The literary critic and author Elke Heidenreich will actually be 80 years old on February 15, 2023 - no one believes her.
A tribute.
Elke Heidenreich must not be 80 yet.
Because turning 80 means she's aging too and won't stay in this beautiful world forever.
And then what?
If not she, who should throw us the literary lifebuoys in said world, which is beautiful, but also quite complicated?
You should just ignore her 80th.
Just like Heidenreich is trying to do itself.
When someone calls her at home in Cologne a few weeks ago and asks if she would be willing to do a birthday interview, she replies unequivocally.
Her strength has always been clear and clear.
The - well - since today 80-year-old does not beat around the bush.
She jumps in, even at the risk of burning herself or spraying others.
And if she brought it on herself, then she spoons it up again, the mush.
How is this called?
Character.
ZDF canceled Elke Heidenreich's successful show "Reading!"
Wouldn't hang her that high herself.
Whoever came up with the title “literature pope” for her is wrong.
With her pragmatic nature, this woman brushes off any hint of deference to her person.
"Pampig", she calls herself when she has once again expressed her opinion somewhat harshly.
In our time, rich in meaningless platitudes, one finds it: refreshing.
At a reading in Munich, Elke Heidenreich explained bluntly why her program “Read!” was discontinued after five years despite high ratings in 2008: “They canceled it because I called ZDF a cultureless bunch.
I still stand by that, but I could have phrased it a little nicer.” She wouldn't have.
Because she's not the only one who doesn't want to get into the brain,
how you can neglect such a format and keep moving it to other broadcast slots.
Up to 1.8 million viewers in front of the television – with a program about reading!
Where's something like that?
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For five years, Elke Heidenreich ensured strong ratings in her ZDF program "Reading!".
© Jörg Carstensen
And after the broadcast, they all ran to the bookstores or ordered on the Internet at the push of a button.
Regardless of whether it was a thriller, a romance or an autobiography – what Heidenreich recommended had to be good.
Her tips inevitably ended up on the bestseller lists.
After the show ended, she "pouted and mourned for a while," she says today.
"But looking back, I was happy.
Because I was exhausted too.
I could not anymore."
Of course she continued anyway.
In her own way. It's not an option for her: a life without reading.
She was born as Elke Helene Riegert in 1943 into a poor, loveless home, suffering from a broken lung since early childhood.
There was no money for convalescence.
Elke's medicine was: inhale chamomile vapor under the towel and lie down a lot.
"Lie down and read." So she read her way through school and her studies in German, journalism and theater history, through crises, fears, dark hours.
The books were her lifeguard whenever she feared losing her feet.
A signpost that appears in the fog with the redeeming inscription: "This way!"
Elke Heidenreich makes you want to read!
This is the name of one of the many books by Germany's most well-known literary critic, published in 2021 by Eisele Verlag.
Because she can not only speak and write about the works of others, but also tell excellent stories herself.
Readers love them for “The World's Back” (Hanser), “Nurejew's Dog” (Sanssouci) or most recently “Your Happy Eyes” (Hanser).
Her “Homestories” will appear again for her birthday.
Lots of delightful short stories, inspired by the animals made of wrapping paper depicted in the booklet by the artist Daniel Müller (no buts, 112 pages; 16 euros).
And people love her for not being a literary pope, for not preaching from a pulpit.
"My ambition has always been to convince those who don't or rarely read," she writes in "Here goes that way".
Not the ones who are already constantly hanging between book covers with their eyes.
Heidenreich also succeeds because she dances so skilfully between what is called E and U in the music world: seriousness and entertainment.
Opera and soap opera.
One day she can write a column for the "Semper! Magazine" or a music theater piece with her boyfriend, the 27-year-old composer Marc-Aurel Floros - and the next a guest role in the ARD pre-evening series "Verbotene Liebe". play.
Incidentally, the latter as a declared fan twice, in 2012 and 2013.
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Elke Heidenreich in her guest appearance in the ARD pre-evening series "Verbotene Liebe" alongside Ansgar von Lahnstein (Wolfram Grandezka).
©ARD
It was already clear that she has a sense of humor when Heidenreich became known in the 1970s as a presenter of talk shows such as “Kölner Treff”, but above all with one of the first female comedy characters in this country, the butcher’s wife Else Stratmann from Wanne-Eickel.
If only Lady Di had listened to Prince Charles' warning before her wedding in 1981: "Don't take it, child.
He didn't learn anything like Prinz!" There's a lot of Heidenreich in this Stratmann.
Keep your mouth shut.
Quiet tease.
Standing by your own opinion, even if it's not particularly en vogue at the moment.
Example of gender asterisks: In an interview in 2021, the writer complained about this “language abuse”.
Don't join her.
She sees people as equals: "When I say artists, I mean
everyone
Artist.” And now she really is 80 years old.
Still sits in her study from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day.
Writes articles for the WDR, is currently writing a new children's book.
And when she looks back, which is exactly what she is trying to force the whole world to do because of the stupid 80, she is quite satisfied.
“Despite my exhaustion, my basic feeling is gratitude.
Everything was nice.”
