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Enzensberger spent his childhood in Nuremberg. After the war he attended high school in Nördlingen. From 1949 to 1954 he studied literature, philosophy and languages in Erlangen, Hamburg, Freiburg/Br. and Paris. In 1955 he completed his doctorate with the thesis "On the poetic process in Clemens Brentano's lyrical work". Enzensberger continued to work with this romantic in his literary work as well as with the French enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot. From 1955 to 1957 he worked with Alfred Andersch on the editorial team of "Radio Essay" at the Süddeutscher Rundfunk Stuttgart.
During this activity, Enzensberger drew public attention through critical contributions. Andersch used the term "angry young man" to describe his colleague. In 1957 his first volume of poetry, "Defense of the Wolves," was published. In this, as in the rest of his work, you can find the provocative tone that characterized the controversial poet and thinker from then on. Just as in the following works "national language" (1960) and "blindenschrift" (1964), in his lyrical debut he also took issue with the backward politics of the Adenauer era, subordination to the authorities and the idea of prosperity in a sarcastic, ironic and even aggressive style. He knew how to combine the art of language and imagery in the manner of Benn with Brecht's dialectics in a distinctive way.
Enzensberger, however, had made a name for himself above all as a literary social critic and as a provocateur. From 1960 to 1961 he worked as an editor at the Suhrkamp publishing house in Frankfurt/M. employed. He published under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Linda Quilt, Elisabeth Ambras and Serenus M. Brezengang. His two works "Museum of Modern Poetry" and the bilingual "Poesie" series were also published during this time. After Frankfurt he lectured as a guest teacher at the Ulm University of Design and spent some time in Norway and Italy as a freelance writer. In 1962 the title "Individuals" was published, which is considered Enzensberger's most important theoretical work on the connection between poetry and politics.
His essayistic work "The Language of the 'Mirror'" exposes the linguistic purposefulness of the news magazine. From 1964 to 1965 he taught poetry in Frankfurt. From the mid-1960s, Enzensberger's interest shifted from poetry to politics. Paradoxically, the poet Enzensberger had doubts about the social impact of poetry. He then switched to the methods of political publications and documentary literature. He worked for theater, opera, television and radio. In these media he dealt with contemporary capitalism, imperialism, Germany and the media themselves.
Pieces such as "Politics and Crime" (1964), the "Kursbuch" (1965) as the most important medium of the New Left, and the play "The Interrogation of Habana", a tape montage about the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1962. 1965, come from this phase Enzensberger went to Berlin, where he founded the magazine "Kursbuch", of which he remained editor until 1975. He accepted a visiting professorship in the USA. Enzensberger stayed in Cuba in 1968 and 1969 and in New York from 1974 to 1975. In the mid-1970s, however, Enzensberger began writing more poems again. He had found a different attitude towards this genre, which was linked to doubts about historical progress.
In his lyrical works the historical dialectic was pessimistically varied. Examples of works include "Mausoleum. Thirty-seven Ballads from the History of Progress" (1975), "The Sinking of the Titanic. A Comedy" (1978) and "The Fury of Disappearance" (1980). In 1979 he settled in Munich. In 1980 he founded the left-wing monthly publication "TransAtlantik". With "The Other Library" (1985) he presents his favorite book titles from world literature. In 1985 he was honored with the Heinrich Böll Prize. In 1988 the Brentano theme reappeared in his book "Requiem for a Romantic Woman. The Story of Auguste Bußmann and Clemens Brentano", which was made into a film. His later lyric works in particular bear an aesthetic signature that knows how to play with forms and perspectives.
This is what the title of the volume of poetry "Kiosk" (1995) represents. The distance created by the interplay of perspectives on the world and oneself is followed by the intended insight and self-knowledge. Enzensberger's other works include radio plays and dramas. He also worked as a translator. He brought authors such as David Rokeah, Fernando Pessoa César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda, Lars Gustafsson and William Carlos Williams to the German audience closer. Enzensberger is characterized by his inventiveness in the media of literature, television, theater and radio in order to bring his opinions, insights and perspectives closer to the recipient. The range of his themes and his form of expression as well as his created works is large.
In 2000, his two books "Ghost Voices" with translations and adaptations from forty years and the volume of poems "Lighter than Air" with new lyrical works were published. In 2006, "Schrecken's Men - An Essay on the Radical Loser" and "Scary Prodigies" were published under the pseudonym Linda Quilt. In the same year he was awarded the "Premio d'Annunzio" and the "Media Prize of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences".
