Anniversary 80th birthday of the author and alumnus Bernhard Schlink
Author and lawyer Bernhard Schlink turned 80 on 6 July 2024. The alumnus, who grew up in Heidelberg and completed parts of his law degree at Ruperto Carola, first became known for his crime novel trilogy about private detective Gerhard Selb, set in the Electoral Palatinate, and then above all for his bestseller "The Reader", which has been translated into more than 50 languages and made into a Hollywood film. In 2000, Schlink, who is also a lawyer and law scholar in addition to his work as a writer, took up a lectureship in poetry at Heidelberg University.
The son of Heidelberg theology professor Edmund Schlink, who was also rector of Ruperto Carola from 1953 to 1954, Bernhard Schlink grew up in Heidelberg. He studied law at Ruperto Carola and in Berlin, gaining his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1975 and his habilitation in Freiburg in 1981. From 1982 to 2008, he taught at the universities of Bonn and Frankfurt am Main and at Humboldt University in Berlin, and from 1994 to 2016 he was a visiting professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. From 1988 to 2006, Schlink also worked as a judge at the Constitutional Court of North Rhine-Westphalia. He has been involved in several proceedings before the Federal Constitutional Court and state constitutional courts, for example in 2005 he represented the Federal Government under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in proceedings before the Federal Constitutional Court concerning the dissolution of the Bundestag.
In his novels, Schlink frequently deals with the complex of themes of politics, law and justice, faith and guilt, often in connection with National Socialism or the resurgence of right-wing extremism. In his first novel "Selbs Justiz", which was published in 1987 and which he wrote together with his friend Walter Popp, a detective is confronted with his past in the Third Reich. Schlink's bestseller "Der Vorleser" (The Reader), which deals in flashbacks with a schoolboy's love affair with a 21-year-old tram conductor who later turns out to be a former concentration camp guard, addresses ethical questions and how the Federal Republic of Germany deals with perpetrators of the Holocaust. In April 2024, the world premiere of Schlink's first play "20 July. A contemporary play" took place.
