Curriculum vitae |
I was born 1940 in Berlin, Germany. Studied Physics at the universities of Rostock, Greifswald and at the Bulgarian State University at Sofia. Diplom (MS) Sofia 1964. Worked as a physicist for the East German film manufacturing company ORWO. Early fiction: historical adventure stories, published in a dime novel series (starting 1975). Became a free lance writer in 1976, then living in Greifswald on the Baltic Sea. Now I live in Brunswick, Maine. As a Research Associate, I was affiliated with the German Department of Bowdoin College and taught an advanced topics course for the Department (German 398): The Changing Image of America in German Travel Literature (in German).
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FICTION |
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1980 Strom ohne Brücke (River without Bridges) Berlin: Verlag Neues Leben An historical novel about the discovery of the Amazon. Third edition 1986; Czech translation 1983. |
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1981 Nichts Neues unter der Sonne (Nothing New Under the Sun) Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt An historical novel about Giordano Bruno in Wittenberg Second edition 1986 |
1982 Papiersterne (Paper Stars) Berlin: Verlag Neues Leben Novel dealing with the GDR of the eighties reflected through the narrator's memories of the student uprising in Paris, Mai 1968. Second edition 1988 |
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1985 Der Turm des Todes (The Tower of Death) Berlin: Verlag Neues Leben Collection of previously published historical adventure stories. Second edition 1987 |
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1985 Der Wind hat viele Namen (The Wind has Many Names) Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt An historical novel about events in Bulgaria in 1872. Bulgarian translation 1987. |
1989 Strandrecht (Salvage Rights); with Hartmut Mechtel. |
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1990 Coopers Lederstrumpferzählungen (Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, retold in a shortened version; with Hartmut Mechtel). Berlin: Verlag Neues Leben |
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2000 Novembermärchen. Keine bleibende Stadt (November’s Fairy Tales. Not a lasting City) Schwerin: Thomas Helms Verlag. A novel about people in a small provincial town in East Germany during the year the wall came down. |
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2003 In den Schründen der Arktik. Wie Karl May den Nordpol entdeckte (In the Crevices of the Arctic. How Karl May discovered the North Pole). Leipzig: Florstedt & Greis Verlagsgesellschaft. A novel of historical fantasy. Robert Peary and Karl May, the well known travel liar and “inventor” of the American West for Germans, go North together in 1909. |
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NONFICTION |
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1980 Länder des Goldes (Lands of Gold) 1983 Zu fernen Ufern (To Far Shores) 1988 Entschleierte Erde (Unveiled Earth) [These three volumes complete a series of 6 books on geographical discovery, started by geographer Dr. Walter Krämer in 1971]. |
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1989 James Cook: Seemann, Naturforscher, Entdecker (Mariner, Scientist, Discoverer). A Biography. Berlin: Verlag Neues Leben |
1991 Robert Edwin Peary: Ein amerikanischer Traum vom Pol (An American Dream of the
Pole).
Berlin: Verlag Neues Leben |
1998 James Cook. rororo-monographie. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag. 2001 Marco Polo. rororo-monographie. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag. |
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2004 “Große Entdecker” (Great Explorers) in „Allgemeinbildung/Große Persönlichkeiten/Das mußt du wissen“, an Encyclopedia for Young Readers (Arena Verlag Würzburg). Korean translation (Random House JoongAng Inc., Seoul 2005 ). |
TRANSLATIONS |
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1996 Out at the Old Ball Game, by B. Bookbinder [1995] (with Hartmut Mechtel). German title: Das Baseball-Outing. Hamburg: Argument Verlag |
2000 Consultant to Jeanette Clausen for the English translation of Leben und Abenteuer der Trobadora Beatriz, a novel by Irmtraud Morgner [1976]. University of Nebraska Press |
TEACHING AT BOWDOIN COLLEGE: |
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"Reiseliteratur im 19. Jahrhundert"(German): Lecture to 19th century German literature class. Bowdoin College 1990 "The Changing Image of America in German Travel Literature". Advanced seminar (German 398) at Bowdoin College. Spring 1996, 2002, and Independent Study (German 291) Spring 2003. (For syllabus click here). "Marco Polo and Columbus". Lecture to Spanish literature class. Bowdoin College 1997 “Karl May and the American West”. Lectures to German 317. Fall 2002, 2004, 2006. “Paris, Mai 1968”. Lectures to the students of French 321. Fall 2002, Spring 2006. “Marco Polo – Venetian Explorer”. Lecture to students of Art History 223, Spring 2007. Guest appearances 1988 – present: Director. Honors Project (German 401). Mark Lutte. “Translating Otto Emersleben’s ‘In den Schründen der Arktik’. A Perspective on Karl May, Robert Peary and the Presentation of Historical Identity“. Spring 2003. |
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READINGS AND PRESENTATIONS since my first stay in the USA in 1987: |
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Readings from Papiersterne (in German) at the World Fellowship Symposium on life and culture in the GDR (Conway,NH 1987), for the German Week of the Goethe Institute (Bar Harbor 1988) and for the Maine Chapter of American Association of Teachers of German (Brunswick 1989). German Department, University of Rochester (1990) "White Spots on the World Map: Changing Attitudes Toward Discovery": Jacob Jasper Stahl Lecture, Bowdoin College 1988 1989: Reading of short stories for the Maine Writers' and Publishers' Alliance (English; from manuscripts, translated by Helen Cafferty). "Eyewitness Accounts and Hearsay: Travel Literature Since the Age of Discovery" (English): Jacob Jasper Stahl Lecture on the cultural implications of discovery. Bowdoin College 1989 "Columbus goes to India". Distinguished Lecture Series, Waynesburg College 1992. Georgia Southern University 1992 Readings from the novel “Novembermärchen”: in German at the New Hampshire Symposium on life and culture in unified Germany (June 2000, Conway, NH), at Maine’s “German Stammtisch” in Topsham and at the “Deutschrunde” in Portland (November 2002); in English [translation: Helen Cafferty] at the opening of the “Berlin-Woche” at Bowdoin College (February 2004). |