Paul Celan

Paul Celan was the most frequently used pseudonym of Paul Antschel (the pseudonym adopts an anagram of his surname in Romanian, Ancel) (November 23, 1920 – approximately April 20, 1970), who is considered one of the few major poets of the post-World War II era. He was born in Romania, lived in Austria and later in France, and wrote in German. In additional to the composition of his poetry, he was an extremely active translator, translating literature from Romanian, French, Portuguese, Russian, and English into German.

Life

Celan was born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Czernowitz, in the region of Bukovina, then part of Romania. The city, which had belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire until World War I, was occupied by the Soviets in June 1940 following the Nazi-Soviet pact, reoccupied by the Romanian army in June 1941, and later be annexed by the Soviet Union following the counter-offensive and of 1944 and today belongs to Ukraine, being called Chernivtsi. Romania was ruled at that time by a military dictatorship, the country`s ruler was general Ion Antonescu who became the first prime minister appointed without free elections by the young king Michael.

Related Topics:
Jew - Czernowitz - Bukovina - Austro-Hungarian Empire - World War I - Nazi-Soviet pact - Soviet Union - Ukraine - Chernivtsi - Ion Antonescu - Prime minister

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