Buddensieg, Hermann

Born in Eisenach in 1893, Buddensieg died in Heidelberg in 1976. He became known especially for his adaptations of Polish and Lithuanian classical works, as Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz (edited in 1955) and Metai by Kristijonas Donelaitis (edited in 1966). From 1956 to 1976 he edited the German Mickiewicz-Blätter, important for the cultural exchange between Poland and Germany.
Buddensieg was the son of a pharmacist from Eisenach and supporter of the Wandervogel movement in his youth. He began studying the law and political science in Jena, Germany. WWI interrupted his studies and took him to Russia and Lithuania. In the spring of 1918, he was on the Western front, when he was severely wounded by a shot in the head which he suffered from the rest of his life. During the Nazi era he was banned from working as a publicist. In WW II he turned to poetry and from 1946 onwards published several hymnic poems and an autobiography titled Morbus Sacer.
Buddensieg was awarded an honorary doctorate of the University of Poznań in 1969 and by the Polish Academy of Science and received as well the highest German orders.

Dutli, Ralph

Ralph Dutli, born in Schaffhausen/Switzerland in 1954, studied French and Russian Literature in Zurich and Paris. From 1982 to 1994 he lived in Paris, today he lives in Heidelberg/Germany, where he works as a freelance author, lyricist („NOVALIS IM WEINBERG“; Novalis in the vineyard, 2005), essayist („NICHTS ALS WUNDER“; Nothing but miracles, 2007), novelist („SOUTINES LETZTE FAHRT“; Soutine’s Last Journey, 2013) and translator of Ossip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, Joseph Brodsky. Editor of the ten-volume Ossip Mandelstam complete edition and author of the Mandelstam biography „MEINE ZEIT, MEIN TIER“ (My Age, my Beast, 2003).

He has received major prizes and distinctions, including the Johann Heinrich Voss Prize awarded by the German Academy for Language and Literature.

Kronenberger, Ina

Ina Kronenberger was born in Otterberg (Southern Germany) in 1965. She has lived abroad in different countries like France, Israel, Italy and Norway. Her studies in Romanic and Nordic Philology at Mainz and Freiburg University ended with a master degree in 1993. Since then, she has worked as a literary translator from Norwegian and French, introducing writers like Per Petterson, Dag Solstad, Linn Ullmann, Mirjam Kristensen or Hanne Ørstavik respectively Anna Gavalda, Philippe Claudel or Amin Maalouf.

She has participated in several workshops and received many awards for her work. In 2010, she was assigned the “German Award in Youth Literature” for her translation of Stian Hole’s “Garmans Sommer”. In 2012 she was nominated for the IBBY Honour List. Ina Kronenberger now lives in Bremen.

 

Perlet, Gisela

German translator from Danish Gisela Perlet was born in 1942 and died in December 2010. She grew up in the village of Gutenswegen close to Magdeburg and studied German literature and Scandinavian studies at Greifswald University. From 1966 to 1979 she was working as an editor for Hinstorff-Verlag in Rostock. Her first translations appeared at the end of the 1960s. After political differences with authorities about a planned translation of Kierkegaard she was dismissed and continued to work as a freelance translator and editor. Suffering from cancer, Perlet lived the last years of her life in Rostock.

Gisela Perlet's translations of Hans Christian Andersen and Søren Kierkegaard are most renowned.

Gisela Perlet received following awards: 1998 the Danish Dannebrogorden, 2001 the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal cross of merit), 2002 Johann Heinrich Voß Prize for translation, 2004 the Danish Arts Council's translation prize.

Monschein, Kerstin

Born in Eisenstadt, Austria, in 1979. Graduated from Graz University after translation studies for German, Russian and English in 2010.

She studied and worked for several months in Russia and Ireland. Lives and works now in Fürstenfeld and Graz as a translator of novels and technical texts from Russian and English into German.

 

Sauser, Barbara

Born in Bern, Switzerland, in 1974, and graduated in Slavic Studies and musicology, Barbara Sauser worked as editor and press officer for Rotpunktverlag, Zurich.

She now lives in Bellinzona and works since 2009 as a freelance editor and translator from Italian, French, Russian and Polish.

In 2023 she was awarded the Viceversa-prize of the Swiss Schillerstiftung: