Sibylle Berg

Sibylle Berg (born 2 June 1968[1]) is a Swiss author and playwright. She writes novels, essays, short fiction, plays, radio plays, and columns.

Sibylle Berg
Born (1968-06-02) 2 June 1968
Weimar, Bezirk Erfurt, East Germany
Occupationnovelist, playwright
NationalitySwiss
Alma materHamburg University
GenreGerman-language plays, social criticism, LGBT literature, German poetry
Notable awardsWolfgang Koeppen Prize, Else-Lasker-Schüler-Dramatikerpreis
Years active1997 - present
Website
www.sibylleberg.com

Berg is a contemporary author who is considered one of the most famous and influential writers and playwrights in the German-speaking world. Her books (15) have been translated into 30 languages.[2] Sibylle Berg has won numerous prestigious awards over her many years of career. Berg's writing was compared to that of Kurt Vonnegut, Brett Easton Ellis, Michel Houellebecq, and Will Self. She has become an iconic figure in German alternative sub-cultures, gaining a very large fan base among the LGBT community and the European artistic communities. She lives in Switzerland and Israel.[3]

Life

Berg was born on June 2, 1968, in Weimar. She spent her childhood and youth with a foster family in Constanta.[4] Her father was a music professor, and her mother was a librarian. Before beginning her higher education in West Germany, she was trained as a combat diver. She studied oceanography at the University of Hamburg, and worked in various works.[5][6] In 1996, she moved to Zurich, Switzerland. She married in 2004, and holds Swiss citizenship since 2012. Sibylle Berg is known to support the Straight Edge movement.[7] Berg describes herself as Non-Binary.[8]

Novelist

Sibylle Berg's first novel, "A Few People Search For Happiness And Laugh Themselves To Death",[9] was published in 1997 by Reclam Publishing, after previously being rejected by 50 other publishers. The book sold around 400,000 copies, and continues to sell today, 23 years later.

Berg has written 15 novels.[10] On the occasion of a new book being published, Sibylle Berg tends to direct and put out a tour that usually is more of a rock concert than a book reading. Normally, these events attract thousands of people in each show. In 2012, with the release of her book Vielen Dank für das Leben (Thank You For This Life), the book tour included contributions from film and theater actors Katia Riemann,[11] Mathias Brandt,[12] and musician Marie Ocher.[13][14]

In the tour upon the release of the novel GRM brainfuck (deals with a neoliberal England after the Brexit), Sibylle Berg created a multi-media reading show with three actors, the young (14 y/o) grime star rapper[15] T.Roadz[16] and veteran Grime stars, founder of Ruff Sqwad,[17] Rappers Prince Rapid[18] and Slix. In 2019, GRM - Brainfuck[19] was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch, spent months on the best-seller list,[20] and sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

Playwright

Sibylle Berg has written 27 plays. In 2000, in Bochum, her second play Helges Leben (Helge's Life) was staged and commissioned for the Mulheim Theater Festival.[21]

In 2008, the play Von denen die überleben (Of Those Who Survive) was staged in the central theater of Zurich, in collaboration with well-known artists such as Jon Pylypchuk,[22] Gabríela Friðriksdóttir,[23] and more.

In 2013, Sibylle Berg began working with Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin,[24] and her first play, Es sagt mir nichts, das so genannete Draussen (It tells me nothing, the so-called gossip), was selected in 2014 as the play of the year by Theater heute.[25]

In 2015, the play Und dann kam Mirna (And Then Came Mirna) won the Friedrich Luft Prize[26] as the best production in Berlin and Potsdam.

In 2019, the play Wonderland Ave was invited to the "Mülheim Theatertage".[27]

In 2019, the play Hate Triptych - Ways out of the crisis (Hass-Triptychon - Wege aus der Crisis) won the Nestroypreis as the best play of the year in German-speaking countries.[28]

Berg's plays have been staged and aired in the United States, Britain, Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Turkey, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Social activism

  • Sibylle Berg has long been a Social activist. In 2018, she launched a referendum against insurance companies monitoring individual insurers without the need of any court order.[29][30]
  • Berg works with p≡p coop. p≡p is a foundation advocating Privacy and Free Software to support Privacy for everyone.[31]
  • Sibylle Berg supports the referendum E-ID, against Privatization of a digital passport project into private businesses.[32]
  • In 2019, in response to man-dominated historiography, Sibylle Berg, together with other women, published The Canon for the Visibility of Women in Science Art and Literature.[33]
  • Sibylle Berg is active in science education. She conducts talks under the title "Nerds save the world" in the Swiss magazine Republik.[34]
  • She supports the Charter of Digital Fundamental Rights of the European Union, published at the end of November 2016.[35]
  • Sibylle Berg is a regular guest at the Re:publica.[36]

