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born 6 July 1944 in Bethel |
| © Elena Siebert |
| 1968 | studies law at West Berlin’s Free University |
| 1981 | Professor of public law in Bonn |
| 1987 | begins writing crime novels |
| 1988 | Judge at the Constitutional Court of the Federal State of North Rhine Westphalia |
| 1989 | Professorship for Public Law and Philosophy of Law at the Humboldt University in Berlin and State Constitution Judge in Münster. Glauser Authors’ Prize for his novel "Die Gordische Schleife" (The Gordian Knot) |
| 1993 | German Crime Fiction Prize for "Selbs Betrug" (Self’s Deception) |
| 1997 | Italian Grinzane Cavour Prize and the French Prix Laure Bataillon for "Der Vorleser" (The Reader) |
| 2000 | Honorary award from the Heinrich Heine Society in Düsseldorf |
| 2000 -2001 |
Fellow at Centre for Writers and Scholars at New York Public Library |
| 2002 | German-British-Forum Prize for his complete works |
| 2003 | Federal Cross of Merit for "Der Vorleser" (The Reader) |
| 2008 | Stephen Daldry directs a film adaptation of "The Reader"; Richard Eyre directs a film adaptation of the short story "Der Andere" from 1962 |
| lives in Berlin and New York |
Last update June 2011
