Friedrich Christian Delius (13 February 1943 – 30 May 2022), also known by his pen nameF.C. Delius,[1] was a German novelist. He wrote books about historic events, such as the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and RAF terrorism. Four of his novels were translated into English, including The Pears of Ribbeck and Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman. His awards include the Georg Büchner Prize of 2011.
He first worked in publishing firms such as Klaus Wagenbach and Rotbuch [de].[7][8] The Siemens group went to court against the 1972 documentary satire Unsere Siemens-Welt.[1]
From 1978, Delius worked as a freelance writer.[9] He published more than a dozen novels and a number of poetry collections. His novels and stories deal with the history of the 20th century.[1] His work has been translated into more than 20 languages.[7]
In the citation for the 2011 Büchner Prize, Delius was described as a "critical, resourceful and inventive observer" ("kritischer, findiger und erfinderischer Beobachter") who dealt with Germans in the 20th century "from the prehistory of the Nazi era to the time of partition and the immediate present" ("von der Vorgeschichte der NS-Zeit über die Zeit der Teilung bis in die unmittelbare Gegenwart").[1][9]
Delius in 2019
Delius was married twice; he and his first wife, Gisela Klann-Delius [de], had two daughters.[9][17] Since the late 1970s, he divided his time between Berlin and Rome.[9][18]
Delius died on 30 May 2022 in Berlin, at the age of 79.[6][7][19]
Work
Delius published more than 35 books.[7]Der Spaziergang von Rostock nach Syrakus [de] (The stroll from Rostock to Syracuse) is a 1995 story with a protagonist from East Germany who dreams of walking to Italy like Johann Gottfried Seume in the 19th century.[20] In Der Sonntag, an dem ich Weltmeister wurde, he wrote about the German victory in association football at the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and his Deutscher Herbst trilogy was about the RAF terrorism.[1] The 1968 student protests were the background for Amerikahaus oder der Tanz der Frauen (America house or the dance of the women).[6]
^Delius, Friedrich Christian; Haas, Wolf (2011). Der Held und sein Wetter ein Kunstmittel und sein ideologischer Gebrauch im Roman des bürgerlichen Realismus (in German). Göttingen. ISBN978-3-8353-1028-5. OCLC759843498.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Delius, Friedrich Christian (2004). Der Sonntag, an dem ich Weltmeister wurde Erzählung (in German). Reinbek bei Hamburg. ISBN978-3-499-23659-4. OCLC723058077.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Delius, Friedrich Christian; Cantrick, Robert A. (2019). The Pope's left hand. Whately, Massachusetts. ISBN978-1-7336301-0-8. OCLC1090012375.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