Other projects

Berg has written various contributions for Die Zeit, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and Die Presse, among others. She has also been a columnist for Spiegel Online since January 2011, under the title S.P.O.N. – Fragen Sie Frau Sibylle (Ask Ms. Sibylle), published weekly until March 2018, and bi-weekly since then. The column has more than 4 million followers.[37] Berg also conducts a regular interview series for the Swiss online magazine Republik, entitled "Nerds Save The World", in which she speaks to specialists from various disciplines.[38] In 2020, a book named "Nerds Save The World" that unites all conversations was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch.

Sibylle Berg has written songs to her own plays, as well as to other artists, like the lyrics for several songs by the Swiss singer Sina.[39][40] In 2011, the song Ich Schwvara, written by Berg and sang by Sina, was the song of the year and the most-played song at weddings in Switzerland. Berg wrote the text Speed for Phillip Boa and the Voodooclub. Along with Rammstein and Element of Crime, Phillip Boa and the Voodooclub can be heard on the recorded reading of Berg's novel Sex II (1999). From January 2016 to December 2017, Berg read her own satirical texts off-air ahead of the introduction of guests on the ZDFneo talk show Schulz & Böhmermann.[41]

Director

In March 2013, Sibylle Berg co-directed, with Hasko Weber, Angst Reist mit (Fear Travels With Us) at the Stuttgart Theater. That same year, The Berliner Festspiele honored her in "A Day with Sibylle Berg", where she directed a day-long event (including 60 well-known artists, some personal friends, others collaborators).[42] In October 2015, she directed her play, How To Sell A Murder House, at the Neumarkt Zurch Theater.[43]

Educational canon

In 2018, Berg collaborated with Simone Meier, Hedwig Richter, Margarete Stokowski, and seven others to produce the list Women You Need To Know, published in August by Spiegel Online and Watson.ch. The canon includes 145 women and three female artist groups, sub-divided into science, technology, research, as well as politics, literature, and art.[44]

Teaching work

Berg has been teaching dramaturgy at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2013.[45]

Works in English

  • By the Way, Did I Ever Tell You. Editor Raphael Gygax, Distributed Art Pub Incorporated, 2007, ISBN 978-3-905770-77-3
  • AND NOW: THE WORLD!. Directed by Abigail Graham, Hackney Showroom London, 2015.[46][47]
  • Wonderland Avenue, commissioned by Frieze Projects for Frieze Arts Fair 2016. Directed by Sebastian Nuebling, set built by German artist Claus Richter.[48][49]

Awards

  • 2000: Marburg Literature prize for Amerika
  • 2006/2007: Stipendium Landis & Gyr Foundation[50]
  • 2008: Wolfgang Koeppen Prize[51]
  • 2012: City of Zurich prize[52]
  • 2014: Play of the year of the magazine Theater heute for Es sagt mir nichts, das so genannte Draußen (The So-Called Outside Means Nothing To Me)[53]
  • 2015: Friedrich Luft Prize for Und dann kam Mirna (And Then Came Mirna)[2]
  • 2016: Audience Prize Plays. Mülheimer Theatertage NRW for Und dann kam Mirna (And Then Came Mirna) at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin[54]
  • 2016: Else-Lasker-Schüler-Dramatikerpreis (Else Lasker-Schüler Dramatists Prize)[55]
  • 2017: City of Zurich prize[52]
  • 2019: Kasseler Literaturpreis für grotesken Humor (Kassel Literature Prize for Grotesque Humour)[56]
  • 2019: Thüringer Literaturpreis[57]
  • 2019: Nestroypreis- The author prize for the best theater play[58]
  • 2019: Swiss Book Prize for GRM. Brainfuck[59]
  • 2020: Swiss Grand Prix Literatur Prize[60]
  • 2020: Bertolt Brecht Literature Prize[61]
  • 2020: Johann-Peter-Hebel-Preis (Presentation in May 2021)[62]

