Walter Jens
Walter Jens was a notable German scholar, philologist, and writer, born in 1923 in Hamburg. He is recognized for his contributions to classical literature and his efforts to bridge cultural divides through his writing. Jens's academic journey began at the University of Freiburg, where he earned a doctorate focused on Tacitus in 1944. Despite a controversial past, including potential ties to the Nazi Party, he distanced himself from nationalist ideologies, ultimately shifting his focus to classics.
Throughout his career, Jens published significant works of fiction and served as a professor at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, where he specialized in classics and rhetoric. He was actively involved in literary circles, notably joining Gruppe 47 and earning several prestigious awards, including the Lessing Prize and the German-Swedish Culture Prize. Jens also held leadership roles in organizations such as International PEN and the Berlin Akademie der Künste. His legacy includes a commitment to blending literature with rational discourse, making him a respected figure in European intellectual circles.
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Walter Jens
Writer
- Born: March 8, 1923
- Birthplace: Hamburg, Germany
- Died: June 9, 2013
Biography
Walter Jens is a scholar of classical literature and a popular intellectual writer whose works have been widely translated, although with mixed critical reception. He is respected throughout Europe for his scholarship and his efforts to bridge cultural differences.
Born in Hamburg in 1923, the son of a bank president and a school teacher, Jens’s upbringing was liberal, and there is some confusion as to whether he was a member of the Hitler Youth. He attended the progressive Johanneum School in Hamburg, and influenced by his socially conscious mother he was aware of anti-Semitism at an early age. According to some sources, he is listed as a member of the Nazi Party from the early 1940’s, but he claims this status was not something he actively sought. His background and biography support the claim; he did not serve in the German army during World War II, and he switched from doctoral study in German literature to the study of classics because he disliked the influence of nationalist ideology on the former field. He received his doctorate in 1944 from the University of Freiburg and completed a dissertation on Tacitus. He published his first work of fiction, a student-quality piece called Das weisse Taschentuch, in 1947 under the pseudonym Walter Freiburger.
Jens published his first successful novel, Nein: Die Welt der Angeklagten, in 1950, the same year he joined the influential literary association Gruppe 47 and became a docent at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. In 1951, he married Inge Puttfarcken and published his second novel, Der Blinde, which was translated into English as The Blind Man. He began writing reviews of television programs for the newspaper Der Zeit, using the pseudonym Momos, and he wrote several radio plays which were broadcast between 1951 and 1957. He wrote extensively about myth, translating ancient myths and producing stories that experimented with the literary structures of myth.
Jens spent his entire academic career in Tübingen. He was a professor of classics and rhetoric from 1956 and the head of the Institute of Rhetoric beginning in 1967. In 1965, he received a specially created academic chair in general rhetoric. The 1960’s were noteworthy years for Jens; he received the German-Swedish Culture Prize from the City of Stockholm in 1964, the Lessing Prize from Hansestadt Hamburg in 1968, and another Ph.D. from the University of Stockholm in 1969, where he had been a visiting professor in 1967.
During the 1970’s, Jens concentrated on academic writing, focusing on religious themes and the depiction of Jews in Western Christian literature. Between 1976 and 1982, Jens was president of the German section of International PEN. He received the Tübingen Medal from his university and the Heine Prize from the City of Duesseldorf. In 1984, he received two significant prizes: the the Adolf Grimme Prize of the Deutsche Volkshochschulverband and the Medal for Art and Sciences of the City of Hamburg. The latter prize is particularly poetic, as it comes from Jens’s hometown and reflects his lifelong concern with merging literature and rationalism.
Jens retired from Eberhard Karls in 1988 and became president of the Berlin Akademie der Künste the following year. He held the presidency until 1997, when he became honorary president. Between 1990 and 1995, he also was chairman of the Martin Niemöller Foundation. He is a member of the Germany Academy of Language and Poetry.