Reiner Stach

Reiner Stach
Reiner Stach in 2011
Born	1951 Rochlitz, Germany
Occupation	Biographer, publicist, publisher
Language	German
Nationality	German
Notable works	Kafka – Die Jahre der Entscheidungen (Kafka: The Decisive Years), Kafka – Die Jahre der Erkenntnis (Kafka: The Years of Realization)

Reiner Stach (born 1951) is a German author, biographer of Franz Kafka, publisher, and publicist. Stach lives and works as a freelancer in Berlin. He has received literary awards and published several works, including two of three volumes of a biographic trilogy about Franz Kafka.

Life and work

Stach was born in Rochlitz, Saxony. He studied philosophy, literature, and mathematics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main Stach graduated in 1985 with a PhD. His dissertation was titled Kafkas erotischer Mythos. Eine ästhetische Konstruktion des Weiblichen (Kafka's erotic myth. An aesthetic construction of femininity).

First Stach worked for major publishers as a science editor and publisher of nonfiction. He published several essays and reviews about the works of Hans Henny Jahnn and Franz Kafka, in various journals and anthologies, such as in the Neue Rundschau and in Revista de libros, Madrid. He discovered the estate of Kafka's fiancée Felice Bauer in the United States and showed it as an exhibit "Kafka's Bride" in Frankfurt, Vienna, and Prague, among other places, during 1998 and 1999.

While Kafka had a relatively small literary output, his influence is so immense that Stach estimates there are at least 130,000 web sites devoted to him. Stach stopped his own internet count of Kafka sites when he got to 500 of them. There are dozens of Kafka biographies. Stach decided to write a detailed Kafka biographical trilogy because despite all this, "No definitive biography of Franz Kafka exists".

Stach divided his biography of Kafka into three volumes: from birth to age 27 (1910), the period when he wrote his most famous works (1910–1915), and everything thereafter (1916–1924). However, obtaining enough suitable research material for the period covering early family, childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood (1883–1910), relies in part on obtaining access to the estate of Max Brod in Tel Aviv, which has so far largely been inaccessible to research due to legal issues. Consequently, Stach decided to start writing this trilogy with period 1910–1915, the years Kafka's diaries start, so the first volume covers second chronological period. It took Stach about 10 years to write this volume. The first published volume of his Kafka biography, covering the years 1910 to 1915, appeared in 2002 as Kafka – Die Jahre der Entscheidungen (Kafka: The Decisive Years, literally: The years of decisions). This was translated into English in 2005 by Shelley Frisch. The second published volume, Kafka – Die Jahre der Erkenntnis (Kafka: The Years of Realization or "insight"), appeared in 2008, dealing with the last eight years of Kafka's life. This volume was published in English in late 2011. The final volume, covering the earliest chronological period, has not yet been written. Though not yet finished, the trilogy has been described as "massive" and going "into painstaking detail".

Awards

• 1991: Winner of a writing competition initiated by Botho Strauß in Die Zeit on Hans Henny Jahnn's Fluss ohne Ufer (River Without Banks), for his essay "Die fressende Schöpfung. Über Hans Henny Jahnns Romantrilogie Fluss ohne Ufer" ("The carnivorous creation. About Hans Henny Jahnns trilogy Shoreless River")
• 2003: Kulturförderpreis des Landschaftsverbandes Osnabrück Land (Cultural Award of the Regional Association of Osnabrück Land)
• 2008: Special prize of the Heimito von Doderer-Literaturpreis for his biography Kafka – Die Jahre der Erkenntnis

Selected works

Stach's autograph on a paperback copy of Kafka: Die Jahre der Entscheidungen

• 100 Jahre S. Fischer Verlag 1886 - 1986. Kleine Verlagsgeschichte. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag. 1986. ISBN 978-3-100-75106-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Kafkas erotischer Mythos. Eine ästhetische Konstruktion des Weiblichen. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. 1987. ISBN 978-3-596-27370-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help) (Dissertation, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, 1985)
• Gottfried Bermann Fischer und Brigitte Bermann Fischer: Briefwechsel mit Autoren. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag. 1990. ISBN 978-3-100-21602-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• "Die fressende Schöpfung. Über Hans Henny Jahnns Romantrilogie Fluss ohne Ufer". Forum Homosexualität und Literatur. 15. Siegen, Germany: Universität-GH Siegen: 41–50. 1992. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• "Stil, Motiv und fixe Idee: Über einige Untiefen der Jahnn-Lektüre". Literaturmagazin. 35. Berlin: Rowohlt Verlag: 79–92. 1995. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Kafka – Die Jahre der Entscheidungen. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag. 2002. ISBN 978-3-10-075114-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• "Das Ärgernis Hans Henny Jahnn". Literaturen. 5. Berlin: Friedrich Berlin Verlag: 52–57. 2003. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Kafka – Die Jahre der Erkenntnis. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag. 2008. ISBN 978-3-10-075119-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
• Kafkas Spiele. Eine kleine, kommentierte Kreuzfahrt durch Kafkas Nachlass. Düsseldorf: Onomato Verlag. 2011. ISBN 978-3-942864-19-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help) (Audio Book)
• Ist das Kafka? 99 Fundstücke. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag. 2012. ISBN 978-3-10-075135-5. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)

External links

• Literature by and about Reiner Stach in the German National Library catalogue
• Im Gespräch: Reiner Stach War Kafkas Leben kafkaesk? Interview in the FAZ, 29 June 2008 Template:De icon
• Online-Version von "Die Ordnung der Unterwelt" Zum Verhältnis von Autor, Text und Leser am Beispiel von Hans Henny Jahnns "Fluss ohne Ufer" und den Interpretationen seiner Deuter Template:De icon