Bibliography

Prose

  • A Few People Search For Happiness And Laugh Themselves To Death / Ein paar Leute suchen das Glück und lachen sich tot. Roman. Reclam, Leipzig 1997; Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-15-021577-7.
  • Sex II. Roman. Reclam, Leipzig 1998; Reclam, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-15-021665-1.
  • Amerika. Roman. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1999; Goldmann, München 2001, ISBN 3-442-44848-4
  • Gold. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 2000; erw. Taschenbuchausgabe: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2002, ISBN 3-462-03098-1.
  • Das Unerfreuliche zuerst. Herrengeschichten. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2001, ISBN 3-462-03037-X.
  • End Happy / Ende gut. Roman. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2004; Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 2005, ISBN 3-499-23858-6.[63]
  • Did I Ever Tell You... A Fairy Tale For Everyone / Habe ich dir eigentlich schon erzählt… – Ein Märchen für alle. Illustriert von Rita Ackermann und Andro Wekua. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2006, ISBN 3-462-03735-8.
  • The Journey / Die Fahrt. Roman. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2007; Rowohlt, Reinbek 2009, ISBN 978-3-499-24775-0.
  • The Man Sleeps / Der Mann schläft. Roman. Hanser, München 2009; dtv, München 2011, ISBN 978-3-423-14002-7.
  • Thank You For This Life / Vielen Dank für das Leben. Roman. Hanser, München 2012, ISBN 978-3-446-23970-8.
  • How Am I Supposed To Stand All This? / Wie halte ich das nur alles aus? Fragen Sie Frau Sibylle. Hanser, München 2013, ISBN 978-3-446-24322-4.
  • The Day My Wife Found A Husband / Der Tag, als meine Frau einen Mann fand. Hanser, München 2015,ISBN 978-3-446-24760-4
  • Wonderful years. When we were still traveling the world / Wunderbare Jahre. Als wir noch die Welt bereisten. Hanser, München 2016, ISBN 978-3-446-25408-4.
  • GRM. Brainfuck. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2019, ISBN 978-3-462-05143-8
  • Nerds retten die Welt. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 2020, ISBN 3-462-05460-0.

Theatre

  • A Few People Search For Happiness And Laugh Themselves To Death / Ein paar Leute suchen das Glück und lachen sich tot. (1999)
  • Victor's Life / Helges Leben (2000)
  • Dog, Woman, Man / Hund, Frau, Mann" (2001)
  • Herr Mautz (2002)
  • Eine Stunde Glück (2003)
  • Look, The Sun Is Going Down / Schau, da geht die Sonne unter (2003)
  • It'll Be Alright. Never Love Again! / Das wird schon. Nie mehr Lieben! (2004)
  • Make A Wish / Wünsch dir was. Ein Musical (2006)
  • Did I actually tell you...? / Habe ich dir eigentlich schon erzählt..., 02.10.2007 Deutsches Theater in Göttingen. Director: Katja Fillmann (2007)
  • Of Those Who Will Survive /Von denen, die überleben (2008)
  • The Final Golden Years / Die goldenen letzten Jahre (2009)
  • Only At Night / Nur nachts (2010)
  • The Main Thing Is Work! / Hauptsache Arbeit! (2010)
  • Missions Of Beauty / Missionen der Schönheit (2010)
  • Don't Spoil The Surprise! / Lasst euch überraschen (2010)
  • The Ladies Are Waiting / Die Damen warten (2012)
  • Fear Travels With Us / Angst reist mit (2013, Berg's debut as stage director)
  • Es sagt mir nichts, das sogenannte Draußen (2013)
  • My Slightly Strange Friend Walter / Mein ziemlich seltsamer Freund Walter (2014)
  • Good Cooking / Viel gut essen, von Frau Berg (2014)
  • And Now: The World! / Und jetzt: Die Welt! (2015)
  • And Then Came Mirna / Und dann kam Mirna (2015)
  • How To Sell A Murder House (2015)
  • After us the universe or the inner team knows no break/ Nach uns das All oder Das innere Team kennt keine Pause. 15.09.2017 Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin. Director: Sebastian Nübling (2017)
  • Wonderland Ave., at: Schauspiel Köln, 8. Juni 2018; Director: Ersan Mondtag (2018)
  • Hate Triptych - Ways out of the crisis / Hass-Triptychon — Wege aus der Krise. Director: Ersan Mondtag (2019)
  • In the gardens / In den Gärten, 16.11.2019 Theater Basel (Director: Miloš Lolić) (2019)
  • And surely the world disappeared with me / Und sicher ist mit mir die Welt verschwunden, 24 october 2020 Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin. Director: Sebastian Nübling (2020)

