Marcel Reich-Ranicki Dies
The renowned literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki died on Wednesday in Frankfurt at age 93. He was born 1920 in Włocławek in northern Poland.
Marcel Reich-Ranicki, photo Friedrich, Brigitte / Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo
The renowned literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki died on Wednesday in Frankfurt at 93. He was born in 1920 in Włocławek in northern Poland.
Reich-Ranicki was recognized as one of the powerful, decisive voices of Germany's literary scene. His famously outspoken verdicts became known during his years as head of the literary section for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, then by his television broadcasts on his program Literary Quartet.
A Polish-born Jew who grew up in the midst of the Second World War, Reich-Ranicki's tragic youth was spent in the Warsaw ghetto with his parents. He managed to escape, but his parents perished in Treblinka.
Throughout his career in Germany Reich-Ranicki became famous for, in the words of the New York Times:
a stream of witty, sometimes barbed but consistently erudite commentary in a career that saw Germany through the cold war and national reunification. He became Germany’s leading literary arbiter, and in the process he helped pave the way for Jews to again play an important role in the nation’s culture and politics. He said he lived with the irony of loving the masterpieces, even of artists whose views he detested.
Mein Leben, his memoir, has sold over a million copies. His wife Teofila had died in April 2011. In March 2013, Reich-Ranicki became ill with cancer.
Sources: PAP, New York Times, edited by LB
19/09/2013
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