Martin Lüdke (born April 9, 1943 in

Apolda Apolda () is a town in central Thuringia, Germany, the capital of the Weimarer Land district. It is situated in the center of the triangle Weimar– Jena– Naumburg near the river Ilm, c. east by north from Weimar. Apolda station lies on ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

) is a German

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

Life

After graduating from the Frankfurt Goethe-Gymnasium he initially began an apprenticeship in a

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ex ...

firm, but left to study philosophy, sociology, German studies and politics at the

University of Frankfurt University of Frankfurt may refer to: * Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a cit ...

.Cornelia von Wrangel
"Frankfurter Gesichter: Martin Lüdke"
''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

'', 10 June 2006 He earned his doctorate with a dissertation on "Die Differenz von Kunstschönem und Naturschönem bei Kant, Hegel und Adorno" (The distinction between the artistically beautiful and the naturally beautiful in Kant, Hegel and Adorno). From 1976 to 1978 he was a research assistant at the Bundeswehr Institute of Social Sciences (german: Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut der Bundeswehr, SOWI) in Munich. He then held the

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vari ...

in German literature at the University of Frankfurt until 1984 and from 1985 to 1990 was literary editor for television at

Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") 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, ARD. Studios Do ...

. During this time he also held visiting professorships at several American universities (Los Angeles, San Diego, and St. Louis). Since 2003 he has regularly taught as a courtesy professor at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in Gainesville. In 1990 he moved from Hessischer Rundfunk to Südwestfunk, which later became

Südwestrundfunk Südwestrundfunk (SWR; ''Southwest Broadcasting'') is a regional public broadcasting corporation serving the southwest of Germany , specifically the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The corporation has main offices ...

, where he initially headed the editorial board of ''SWR Bestenliste'', its monthly coverage of the best new books, and later the series ''Literatur im Foyer'' (now ''lesenswert'') in Mainz, which also airs on

3sat In logic and computer science, the Boolean satisfiability problem (sometimes called propositional satisfiability problem and abbreviated SATISFIABILITY, SAT or B-SAT) is the problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfies ...

"Über uns: Literatur im Foyer"
retrieved November 3, 2008 Until 1998, he co-edited the

Rowohlt Verlag Rowohlt Verlag is a German publishing house based in Hamburg, with offices in Reinbek and Berlin. It has been part of the Georg von Holtzbrinck Group since 1982. The company was created in 1908 in Leipzig by Ernst Rowohlt. Divisions * Kinder ...

literary magazine. Lüdke has been a juror for several literary awards, including the

Leipzig Book Fair Prize The Leipzig Book Fair Prize () is a literary award assigned annually during the Leipzig Book Fair to outstanding newly released literary works in the categories "Fiction", "Non-fiction" and "Translation". The Leipzig Book Fair Prize has been award ...

and, in 2009, the

German Book Prize The German Book Prize (''Deutscher Buchpreis'') is awarded annually, in October, by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (''Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels'') to the best new German language novel of the year. The books, publi ...

. He also makes regular appearances on the radio program ''Streitfall'', discussing new non-fiction books with Peter Kemper, an editor at the

hr2 hr2-kultur is a German, public radio station owned and operated by the Hessischer Rundfunk (HR). References Radio stations in Germany Radio stations established in 1950 1950 establishments in West Germany Mass media in Frankfurt Hessis ...

culture channel of Hessischer Rundfunk,

Franziska Augstein Franziska may refer to: People * Franziska (given name) * Patrick Franziska (born 1992), German table tennis player Characters * Franziska von Karma, character in the ''Ace Attorney'' series Other uses * ''Franziska'' (play), a 1912 pla ...

, and Micha Brumlik in the Frankfurt Literaturhaus. He writes mainly for ''

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") 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 Th ...

'', '' Der Spiegel'', and ''

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (FR) is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition (see link below) as well as an e-p ...

'' and for ''Literaturen'' and ''

Focus Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film *''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore * ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...

'' magazines. He has been a member of the PEN Center Germany since 1994. Martin Lüdke lives in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian dialects, Hessian: , "Franks, Frank ford (crossing), ford on the Main (river), Main"), is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as o ...

. He is married, and is an "avid

jogger Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to increase physical fitness with less stress on the body than from faster running but more than walking, or to maintain a steady speed for longer periods ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ludke, Martin 1943 births German male journalists German literary critics Living people Goethe University Frankfurt alumni Academic staff of Goethe University Frankfurt German male writers