Radio plays

  • Sex II shortend reading of Sibylle Berg, with music of Phillip Boa, Rammstein, Element of Crime, u. a. Reclam, Leipzig 1999.
  • Amerika, shortend reading of Sibylle Berg, Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1999.
  • Gold shortend reading of Sibylle Berg, Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 2000.
  • Sex II, director: Stefan Hardt and Inga Busch and Beate Jensen (SWR). 2000.
  • Ein paar Leute suchen das Glück und lachen sich tot, director: Beate Andres. voice: Sophie Rois, Dagmar Sitte, Christian Berkel u. a. (NDR/HR), Munich 2003
  • Ende gut, Hörspiel, director: Claudia Johanna Leist, composer: Caspar Brötzmann (WDR). 2005.
  • Das wird schon. Nie mehr lieben!, adaptation: Wolfgang Stahl, director: Sven Stricker, voice: Leslie Malton, Stefanie Stappenbeck, Daniela Ziegler, Andreas Fröhlich (NDR) radio play of the month Juli. 2006.
  • Hongkong Airport, 23.45 h. director: Claudia Johanna Leist, voice: Christian Redl, Angelika Bartsch, Anna Thalbach, u. a. (WDR) 2007.
  • Der Mann schläft. director: Leonhard Koppelmann, composer: Gerd Bessler, voice: Judith Engel, Leonie Landa, Markus John, Jens Harzer, Achim Buch, Marion Breckwoldt, Christian Redl (NDR) 2010.
  • Vielen Dank für das Leben, shortend reading of Gustav Peter Wöhler, 5 CD, 397 minutes. radio play Hamburg, Hamburg 2012.
  • Und jetzt: die Welt! Oder: Es sagt mir nichts, das sogenannte Draußen., director: Stefan Kanis, voice: Marina Frenk (MDR) 2015.
  • GRM Brainfuck. voices: Torben Kessler, Lisa Hrdina. 2019 Argon Verlag GmbH, Berlin

