NOT SMART ENOUGH FOR THIS LIFE

  • Helmut Lethen, one of the most renowned cultural scientists and intellectuals in Germany, writes about what shaped him – and at the same time he provides a unique access to about more than half a century of German contemporary and intellectual history.
  • A German coming of age novel. As Durs Grünbein says: "A first class reading experience."
  • Lethen's books have set standards: The Verhaltenslehren der Kälte are considered a "cult book" Süddeutsche Zeitung; The Shadow of the Photographer was awarded the Leipzig Book Fair prize.

Fear of the bombs, a wartime childhood – this is the beginning of Helmut Lethen’s memories that go on to cover more than seven decades of German history. The shock of being confronted with the Holocaust in Resnais’ film Nacht und Nebel when he was eighteen. The feeling of liberation when he moved from Bonn to the liberal city of Amsterdam. Then to Berlin – turbulent with protest: here Lethen demonstrates against a visit from the Shah in 1967. The Maoist K-Group excludes him because of a "tendency to conciliation", and yet the "Radicals Decree" – the employment ban in Germany – applies to him and proves to be an inadvertent blessing. In the Netherlands, Lethen writes the "Verhaltenslehren der Kälte", ‘with which he revolutionises our image of the interwar period’. Süddeutsche Zeitung 

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  • Publisher: Rowohlt Berlin
  • Release: 13.10.2020
  • ISBN: 978-3-7371-0088-5
  • 384 Pages
  • Author: Helmut Lethen

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NOT SMART ENOUGH FOR THIS LIFE
Helmut Lethen NOT SMART ENOUGH FOR THIS LIFE
Anna Weise
© Anna Weise
Helmut Lethen

Helmut Lethen , born in 1939, taught at the University of Utrecht from 1977 to 1996, before taking the Chair of Modern German Literature in Rostock. From 2007 to 2016, he headed the International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna. His book Verhaltenslehren der Kälte (1994) is considered a standard work, and Der Schatten des Fotografen (2014) won the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. His highly acclaimed autobiography Denn für dieses Leben ist der Mensch nicht schlau genug (2020) and Der Sommer des Großinquisitors (2022) were published most recently.