Pages Full text

Marcel Reich-Ranicki

Born 1920 in Wloclawek (Poland) Marcel Reich-Ranicki was the first and hitherto the only literary critic to empty the streets in Germany. Many viewers arranged to see his TV programme together.

And on the following day there were loud discussions amongst people imitating his inimitable Eastern European accent. He was the superstar of the "Literary Quartet" on ZDF, and the late 1980s marked the peak of his career as the most successful literary critic in Germany.

The German press loved to call him the Literature Pope. Later in his life, in 1973 he became Head of the literature department on the FAZ, 1974 Honorary professor at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen and 1990/91 Guest professor in Düsseldorf and in Karlsruhe.

Marcel Reich-Ranicki at the studio of german TV station ZDF Title of TV-Show: Aus gegebenem Anlass - Marcel Reich-Ranicki in conversation with Thomas Gottschalk - Broadcasted: 17.10.2008 Source: ZDF

Historical and biographical dates

1920 Born in Wloclawek (Poland). Both his parents were Jews. His father David Reich was Polish. His mother Helene Reich (maiden name Auerbach) was German.
1927 Attends German language school in Wloclawek.
1929 Emigrates to his mother's family in Berlin
1930 School at the Werner von Siemens Gymnasium (Berlin, suburb of Schöneberg).
1934 Member of the Jewish Boy Scouts movement in Germany.
1935 Fichte Gymnasium (Berlin, Wilmersdorf).
1938 A-levels
1938 His application for university matriculation (German studies) is rejected
1938 Deportation from Berlin to Warsaw (“Poland Action”)
1940 Forced resettlement in the Warsaw ghetto. He works with the Council of Elders, the “Jewish Council”.
1942 Start of deportations of the ghetto inhabitants to the Treblinka extermination camp. Marries Teofila Langnas (members of the Jewish Council and married people were not at first deported)
1943 Flight from the ghetto
1944 Liberated from his hiding place by the Red Army
1944 Start of his work for the postal censorship office, sub-department of the Ministry of Public Security (MBP)
1945 Deputy head of Department III of the Head Office of Censorship in Warsaw
1945 Joins the Polish Communist Party PPR ("Polish Workers’ Party").
1946 Works for the Polish military mission and the foreign news service in Berlin. From April, in Warsaw, work in Department II, Section IV of the MBP.
1948 under the name Ranicki, Vice Consul (later Consul) of the Republic of Poland in London and in the rank of colonel, head of the foreign news service
1949 Recalled to Warsaw from London. 14 days solitary confinement in prison.
1950 Sacked from the Foreign Service and Secret Service
1950 Expelled from the Communist Party
1950 Lector for German literature in the publishing department of the Ministry of Defence
1951 Publications in the Warsaw weekly "Nowa Kultura".
1952 Freelance work and for the Warsaw monthly journal "Twórczos´c´". Translator
1953 Publication ban.
1954 Publication ban lifted.
1957 First study trips to Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany arranged by the Polish Writers’ League.
1958 Study trip to the Federal Republic of Germany. He does not return to Poland but lives in Frankfurt am Main.
1958 Initial participation in a meeting of "Gruppe 47", a democratic amalgamation of writers and publicists
1958 Literary critic on the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung (FAZ)
1959 Moves house to the Hamburg suburb of Niendorf
1960 Literary critic on the Hamburg weekly “Die Zeit”
1971 to 1975 Guest professor in Stockholm and Uppsala
1973 to 1988 Head of the literature department on the FAZ
1974 Honorary professor at the Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen
1988 to 2001 Regular appearance on the programme “The Literary Quartet” on ZDF
1990 Heinrich Heine Guest Professor at the Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf
1991 Heinrich Hertz Guest Professor at the University of Karlsruhe
1999 Publishes his autobiography “Mein Leben”
2006 Made an honorary doctor at the Humboldt University, Berlin
2013 Marcel Reich-Ranicki dies in Frankfurt am Main