Christoph Meckel

Christoph Meckel (12 June 1935 – 29 January 2020) was a German author and graphic artist. He received awards for his works which connect illustrations with the written text, sometimes texts by others.

Life

Born in Berlin, Meckel spent his youth there, in Erfurt and in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he attended Gymnasium. In 1954/55 he studied graphic art at the Academy of Art in Freiburg im Breisgau, and in 1956 at the Academy of Art in München. Since 1956 he worked as both an author and graphic artist. His first poem appeared that year. He traveled extensively through Europe, Africa, and America and lived in Oetingen in Markgräflerland, in Berlin, in southern France, and in Tuscany.

His graphic work has appeared in numerous exhibitions. Until his withdrawal in 1997, Meckel was a member of the PEN Center of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was a member of the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz and the Deutschen Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung in Darmstadt.

In her book "For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Childrearing and the Roots of Violence" Alice Miller provides quotes of Meckel on his childhood: Punishment followed on a grand scale. For ten days, an unconscionable length of time, my father blessed the palms of his child's outstretched four-year-old hands with a sharp twitch. Seven strokes a day on each hand: that makes one hundred and forty strokes and then some. This put an end to the child's innocence. Whatever it was that happened in Paradise involving Adam, Eve, Lilith, the serpent, and the apple, the well-deserved Biblical thunderbolt of prehistoric times, the roar of the Almighty and His pointed finger signifying expulsion – I know nothing about all that. It was my father who drove me out of paradise.

Meckel died in Freiburg on 29 January 2020, aged 84.

Awards

Meckel received numerous literary prizes, including:

1959 Immermann Prize
1966 Preis Junge Generation of the Berliner Kunstpreis
1974 Reinhold-Schneider-Preis
1978 Rainer-Maria-Rilke-Preis für Lyrik
1981 Literaturpreis der Stadt Bremen, Ernst-Meister-Preis für Lyrik
1982 Georg Trakl Prize
1993 Kasseler Literaturpreis
2003 Joseph-Breitbach-Preis
2005 Schiller Ring of the Deutsche Schillerstiftung, Weimar
2006 International Literary Award Novi Sad (Serbia)
2016 Hölty Prize, Hanover
2018 Johann-Peter-Hebel-Preis
2020 Antiquaria Prize

Works

Exhibition catalogues

Christoph Meckel, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, Zeichnungen, Graphik-Zyklen, Bücher, München 1965
Christoph Meckel, Handzeichnungen, Radierungen, Bücher, München 1971
The graphic work of Christoph Meckel, Austin, Tex. 1973
Christoph Meckel, Bilder, Graphik, Hamburg 1976
Christoph Meckel & Christopher Middleton, Bilderbücher 1968/1978, Berlin 1979
Christoph Meckel, Zeichnungen, Radierungen, Reutlingen 1984
Christoph Meckel, Bilder, Bücher, Bilderbücher, Bamberg 1986
Christoph Meckel, Zeichnungen, Bilder, Radierungen, Freiburg 1987
Christoph Meckel, Zeichnungen und Graphik, Bergisch Gladbach 1987
Christoph Meckel, Frankfurt am Main, 1988
Christoph Meckel, Radierungen, Freiburg i. Br. 1990
Christoph Meckel, Manuskriptbilder 1962 - 1992, Freiburg 1992
Christoph Meckel, Neue Zeichnungen und Grafik, Saarbrücken 1997
Christoph Meckel, Beginn eines Sommers, Troisdorf 2001

Publications

Alles andere steht geschrieben, Kiel 1993
Georg Heym: Gedichte, Frankfurt a.M. 1968
Vier Tage im Mai, Waldkirch 1989
Der Vogel fährt empor als kleiner Rauch, Göttingen 1995
Das zahnlos geschlagene Wort, Düsseldorf 1980

Translations

Avraham Ben-Yitzhak: Es entfernten sich die Dinge, München [u.a.] 1994
Asher Reich: Arbeiten auf Papier, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1992
Tuvia Rübner: Wüstenginster, München [u.a.] 1990

Illustrated works

Allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrechte, Frankfurt am Main 1974
Erich Arendt: Reise in die Provence, Darmstadt 1983
Walter Aue: Worte, Köln 1963
Thomas Böhme: Die Zöglinge des Herrn Glasenapp, Düsseldorf 1996
Bertolt Brecht: Bertolt Brechts Hauspostille, Frankfurt/M. 1966
Wolfgang Dick: Nachtstücke - versetzbar, Stierstadt im Taunus 1965
Uwe-Michael Gutzschhahn: Fahrradklingel, Berlin 1979
Gerd Henniger: Träume, Warmbronn 1987
Christopher Middleton: Wie wir Großmutter zum Markt bringen, Stierstadt i. Ts. 1970
Zvonko Plepelic: Du kommen um sieben, Berlin 1980
Poetische Grabschriften, Frankfurt am Main 1987
Die Rechte des Kindes, Ravensburg 1994
Ruth Reichstein: Lichterloh, Frauenfeld 1988
Christa Reinig: Die Ballade vom blutigen Bomme, Düsseldorf 1972
Voltaire: Candide oder der Optimismus; Zadig oder das Schicksal; Der weiße Stier, Köln 1964