Iris Radisch (born 2 July 1959) is a German literature-journalist. Since 1990 she has written for the mass-circulation

weekly newspaper Weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electronic publishing, digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly newspap ...

, ''

Die Zeit (, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The first edition of was ...

''. More recently she has come to wider prominence through her television work.

Biography

Iris Radisch was born in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

(as it was known at that time). She attended university at

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

and

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

, studying

German studies German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German h ...

Romance studies Romance studies or Romance philology (; ; ; ; ; ; ) is an academic discipline that covers the study of the languages, literatures, and cultures of areas that speak Romance languages. Romance studies departments usually include the study of Spa ...

and Philosophy. She then moved into journalism, working as a literary editor with the ''

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (''FR'') is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. The ''Rundschaus editorial stance is social liberal. It holds that "independence, social justice and fairness" underlie its journalism. In Post-wa ...

'', a mass-market daily newspaper. Her switch to ''

'' came in 1990. As a regular contributor to the paper's

Feuilleton A ''feuilleton'' (; a diminutive of , the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticism, a chronicle ...

(arts and literature) section she gained a reputation as a perceptive, original, but sometimes also starkly polemical literature critic, able to deliver her judgments with a rare level of authority. She was able to combine her journalism with guest professorships, notably at

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Missi ...

and at

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

. She also began to appear as a television moderator in discussion programes transmitted by

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

, ARD, WDR and the private-sector broadcaster VOX. Her public profile rose after August 2000 when she began her involvement with (The Literary Quartet), a weekly television program produced by

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

's ZDF broadcasting operator in collaboration (at that time) with Austria's

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the g ...

. The program presented book reviews provided (and argued over) by a permanent panel of four literary critics. Radisch took the place vacated through the well publicised resignation from the program of Sigrid Löffler. She remained a panel member till December 2001 when (temporarily, as it later turned out) the series came to an end. She also participated in a number of subsequent "one-off" episodes transmitted during 2005 and 2006 to celebrate anniversaries of

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

und

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

. During 2002/2003 she teamed up with the philosopher-journalist Gert Scobel, the longstanding moderator of the television arts magazine Kulturzeit, as an alternate presenter of the literary radio programme "Bücher, Bücher" from

Hessischer Rundfunk (; "Hesse Broadcasting"), shortened to HR (; stylized as hr), is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, A ...

. From August 2006 till September 2012 she "fronted" Swiss Television's Literaturclub show in succession to

Roger Willemsen Roger Willemsen (15 August 1955 – 7 February 2016) was a German author, essayist and TV presenter. Biography Willemsen was born and passed his Abitur in Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, locat ...

. Between 1995 and 2000 Radisch served on the jury for the

Ingeborg Bachmann Prize The Festival of German-Language Literature () is a literary event which takes place annually in Klagenfurt, Austria. During this major literary festival which lasts for several days a number of awards are given, the major one being the Ingeborg B ...

, a literary prize centred on German language literature and awarded each year, since 1977, in Klagenfurt. She returned to the prize jury a few years later, chairing it between 2003 and 2007. In 2007 Iris Radisch published her first book, "Die Schule der Frauen" (''loosely "The women's school"''). It was not the first time

the title The Title are a British four-piece indie band based in Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated populati ...

had been used, but Radisch's book covers and builds on more contemporary and pressing themes than the similarly titled works of

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

and Gide. "I have three children and one professional job and I am not a believer in simple solutions" (''""Ich habe drei Kinder und einen Beruf und ich glaube nicht an einfache Lösungen"''). The author illuminates her own experience of sustaining a professional career with her "career" as a mother of three small children by two different men. She "exposes modern myths" about the compatibility of family and profession. She discusses the semi-detached contributions of fathers. Since April 2013, jointly with , she has headed up ''

''s

section.

Celebration

In 2008 the

Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache The ' (, ''Association for the German Language''), or , is Germany's most important government-sponsored language society. Its headquarters are in Wiesbaden. Re-founded shortly after the Second World War in 1947, the is politically independent ...

awarded her the for her work on ''

''. In 2009 the French Culture Minister, Christine Albanel, made her a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres.

Output (selection)

* ''Die Seele Europas und die kleine Heimat. Keiner kommt hier lebend raus. Zwei Texte''. Wieser, Klagenfurt 2006, . * ''Die Schule der Frauen. Wie wir die Familie neu erfinden''. DVA, München 2007, . ** Taschenbuchausgabe (paperback edition): Goldmann, München 2008, . * '' Camus: Das Ideal der Einfachheit. Eine Biographie''. Rowohlt, Berlin 2013, . ** Taschenbuchausgabe (paperback edition): Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2014, . * ''Warum die Franzosen so gute Bücher schreiben: von Sartre bis Houellebecq.'' Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2017, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radisch, Iris Journalists from Berlin German women journalists 20th-century German journalists 21st-century German journalists 20th-century German women journalists 21st-century German women journalists German newspaper journalists German television presenters German women television presenters German television talk show hosts German literary critics German women literary critics Die Zeit people ZDF people Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 1959 births Living people 20th-century German women 21st-century German women