbib.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Heidenreich, Elke German women writers German television presenters People from Korbach Living people 1943 births German women television presenters German women television journalists German television journalists German women screenwriters German screenwriters German television writers 20th-century German journalists 21st-century German journalists University of Hamburg alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni