Wilhelm Genazino (22 January 1943 – 12 December 2018) was a German journalist and author. He worked first as a journalist for the satirical magazine pardon and for Lesezeichen. From the early 1970s, he was a freelance writer who became known by a trilogy of novels, Abschaffel-Trilogie, completed in 1979. It was followed by more novels and two plays. Among his many awards is the prestigious Georg Büchner Prize.

Career

Born in Mannheim, Genazino studied German, philosophy and sociology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main in the 1960s. He worked as a journalist until 1965. During this time, he worked, for the satirical magazine pardon and co-edited the magazine Lesezeichen. Beginning in 1970 he worked as a freelance author. In 1977 he achieved a breakthrough as a serious writer with his trilogy Abschaffel. In 1990 he became a member of the Academy for Language and Poetry in Darmstadt. After living in Heidelberg for a long time, Genazino moved to Frankfurt in 2004. That same year he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize, the most prestigious award for German literature. Genazino died on 12 December 2018 after a short illness at the age of 75.

Works

Books

Play

In translation

Translations of works by Genazino have also been published in Greek, Latvian and Russian.

Honours

Literature