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Dana von Suffrin

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Dana von Suffrin
Dana von Suffrin in 2022
Dana von Suffrin in 2022
Born1985 (age 38–39)
Munich, Germany
OccupationWriter
Period2019-present
Notable works
  • Otto, Nochmal von vorn
Notable awards
Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis
Website
Dana von Suffrin at her publisher's website

Dana von Suffrin (born 1985 in Munich) is a German writer. She became known for her first two novels, Otto (2019) and Nochmal von vorn (2024), telling stories about German-Jewish families in Germany and Israel. For both works, she received several literary awards in Germany.

Life and career

Suffrin grew up in Munich and studied Political Science, Jewish history and culture, as well as general and Comparative Literature in Munich, Naples and Jerusalem from 2004 to 2012. In 2017, she completed her PhD at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich titled "Plants for Palestine! Natural Sciences in the Yishuv, 1900-1930", focussing on the work of German botanist Otto Warburg.[1][2]

Suffrin also worked as research associate and coordinator of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft research group "Cooperation and Competition in the Sciences" at the Chair of the History of Science at the same university in Munich.[3]

2019 she published her first novel Otto about a dysfunctional Jewish family. Otto, the main character, is a Jew from Transylvania, who lives in Munich and is getting close to the end of his life. Suffrin named Eastern European, end-of-the-19th century poets whho emigrated to New York as an important source of inspiration for her novel. In the narrative form, she was inspired, among others, by Natalia Ginzburg, whose family history included a strong father figure as well.[4]

The novel received six literary prizes, including the awards for debut novels by the German Buddenbrook House and the Hamburg Harbour Front Literature Festival.[5][6] Before that, she had received feedback from participants at a literary workshop that her novel “decidedly went too far, that it was not acceptable to write about the Holocaust in such a comical way and that her book also had no plot and no development.”[7]

In 2022, her Radio drama Blut (Blood) was nominated for the German public broadcasting stations' radio play prize.[8]

In 2024 followed her second novel Nochmal von vorne (Once more from the Top), about a contemporary German-Jewish family, and taking place between Munich and Tel Aviv.[9] The same year, this novel was longlisted for the German Book Prize.[10] In addition to writing, Suffrin has also been conducting literary workshops, for example for the Literaturhaus München.[11]

Comments on Jewish life in Germany

Suffrin repeatedly has made statements about Judaism and Antisemitism, both from her own biographical perspective[12], as well as saying that the focus in Germany on the Nazi main perpetrators has hindered further research into the history of National Socialism[13]. Further, she criticized that Jewish authors are often not simply interviewed as artists, such as other writers, but are constantly reduced to make comments about their Jewish identity. On this, she said "I no longer want to be the governess that takes turns admonishing Germans and then praises them again for their exemplary coming to terms with their past, for their unique culture of remembrance (Erinnerungskultur), or for the many beautiful memorial sites and museums".[14]

In response to the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, she also expressed the disappointment of Jewish millennials about anti-Semitism in the left-wing cultural scene in Germany and her disillusionment that her parents' warning against anti-Semitism was obviously justified.[15][16]

Critical reception

In a review of August 2019, the Süddeutsche Zeitung called her novel Otto "very funny and, at the same time, incredibly sad. The review further commented on the author's treatment of how much of an older generation, especially one that has gone through so many hard times, is passed on to the next generation. It also noted a special kind of language and melody of the sentences giving the impression of coming "directly from Yiddish literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries".[7]

The jury statement for the Bayerischer Kunstförderpreis (Bavarian Arts and Literary Prize) in the literary category said that Suffrin created "an unsentimental monument to the father figure, a tyrannical Jewish Transylvanian", in her "complicated, fragmentary family history." Further, she also was said to employ black humour to link themes as diverse as "dysfunctional families, Jewish life in Munich, old age and illness."[17]

Further, Suffrin has received literary prizes[18] and awards as writer-in-residence, for example at the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature in Switzerland.[19]

Works

Novels

Short stories

References

  1. ^ Suffrin, Dana von (2019-10-22), "Pflanzen für Palästina", Otto Warburg und die Naturwissenschaften im Jischuw (in German), Mohr Siebeck GmbH & Co. KG, pp. 1–267, ISBN 978-3-16-156817-6, retrieved 2024-08-29
  2. ^ "Dana von Suffrin | Leo Baeck Institute London". www.leobaeck.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  3. ^ "CV - Wissenschaftsgeschichte - LMU München". www.gn.geschichte.uni-muenchen.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  4. ^ "Mit „Otto" von Preis zu Preis" (in German). Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  5. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung. "Debütpreis des Buddenbrookhauses für Dana von Suffrin" (in German). Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  6. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung. "Dana von Suffrin erhält Klaus-Michael-Kühne-Preis" (in German). Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  7. ^ a b Felix Stephan (2019-08-23). "Debüt - Manchmal bringen einen die Christen um". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  8. ^ SWR2, SWR2. "Die Hörspiele um den Deutschen Hörspielpreis der ARD 2022" (in German). Retrieved 2022-11-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Jan Drees (2024-07-03). "Rezension: Das Ich leidet" (in German). Retrieved 2024-07-08.
  10. ^ "Deutscher Buchpreis: Das sind die nominierten Titel", Der Spiegel, 2024-08-20, ISSN 2195-1349, retrieved 2024-08-20
  11. ^ "Erklär mir Liebe". www.literaturhaus-muenchen.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  12. ^ von Suffrin, Dana (2021-06-25). "Pogrom in Rumänien: 80 Jahre Todeszug von Jassy". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  13. ^ "Kulturjournal | Bayern 2 | Radio". br.de. 2022-02-03. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
  14. ^ Suffrin, Dana von (2022-11-27). "Antisemitismus: Tote Juden sind noch immer attraktiver". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  15. ^ Nicholas Potter (2023-11-18). "Autorin über Judenhass in der Literatur: „Humor ist die einzige Waffe"". taz.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-03-07.
  16. ^ Suffrin, Dana von (2023-11-13). "(S+) Antisemitismus: Das Deutschland, vor dem unsere Eltern uns immer gewarnt haben". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  17. ^ Barbara Hordych (2020-09-20). "Literaturpreise des Freistaats". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2021-03-20.
  18. ^ "Internationales Festival Junger Literatur: Bayern 2-WORTSPIELE-Preis für Dana von Suffrin" (in German). 2024-03-15. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
  19. ^ "Dana von Suffrin". Fondation Jan Michalski. Retrieved 2024-08-29.
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