Christoph Hein

Christoph Hein (born in 1944 in Heinzendorf, Silesia, now in Poland) is a German writer, translator and essayist. After studying philosophy and logic at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin, he worked as a staff writer at the Volksbühne theater in Berlin from 1974 to 1979. He subsequently worked as a freelance writer, producing novels, short fiction, plays and essays. He gained wider recognition with the novella »Der fremde Freund«, published in West Germany as »Drachenblut«. His other notable works include »Landnahme« and »In seiner frühen Kindheit ein Garten«. Hein has received, among other honors, the Uwe Johnson Prize, the Stefan Heym Prize, the German Critics’ Prize, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Eichendorff Literature Prize.