Patrick Süskind

Patrick Süskind
Born	(1949-03-26) 26 March 1949 Ambach, Bavaria, Germany
Occupation	Writer, screenwriter
Period	1980–present
Literary movement	Magic realism
Notable works	Der Kontrabaß Perfume: The Story of a Murderer The Pigeon The Story of Mr Sommer

File:Julie Lebrun als Badende.jpg

Alternative cover of Das Parfum by Süskind

Patrick Süskind (German: [ˈpa.tʁɪk ˈzyːsˌkɪnt] ; born 26 March 1949) is a German writer and screenwriter, known best for his novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, first published in 1985.

Early life

Süskind was born in Ambach, Bavaria. His father was writer and journalist Wilhelm Emanuel Süskind, who worked for the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and is famous as the co-author of the well-known publication Aus dem Wörterbuch des Unmenschen (From the Dictionary of an Inhuman), a critical collection of essays concerning the language of the Nazi era. Patrick Süskind went to school in Holzhausen, a small Bavarian village. His mother worked as a sports trainer; his older brother Martin E. Süskind is also a journalist. Süskind has many relatives from the aristocracy in Württemberg, making him one of the descendants of the exegete Johann Albrecht Bengel and of the reformer Johannes Brenz.

After his qualification testing for university and his mandatory community service, he studied medieval and modern history at the University of Munich and in Aix-en-Provence from 1968–1974, but never graduated. Funded by his parents, he relocated to Paris, where he wrote "mainly short, unpublished fiction and longer screenplays which were not made into films".

Work

During 1981, he had his first major success with the play Der Kontrabaß (The Double Bass), which was conceived originally as a radio play. During the theatrical season of 1984–85, the play was performed more than 500 times. The only role is that of a tragi-comical orchestral musician. During the 1980s, Süskind was also successful as a screenwriter for the television productions Monaco Franze (1983) and Kir Royal (1987), among others. For his screenplay of Rossini, directed by Helmut Dietl, he won the Screenplay Prize of the German Department for Culture during 1996. He rejected other awards, like the FAZ-Literaturpreis, the Toucan Prize, and the Gutenbergpreis.

His best-known work is the internationally acclaimed bestseller Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985). This was made into a movie in 2006 by Tom Tykwer. Perfume was on the bestselling list of the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel for nine years. He is also the author of a novella, The Pigeon (1988), The Story of Mr. Sommer (1991), Three Stories and a Reflection (1996), and a collection of essays, On Love and Death (2006). French cartoonist Sempe illustrated the images in The Story of Mr. Sommer (1991).

Personal life

Süskind lives as a recluse in Munich, in Seeheim (on Lake Starnberg), and in France at Montolieu. The public knows little about him; he has withdrawn from literary society and does not grant interviews or allow himself to be photographed.

Selected works

• Der Kontrabaß (The Double Bass) (play, 1981)
• Das Parfum (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer) (novel, 1985)
• Die Taube (The Pigeon) (novella, 1988)
• Die Geschichte von Herrn Sommer (The Story of Mr Sommer) (novella, 1991)
• Drei Geschichten und eine Betrachtung (Three Stories and a Reflection) (stories, 1996) [Contents: Depth Wish, A Battle, Maître Mussard's Bequest, Amnesia in Litteris.]
• Über Liebe und Tod (On Love and Death) (essay, 2006)

Further reading

• Delseit, Wolfgang and Drost, Ralf. Patrick Süskind. Das Parfum. Erläuterungen und Dokumente. Stuttgart: Reclam 2000.

External links

• The Literary Encyclopedia page for Patrick Süskind
• Smee, Jess. "Critics sniffy over Perfume, the 'unfilmable' film", The Guardian, 8 September 2006.
• The book doesn't smell either": Dietmar Kammerer interviews director Tom Tykwer, at Sign and Sight, 20 September 2006 (originally appeared in German in Die Tageszeitung on 14 September 2006).
• Patrick Süskind at IMDb