References

  1. ONLINE, RP. "Sibylle Berg: "Menschen machen mich oft traurig"". RP ONLINE (in German). Retrieved 2019-05-13.
  2. "rowohlt-Theaterverlag :: Berg, Sibylle". rowohlt-Theaterverlag (in German). Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  3. "Attentat in Tel Aviv: Wir alle, die nicht morden, sind betroffen". January 1, 2016 via www.welt.de.
  4. "Die Berg - c/o Vienna". www.co-vienna.com.
  5. "Sibylle Berg im Interview". Musikexpress. April 29, 2016.
  6. "Thüringer Literaturpreis für Sibylle Berg / GRM. Brainfuck / Thüringen".
  7. Pfaff, Jan (December 28, 2019). "Autorin Sibylle Berg über die neuen 20er: „Unruhe herrscht weiter, wie immer"" via taz.de.
  8. "Hausgemeinschaft mit Sibylle Berg". SoundCloud.
  9. "A Few People Search For Happiness And Laugh Themselves To Death | Sibylle Berg". www.sibylleberg.com.
  10. ""GRM": Vergriffen, aber die nächste Auflage kommt". buchreport. April 23, 2019.
  11. "Katja Riemann". IMDb.
  12. "Matthias Brandt". IMDb.
  13. "Faust Studio Sessions and Other Recordings, by Mary Ocher". Mary Ocher.
  14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SZHcr6MRug&t=4s. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. "What is grime music? Definition and most famous artists". February 22, 2018.
  16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PafJ6AvkSTg. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  17. McQuaid, Ian (April 26, 2016). "How grime originators Ruff Sqwad finally got their due" via www.theguardian.com.
  18. "Seven Tracks: Prince Rapid". Clash Magazine.
  19. Oltermann, Philip (June 30, 2019). "German sci-fi fans lap up dystopian tales of Brexit Britain" via www.theguardian.com.
  20. value, active. "GRM". Kiepenheuer & Witsch.
  21. "Helges Leben". Stadt Mülheim an der Ruhr. July 8, 2014.
  22. "Jon Pylypchuk - 49 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy". www.artsy.net.
  23. "Gabríela Friðriksdóttir". Gabríela Friðriksdóttir.
  24. "Maxim Gorki Theater - Frontpage". www.gorki.de.
  25. "rowohlt-Theaterverlag :: Berg, Sibylle". rowohlt-theaterverlag.de.
  26. Rakow, Christian. "Sibylle-Berg-Stück gewinnt Berliner Friedrich-Luft-Preis". www.nachtkritik.de.
  27. "Stücke 2019: Mülheimer Theatertage mit Werken von Sibylle Berg u. a." May 11, 2019.
  28. Wolf, Michael. "Nestroypreis: Nominierte und Preis für Andrea Breth". nachtkritik.de.
  29. https://www.thelocal.ch/20180606/swiss-voters-to-have-final-say-on-controversial-new-social-detective-law. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  30. "Sibylle Berg über Sozialdetektive: "Wollen wir uns gegenseitig verdächtigen?"". watson.ch.
  31. "Schriftstellerin Sibylle Berg will das Internet grundlegend reformieren". t3n Magazin.
  32. https://twitter.com/SibylleBerg/status/1176153212707098630. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  33. "Who runs the world? 148 Frauen, die ihr euch zum Vorbild nehmen könnt #DIEKANON". watson.ch.
  34. "Republik". www.republik.ch.
  35. "Sibylle_Berg". re:publica 2019.
  36. "Speakers". re:publica 2018.
  37. Germany, DER SPIEGEL, Hamburg. "Fragen Sie Frau Sibylle - DER SPIEGEL". www.spiegel.de.
  38. "Sibylle Bergs erste optimistische Kolumne". www.republik.ch.
  39. "Sina | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  40. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=433nDJyV1Cg/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  41. "Whiskey, Zigaretten, Sibylle Berg". www.tagesspiegel.de.
  42. Festspiele, Berliner. "Haus der Berliner Festspiele - One Day with … Sibylle Berg and friends". www.berlinerfestspiele.de.
  43. "How To Sell a Murderhouse — Veranstaltungen — Plattform 7: Mad Men Zürich — Theater Neumarkt Archiv 2013–2019". 2013-2019.theaterneumarkt.ch.
  44. "Bildungskanon: Welche Frauen man heute kennen muss - SPIEGEL ONLINE". m.spiegel.de. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  45. "rowohlt-Theaterverlag :: Berg, Sibylle". www.rowohlt-theaterverlag.de. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  46. "AND NOW: THE WORLD! by Sibylle Berg -". September 2, 2015.
  47. "Oxford German Network | AND NOW: THE WORLD! By Sibylle Berg in London". www.ogn.ox.ac.uk.
  48. Rojas, Laurie (October 7, 2016). "Frieze Projects Imagines a World Where Robots Rule". Artsy.
  49. "Sibylle Berg & Claus Richter". frieze.com.
  50. "Landis & Gyr Stiftung | Alle Ateliergäste". 2016-05-19. Archived from the original on 2016-05-19. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  51. "Sibylle Berg: GRM. Brainfuck - 12 Swiss Books". July 31, 2019.
  52. "Auszeichnungen - Stadt Zürich". www.stadt-zuerich.ch (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  53. Theaterverlag, Michael Merschmeier, Der. "Theater heute - Archiv". Der Theaterverlag (in German). Archived from the original on 2019-06-27. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  54. "Stücke 2016 - Preisträger stehen fest!". Stadt Mülheim an der Ruhr. May 27, 2016.
  55. "Else-Lasker-Schüler-Dramatikerpreis für Sibylle Berg - Theater-News - Verlag Theater der Zeit". www.theaterderzeit.de. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  56. chr. "Sibylle Berg erhält Kasseler Literaturpreis". nachtkritik.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  57. https://www.literaturpreisgewinner.de/belletristik/thueringer-literaturpreis. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  58. https://nachtkritik.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17244:andrea-breth-erhaelt-nestroypreis-fuer-ihr-lebenswerk&catid=126:meldungen-k&Itemid=100089. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  59. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/author-sybille-berg-wins-2019-swiss-book-prize/45357568. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  60. Eidgenössisches Departement des Innern EDI. "Sibylle Berg erhält den Schweizer Grand Prix Literatur" (in German). Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  61. "Der Bertolt-Brecht-Preis geht an Sibylle Berg". Buchmarkt.de. 2020-01-17.
  62. Baden-Württemberg.de vom 16. April 2020 Kunst und Kultur: Johann-Peter-Hebelpreis für Schriftstellerin Sibylle Berg, abgerufen am 16. April 2020
  63. Stephan Maus: Sibylle Berg: „Ende gut“. Archived 2007-02-09 at the Wayback Machine In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 14. Februar 2005. (Rezension)}}
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