Kein Grund zur Selbstreinigung

Walter Boehlich (1921-2006) was one of the most rigorous literary critics of his generation, working for Die Zeit and the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Deutsche Volkszeitung and Konkret, among others. He knew the cultural scene like few others and was chief editor at Suhrkamp Verlag for over ten years. He was an essayist, edited Sigmund Freud, founded the Verlag der Autoren, published on Thomas Mann and Marcel Proust and translated from French, Spanish and Danish Marguerite Duras, Søren Kierkegaard, Virginia Woolf, among others. From November 1979 to January 2001 he wrote a monthly political column for the satirical magazine Titanic and thus also a history of the old and the new Federal Republic. That was and is political enlightenment in the best sense: left-wing, radical, democratic. In Titanic's obituary, Walter Boehlich was described as "Titanic's most dazzling, mysterious and at the same time awe-inspiring personality". Now a selection of his Titanic columns is being published as a book for the first time.