Gerhard Roth (24 June 1942 – 8 February 2022) was an Austrian writer.

Life

Roth was born in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

. The son of a medical practitioner, Roth, too, originally wanted to study medicine himself, but soon turned his attention to literature. Initially, he earned his living as a computer programmer. He was a freelance writer from 1976. From 1973 to 1978, he was member of the

Grazer Autorenversammlung The Grazer Autorinnen Autorenversammlung (GAV) was founded under the name of ''Grazer Autorenversammlung'' in March 1973 and is one of the two major Austrian writers' association (besides the Austrian PEN). H. C. Artmann was its first president. ...

before he moved to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

in 1979. Since 1986, he divided his time between

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

. He won many literature prizes, among which are the literature prize of Styria (1976), the

Alfred Döblin Prize The Alfred Döblin Prize () is a German literary award. Named after Alfred Döblin, it was endowed by Günter Grass in 1979. The prize is awarded every two years jointly by the Academy of Arts, Berlin and the :de:Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, Li ...

(1983), and the Bruno-Kreisky-Prize (2002). In 1995, he was awarded the Golden Romy for his screenplay of ''Schnellschuss''. He was also the recipient of the 2012 Jakob-Wassermann-Literaturpreis. Roth died on 8 February 2022, at the age of 79.

Work

Roth referred to himself as "someone obsessed with writing in the best sense." In the focus is the hero, struggling in vain, to whom the world appears to be a torturous, intolerable state. Often Roth externally couched his writings in the form of a

crime novel Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a profession ...

, in which he emphasised the unravelling of the hidden, in a figurative sense. The focus of his main opus, ''Die Archive des Schweigens'', is the re-appraisal of Austrian history in today's political and social systems.

Writings

*''Die Archive des Schweigens''. Cycle of novels with the following parts: **''Der Stille Ozean'', 1980 **''Landläufiger Tod'', 1984 **''Am Abgrund'', 1986 **''Der Untersuchungsrichter'', 1988 **''Im tiefen Österreich'', 1990 **''Die Geschichte der Dunkelheit'', 1991 **''Eine Reise in das Innere von Wien'', 1991 *Novels: **''die autobiographie des albert einstein'', 1972 **''Der Wille zur Krankheit'', 1973 **''Der große Horizont'', 1974 **''Ein neuer Morgen'', 1976 **''Winterreise'', 1978 **''Die schönen Bilder beim Trabrennen'', 1982 **''Der See'', 1995 **''Der Plan'', 1998 **''Der Berg'', 2000 **''Der Strom'', 2002 **''Das Labyrinth'', 2004 **''Das Alphabet der Zeit'', 2007 *Narrations **''Der Ausbruch des Weltkriegs'', 1972 **''Circus Saluti'', 1981 **''Das Töten des Bussards'', 1982 *Dramas **''Lichtenberg'', 1973 **''Sehnsucht'', 1977 **''Dämmerung'', 1978 **''Erinnerungen an die Menschheit'', 1985 **''Franz Lindner und er selber'', 1987 **''Fremd in Wien'', 1993 *Autobiography **''Das Alphabet der Zeit'', August 2007 *Essays **''Über Bienen''. (German/Japanese; with photos by Franz Killmeyer). Folio, Wien und Bozen 1996. **''Das doppelköpfige Österreich'', 1995 **''Gsellmanns Weltmaschine'' (with Franz Killmeyer) *several

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the liste ...

s and

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

s (in some cases of his own novels) *Translations **''Between Heaven and Hell'' xcerpt from Landläufiger Tod) in ''Black Letters Unleashed'', trans. Malcolm green, Atlas Press, London, 1989 **''the autobiography of albert einstein'', trans. malcolm green, Atlas Press, London, 1992 **''On the Brink'' m Abgrund with illustrations by Günter Brus, trans. malcolm green, Atlas Press, 2006

Bibliography

''All references are in German.'' *P. Ensberg und H. Schreckenberger: ''G. Roth'', 1994; *M. Baltl (Ed.): ''G. Roth'', 1995; *U. Schütte: ''Auf der Spur der Vergessenen. G. Roth und seine Archive des Schweigens'', 1997.

References

External links

Review of the book "Das Alphabet der Zeit"

"Gerhard Roth's Orkus Novels ''The Lake'', ''The Plan'', ''The Mountain,'' and ''The Stream'' as Murder Mysteries"
by Pamela S. Saur, ''Clues: A Journal of Detection'' 29.1 (2011) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roth, Gerhard 1942 births 2022 deaths Writers from Graz Austrian male writers Austrian screenwriters Marietta and Friedrich Torberg Medal recipients