German author
Date of Birth: February 6th, 1905 in Berlin
Died: May 5th, 1982 in Cologne
Occupation: author
Nationality: Germany
Achievements:
Irmgard Keun was the daughter of the German salesman Eduard Ferdinand K. and his wife Elsa, whose maiden name was Haese. After attending a girls' school, she first worked as a shorthand typist, but then decided to enrol at the Cologne theatre school as a stage artist.
Engagements lead her from the Greifswald Theatre to the Thalia Theater,where she acted, among other things, the 'Grande Dame'.
At the age of twenty-one she published her first novel: "Gilgi-eine von uns", which inspired Kurt Tucholsky to write: "A writing woman with humour! Hooray! Here is a talent at work!" The book reached an edition of 30,000. Her second book, "Das kunstseidene Mädchen" became a best-seller in the era before Hitler, and Irmgard Keun became everybody's darling in Berlin's literary circles. Irmgard Keun started writing after Alfred Döblin had encouraged her on the occasion of an authorial reading in Cologne.
Her light novels which partially had a tendency towards satire and social criticism, were put on the Nazis' black list in 1933, labelled as " trash literature with an anti-German tendency." In 1935, Irmgard Keun dared to sue the Prussian government for damage because of the confiscation of her remaining books by the Gestapo. Soon after she was questioned by the Gestapo and preferred to leave Nazi Germany. In 1936 she received the visa for Belgium and settled down in Oostend. Shortly before she had married Johannes Tralow (died Feb. 27th, 1968)who, as she said, "unfortunately turned out to be an Opportunist". Tralow stayed in the Reich, worked for magazines, wrote some historical novels and came to an arrangement with the rulers of the German Democratic Republic after WW II. From 1951 to 1961 he was the President of the GDR-PEN.
Irmgard Keun, who later moved to the Netherlands, soon met her new companion Joseph Roth in the circle around Stefan Zweig, Ernst Toller, Hermann Kesten and E.E.Kisch. The evening before the 2nd World War started, she travelled with him to his hometown Lemberg in Galizia.
In1940 she was surprised by the German invasion of the Netherlands. With a faked passport she returned to Germany where she also lived in Starnberg and Bad Godesberg. According to her the last months in the Netherlands had been terrible, but in Germany it was no "steadfast suffering" after 1940."I was happy about every bomb that fell ,the fear came later" she said. She had been living in Cologne for a long time when, after 1945, she continued writing and her books were published by the Droste Company in Düsseldorf. The last one, "Ferdinand,der Mann mit dem freundlichen Herzen", was published in 1949.
Irmgard Keun's books are, like the first two of her works, chronicles of the experience of a lifetime filled with difficulties and adventures. Her best book "Nach Mitternacht" was published in 1937 in Amsterdam. "Das Mädchen, mit dem die Kinder nicht verkehren durften"(36), "D-Zug dritter Klasse"(38;Neuaufl.83 by Claasen) and "Kind aller Länder"(39).After the war "Bilder und Gedichte aus der Emigration"(46),"Nur noch Frauen..."(49),the already mentioned "Ferdinand, der Mann mit dem freundlichen Herzen"(49) and, after a break, "Wenn wir alle gut wären",shortstories(57) and "Blühende Neurosen"(62) were published. After that not much was heard from Irmgard Keun. Finally, in 1979, the Claasen Company decided to re-release her eight books. Among the first to be edited were "Nach Mitternacht" and "Das Mädchen mit dem die Kinder nicht verkehren durften".
The Claasen Company triggered an unusual comeback. "I get on my nerves", Irmgard Keun said after giving interviews to all kinds of magazines and on TV.
Irmgard Keun viewed the times sceptically and compared the years around 1930 with the "Wanting to have-and buy everything period, the aimlessness of the people, the electrifying atmosphere all around her..." of 1970ies and "... It will not be nice". Although many critics urged her to write an autobiography about her adventurous life, she didn't do so. She didn't want to show "all the intimate details". Long conversations with Klaus Antes, which were tainted autobiographically, were partly published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung(21st Nov.1981).She was working on the novel "Kein Anschluß unter dieser Nummer".
The novel "Das kunstseidene Mädchen" was filmed in 1960(with Giulietta Masina as the main character),in 1981 it was followed by "Nach Mitternacht", in which Irmgard Keun herself played a part.
In 1981 she was awarded the Marie-Luise-Fleißer-Preis of Ingolstadt.
At the age of 77 she died from lung cancer in Cologne, in May 1982.Irmgard Keun had a daughter named Martina, who was born in 1951.