Hanna Schygulla‘s autobiography to be published by Schirmer/Mosel
“Wake Up and Dream” in German bookshops from October 11
This year Hanna Schygulla turns 70, a milestone she is marking with the publication of her first complete autobiography. The book will be presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair from October 9 to 13, with the author herself in attendance at the stand of the Schirmer/Mosel publishing house on October 11.
The apparent contradiction in the title can in fact be read as a statement about the way we conceptualize the future. It is dreaming that prepares the way for new realities.
The following is taken from the publisher’s description:
“Born in 1943 in Königshütte (Kattowitz)/Upper Silesia, Hanna Schygulla writes of her turbulent life against the backdrop of war’s end, flight as a refugee to Munich, post-war reconstruction, the Economic Miracle and the West German student movement. She sheds light on a career that she began as an anti-star in Fassbinder’s theater group and which ultimately led to the international fame she achieved for her role in Maria Braun. Following Fassbinder’s early death in 1982, she went on to become one of European film’s most renowned actresses, working over many years with directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Marco Ferreri, Ettore Scola, Andrzej Wajda, Alexander Sokurov and Fatih Akin. As early as 1982 she received the Award for Best Actress in Cannes for her performance as Piera in Marco Ferreri’s film ‘Storia di Piera.’
Throughout an autobiography employing a straightforward yet always poetic language that fluctuates between Brechtian finesse and Warholian bluntness, Hanna Schygulla continually conveys a strong sense of her own individuality. Clever but never vain, she leads the reader through the stages of an eventful life lived between her three homelands of Germany, Poland and France. She writes of her encounters with famous colleagues, of art, love and cinema, but also of the accidents and coincidences that shape a life and the long period she spent caring for her aging parents. Her account is always moving yet free of pathos and reflects the description of Schygulla herself as a young woman by the writer Georg Stefan Troller: ‘She is at once thoroughly feminine, soft, yet also stands above things. She is a Narcissus without vanity, an actress without dissimulation, ambitious without a plan, a believer in destiny but no fatalist.’”
On October 8, the “Kulturtermin” program broadcast by the radio station rbb kulturradio from 7:04 – 7:30 p.m. will feature Hanna Schygulla reading from her autobiography.
More information
rbb kulturradio
Schirmer/Mosel
Die Welt
Photo right: © RWFF / Foto Barbara Baum