Ota Filip (9 March 1930 – 2 March 2018) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

novelist and journalist.

Life

Ota Filip was born in

Slezská Ostrava Slezská Ostrava (, lit. 'Silesian Ostrava'), till 1919 Polnisch Ostrau (, , lit. 'Polish Ostrava'), is a district of the city of Ostrava, Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic. It lies in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia, not coun ...

, in Czechoslovakia, the present-day

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. His father, Bohumil Filip (born on 13 July 1905 in Hošt'álková, Vsetín district, Czechoslovakia), was Czech, and his mother, Marie Filipová, née Mikolajczik (born on 22 July 1908 in

), was Polish. His works have been translated into French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Spanish, Slovenian and English, among others. During the communist era government of Czechoslovakia his works were banned or censored by the authorities. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact Armed Forces in 1968, he was sentenced for his dissident activities, and incarcerated from 1969–70. In 1974, Ota Filip along with his wife Marie Filip (née Ledvinová) and their two children, Pavel and Hana, were forced to emigrate to West Germany. They arrived in Munich, West Germany, on 10 July 1974, where Ota Filip and his wife lived until 1994, when they moved to Grafenaschau (in the Bavarian Alps). In 1998 they settled in Murnau am Staffelsee. His son, Pavel Filip, was a professor of mathematics at the Bochum University (Germany), while his daughter, Hana Filip, moved to the United States, where she received her PhD in Linguistics (University of California at Berkeley) and worked as a university professor of linguistics/semantics. Currently, she is a senior full professor of semantics at the Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf (Germany). From 1975 Ota Filip was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Munich, Germany. He was awarded a number of literary awards in Germany and the Czech Republic, including the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize for German writing by a non-native German speaker. On 28 October 2012 Ota Filip was awarded the National Medal of Merit in Fine Arts, a merit awarded to distinguished Czech artists by the Czech government on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the

First Czechoslovak Republic The First Czechoslovak Republic, often colloquially referred to as the First Republic, was the first Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938, a union of ethnic Czechs and Slovaks. The country was commonly called Czechosl ...

in 1918. On 27 March 2024 Ota Filip was awarded the Prize of the City of Ostrava (in memoriam) for his contribution to the cultural development of Ostrava. Ota Filip died on 2 March 2018 in the hospital of Garmisch-Partenkirchen of complications of pneumonia, with his daughter Hana by his side. His wife, Marie Filip, died from an aggressive form of lung cancer, on 31 December 2014, in the Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technische Universität Munich, Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Selected works

* ''

Cesta ke hřbitovu Cesta may refer to: * Cesta, San Marino, a mountain peak overlooking the city *Česta, a village near Aleksinac, Serbia *Cesta, Ajdovščina, a settlement in the Vipava Valley, in the Littoral region of Slovenia *Cesta, Dobrepolje, a village in the ...

'', Profil,

Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...

, 1968 * '' Blázen ve městě'', Konfrontace, Curych, 1975; Profil,

, 1991 * '' Nanebevstoupení Lojzka Lapáčka ze Slezské Ostravy'', Edice Petlice, sv. č. 28,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, 1974; Český spisovatel, Prague, 1994 * '' Poskvrněné početí'',

68 Publishers 68 Publishers, also called Sixty-Eight Publishers, Sixtyeight Publishers, or even Nakladatelství 68 ('nakladatelství' is Czech for 'publishing house'), was a publishing house formed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1971 by Czech expatriate Jose ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, 1976; Západočeské nakladatelství, 1990 * '' Valdštýn a Lukrecie'',

, 1979 * '' Děda a dělo'', Host, Brno, 1989 * '' Die Sehnsucht nach Procida'', Fischer Verlag,

Frankfurt am Main 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 ...

, 1988 * '' Kavárna Slavia'', Český spisovatel,

, 1993 * '' Sedmý životopis'', Host,

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

, 2000 * '' Sousedé a ti ostatní'', Host,

, 2003 * '' 77 obrazů z ruského domu - Román o velké, ztroskotané lásce a vzniku abstraktního umění'', Barrister & Principal,

, 2004 * '' Osmý čili nedokončený životopis'', Host,

, 2007

References

Bibliography

* Jan Kubica, ''Spisovatel Ota Filip'', Větrné mlýny (Prague) 2012, * ''Verspätete Abrechnungen von Ota Filip,'' mit einem Beitrag von Walter Schmitz sowie einer Bibliografie. Dresden: Thelem, 2012. (veröffentlichte 9. Dresdner Chamisso-Poetikvorlesungen) * * Kliems, Alfrun: ''Im Stummland: Zum Exilwerk von Libuse Moníková, Jirí Grusa und Ota Filip'', Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2003 * Massum Faryar, ''Fenster zur Zeitgeschichte: Eine monographische Studie zu Ota Filip und seinem Werk'', Berlin: Mensch-und-Buch-Verl., 2005 * ''Kritisches Lexikon zur deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur''. Hrsg. v. Heinz Ludwig Arnold. München: edition text + kritik * Jiří Hanuš, ''Malý slovník osobností českého katolicismu 20. století s antologií textů'', Centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury, Brno 2005. . * Josef Tomeš a kol., ''Český biografický slovník XX. století I. A-J.'' Paseka, Prague ; Litomyšl 1999.

External links

Homepage

Slovnik ceske literatury

Medailon na Portálu české literatury

Ota Filip a poznámky k jeho takzvaným ostravským románům
{{DEFAULTSORT:Filip, Ota 1930 births 2018 deaths Writers from Ostrava Czech people of Polish descent 20th-century German novelists 21st-century German novelists Czech novelists Czech journalists German journalists Czech male writers German male novelists 20th-century German male writers 21st-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers Czechoslovak emigrants to Germany German people of Czech descent German people of Polish descent