Reinhard Kaiser

Reinhard Kaiser (1950–2025), born in Viersen on the Lower Rhine, was a German writer and translator. He wrote novels and nonfiction, including »Königskinder – Eine wahre Liebe« and »Dies Kind soll leben«. He received the German Youth Literature Prize in 1997 for »Königskinder« and the Geschwister Scholl Prize in 2000 for »Dies Kind soll leben«. Kaiser translated from English and occasionally from French, including works by Sylvia Plath and Susan Sontag. His adaptation of Grimmelshausen’s »The Adventurous Simplicissimus« helped bring the early modern classic to a wider readership; it earned him the special prize of the Grimmelshausen Prize in 2009 and the Brüder Grimm Prize of the city of Hanau in 2011. In 2010, he received the Wilhelm Merton Prize for European Translations.