Ingo Schulze


Ingo Schulze is a German writer born in Dresden in former East Germany. He studied classical philology at the University of Jena for five years, and, until German reunification, was an assistant director at the State Theatre in Altenburg 45 km south of Leipzig for two years. After sleeping through the events of the night of 9 November 1989, Schulze started a newspaper with friends. He was encouraged to write. Schulze spent six months in St Petersburg which became the basis for his debut collection of short stories 33 Moments of Happiness.
Schulze has won a number of awards for his novels and stories, which have been translated into twenty languages, among them into English by John E. Woods. In 2007, he was awarded the Thüringer Literaturpreis. In 2013 he was awarded the Bertolt-Brecht-Literaturpreis.

Life

Schulze, the son of a physicist and a doctor, grew up with his mother after his parents' divorce. After completing his Abitur, which he took in 1981 at the Kreuzschule in Dresden, he completed basic military service in the National People's Army. Until 1988 he studied classical philology at the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena.
Subsequently, Schulze was a dramaturg at the Landestheater of Altenburg, which he left in order to work as a journalist. In 1990 he was a cofounder of the 'independent newspaper' the Alternburger Wochenblatt, which was operational until Autumn 1991, as well as an Offertenblatt called the Anzeiger. Both were published by the Alternburg publishing house, which was managed by Schulze until the end of 1992. In early 1993 he went to Russia, where he launched the advertising newspaper Петербург.
Since the mid-1990s Schulze has lived as a freelance author in Berlin. He and his wife have two daughters.
Since 2006 he has been a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts and, since 2007, of the German Academy for Language and Poetry in Darmstadt. Other than this, he is a member of the Saxony Academy of the Arts, as well as of the PEN Centre Germany.
In Autumn 2019 Schulze curated the forum:autoren at the Munich Literature Festival. The theme was titled 'Exercises in paradise. Questions to the world after 1989.'

Publications