Friedrich Christian Delius is dead. The multiple award-winning writer died in Berlin at the age of 79.
Friedrich Christian Delius is dead. The writer died on Monday at the age of 79 in Berlin. This was announced by the Rowohlt publishing house on Tuesday. Delius wrote “as a contemporary, as a keen observer, out of the flow of things – close to the present, close to life,” noted Gunnar Schmidt, publisher and Delius’ editor at Rowohlt.
Friedrich Christian Delius was born on February 13, 1943 in Rome. His father was a pastor at the German Evangelical Church in the Italian capital. From 1944 he grew up in Wehrda, Hesse.
From 1963 he studied literature in Berlin, graduating in 1971 with a doctorate. He also wrote his first poems and appeared at the last meeting of Gruppe 47, the legendary group of the most important German post-war authors.
In the 1970s, Delius first worked as an editor before becoming a freelance writer in 1978. He worked in various literary forms, but mainly wrote novels and short stories
In his works, Delius dealt intensively with the history of the old FRG – from the miracle of Bern (“The Sunday on which I became world champion”) to the student movement (“America House or the Dance of Women”) and the RAF (“Mogadishu window seat”).
Büchner Prize up to Federal Cross of Merit
The writer has received a number of major literary awards. In 2011 he won the Georg Büchner Prize, the most important award for German-speaking writers. As a “critical, resourceful and inventive observer, he researches the history of German consciousness in the 20th century in his novels and short stories,” according to the German Academy for Language and Literature. In 2017, Delius received the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class.
Friedrich Christian Delius lived in Berlin and his native city of Rome. He was married twice and has two daughters with his first wife Gisela Klann-Delius (77).
