Sprecher
Beschreibung
The international success of Astrid Lindgren’s children’s books, especially Pippi Longstocking (1945), is largely due to her contacts with the German publisher Oetinger. When Friedrich Oetinger, a bookseller and director of the publishing house Verlag für Wirtschaft und Sozialpolitik Friedrich Oetinger & Co, met Astrid Lindgren in 1949, he acquired the rights to her Pippi Långstrump and reo-riented the publishing house towards children’s literature. In the very same year, 1949, Pippi Lang-stumpf was published in German in a controversial translation by Cäcilie Heinig. By this time, Frie-drich Oetinger’s wife, Heidi, was also working at the publishing house; together with her daughter Silke, she developed a close friendship and professional relationship with Astrid Lindgren. As an intern in the 1960s, Silke Oetinger gained an insight into the workings of the Swedish publishing hou-se Raben & Sjögren, where Astrid Lindgren had worked as an editor until her retirement and had played a key role in bringing Scandinavian children’s literature to Europe. This network between Lindgren, Heidi Oetinger and her daughter Silke, who continued to run the publishing house with her husband Uwe Weitendorf, transformed the German market for children’s literature. The letters from Lindgren, which are accessible in the Foundation’s archive, reveal the growing influence Lindgren exerted over the marketing and translation of her books.
The archives of the Silke Weitendorf Foundation in Hamburg contain numerous letters and other do-cuments, most of which are unpublished, which provide insight into the close-knit and productive network of women (Heidi Oetinger, Silke Oetinger and Astrid Lindgren). These are supplemented by Silke Oetinger’s personal accounts. These written and oral sources impressively demonstrate the extent to which Lindgren utilised her personal contacts to act as a literary agent, placing both her own and other Scandinavian children’s books on the German – and thus international – book market.
Speaker Bio:
Karin Hoff studied German, Scandinavian Studies and History in Bonn and Växjö, Sweden. She obtained her PhD from the University of Bonn in 1993 and her habilitation from the University of Kiel in 2000 with a thesis entitled Die Entdeckung der Zwischenräume. Literary Projekte der Spätauf-klärung zwischen Skandinavien und Deutschland (Göttingen, 2003); 2007–2020 Professor of Scandi-navian Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Göttingen; since April 2020 Professor at the Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Frisian Studies and General Linguistics at the University of Kiel.
Main areas of research: 18th-century, modern and contemporary Scandinavian literature; drama and theatre (particularly August Strindberg); cultural transfer and literary translation.
Recent publications David Gedin & Karin Hoff: Strindbergs Schering: Emil Scherings brev till August Strindberg, Original samt översättning och kommentarer, 2025; Karin Hoff: Varianten der Moderne. Studien zu August Strindbergs Dramatik, 2024.