13 December 2017

Akademie der Künste takes over the Emine Sevgi Özdamar archive

Emine Sevgi Özdamar has handed the first part of her artistic living legacy over to the Literature Archives of the Akademie der Künste. This includes work manuscripts, notebooks and sketch books from her work at the Volksbühne Berlin and other theatres since 1976, letters, material on book-signing tours, voucher copies of her works, also in bibliophile editions, as well as secondary literature. Emine Sevgi Ozdamar writes prose and drama in German, influenced by her Turkish mother tongue. In both form and content, her texts are intercultural and multi-perspective, based in part on autobiographical foundations. However, in their references to Turkish and German politics and society, they go far beyond the autobiographical. Özdamar was elected a member of the Akademie der Künste in the spring of this year.

Emine Sevgi Özdamar, born in Malatya in 1946 (Turkey), lives in Berlin. During her first stay in Berlin from 1965 to 1967, she worked briefly at an electrical factory. She then attended drama school in Istanbul until 1970. Fascinated by the theatre of Brecht, she returned to Berlin in 1976 in order to work with Benno Besson and Matthias Langhoff, first at the Volksbühne Berlin (East) and later also in Paris. Working at Schauspielhaus Bochum theatre from 1979-1984, she directed the première of her first theatre piece in 1986. Theatre work with Ruth Berghaus, Franz Xaver Kroetz and Einar Schleef followed. Özdamar has been a freelance writer since 1986, while at the same time continuing to work as an actor. Her work has been translated into several languages.

Works (selected):
Karagöz in Alamania (theatre piece, 1982); Mutterzunge (Mother Tongue) (stories, 1990), Das Leben ist eine Karawanserei, hat zwei Türen, aus einer kam ich rein, aus der anderen ging ich raus (Life is a Caravanserai, Has Two Doors, I Came in One, I Went Out the Other) (novel, 1992), Die Brücke vom Goldenen Horn (The Bridge of the Golden Horn) (novel, 1998), Der Hof im Spiegel (The Courtyard in the Mirror) (stories, 2001), Seltsame Sterne starren zur Erde. Wedding – Pankow 1976/77 (Strange Stars Stare to Earth. Wedding-Pankow 1976/77) (novel, 2003), Sonne auf halbem Weg. Die Istanbul-Berlin-Trilogie (Sun Halfway: The Istanbul-Berlin Trilogy) (includes: Das Leben ist eine Karawanserei, Die Brücke vom Goldenen Horn, Sonne auf halbem Weg, 2006).

Awards (selected):
1991 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, 1993 Walter Hasenclever Prize of the City of Aachen, 1999 Adelbert von Chamisso Prize, 2004 Kleist Prize, 2009 Berlin Art Prize/Fontane Prize, 2010 Carl Zuckmayer Medal, 2012 Alice Salomon Poetics Prize. Visiting professorships in Hamburg, New York and Paris (Sorbonne).

In case of queries
Helga Neumann, Literature Archives, Tel. +49 30 200 57-32-29, helga.neumann@adk.de