Background
Süskind has many relatives from the aristocracy in Württemberg, making him one of the descendants of the exegete Johann Albrecht Bengel and of the reformer Johannes Brenz.
Süskind has many relatives from the aristocracy in Württemberg, making him one of the descendants of the exegete Johann Albrecht Bengel and of the reformer Johannes Brenz.
School in Holzhausen, Abitur, Zivildienst
University of Munich, Aix-en-Provence (1968-1974)
Selected Works:
The Double Bass (play, 1981)
Perfume (1985)
The Pigeon (1988)
The Story of Mr Sommer (1991)
Three Stories and a Reflection (1996)
Rossini (film, 1997)
On Love and Death (essays)
His best-known work is the internationally acclaimed bestseller Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (1985). This was made into a film in 2006 by Tom Tykwer and is the only story of his to have reached the cinema to date. With more than 12 million copies sold and translations into 46 languages, he is probably the most well-known contemporary German writer in the world.His novel was on the bestselling list of the German weekly news
magazine "Der Spiegel" for nine years. He is also the author of a novella, The Pigeon (1988), The Story of Mr. Sommer (1991), Three Stories and a Reflection (1996), and a collection of essays, On Love and Death (2006). He has withdrawn from the literary scene in Germany and never grants interviews or allows photos.
His mother worked as a sports trainer.
He worked for the well-established Süddeutsche Zeitung and is famous as the co-author of the well-known "Aus dem Wörterbuch des Unmenschen" ("From the Dictionary of an Inhuman"),
a critical collection of essays on the language of the Nazi era.
