Friedhelm Kemp

Friedhelm Kemp (1914–2011) was a German essayist, translator, and editor. Born in Cologne, he grew up in Aachen and Frankfurt and studied Romance languages and German literature in Frankfurt and Munich, earning a doctorate under Karl Vossler in 1938. From 1945, he worked as a freelance writer and publishing editor in Munich, later heading the literary department of Bavarian Radio. He translated mainly from French, including works by Maurice Scève, Charles Baudelaire, Simone Weil, and Saint-John Perse, and edited writings by authors including Jean Paul, Rahel Varnhagen, and Konrad Weiss. His honors included the Johann Heinrich Voß Prize for Translation (1963), the Joseph Breitbach Prize (1998), and the Horst Bienek Prize for Poetry (2007).