The bestseller maker: Elke Heidenreich on "People, Armchairs, Lamps, Books"

She was the butcher's wife Else Stratmann, is a literary critic and writes bestsellers: Elke Heidenreich, one of Germany's great intellectuals.

The bestseller maker: Elke Heidenreich on "People, Armchairs, Lamps, Books"

She was the butcher's wife Else Stratmann, is a literary critic and writes bestsellers: Elke Heidenreich, one of Germany's great intellectuals. She is argumentative, belligerent and offends. She is now 80 years old, no trace of old age.

Heidenreich borrowed the title of her current bestseller "Your Happy Eyes" from Goethe. Already in the prologue of these travel memories she opens her heart wide. "I can't love eight billion people, but I do love a few, everywhere, I love people, but people mostly get on my nerves, that's the way it is," she writes. This mixture of love for people and being annoyed by them fits Heidenreich's vita.

Heidenreich was born on February 15, 1943 with the maiden name Rieger in Korbach, Hesse, and grew up in poor conditions in Essen. She got her surname from her young failed marriage to the writer Gerd Heidenreich. Soon after, she fell in love with the writer Bernd Schroeder, with whom she stayed for many years and continued to write together even after their separation in 1995. She is now in a relationship with the pianist and composer Marc-Aurel Floros, who is 28 years her junior.

Heidenreich began writing radio plays with Schroeder in the early 1970s, and soon she was also writing for newspapers and television. A first stroke of genius was her invention of Else Stratmann in 1975: From then on, the butcher's wife from Wanne-Eickel commented on world events on radio programs in the broadest Ruhrpottslang. The character came to great nationwide fame through television appearances at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Heidenreich had already gained television experience as the successor to Alfred Biolek as presenter of the program "Kölner Treff" on West German Radio and other talk shows. For many years she wrote columns for the magazine "Brigitte". In 1992 she achieved a bestseller with her first literary work, the collection of short stories "Kolonien der Liebe". Her cat story "Nero Corleone", published in 1995, also became an international bestseller.

Heidenreich quickly became one of the most important figures in the German literary scene not only because of her own work. In 2003 she returned to television and made a name for herself with the ZDF program "Lesen!" one of the most successful literature programs.

While in the "literary quartet" by literature pope Marcel Reich-Ranicki, which was previously shown in the slot, books were repeatedly torn, Heidenreich only discussed what she really wanted to recommend. These recommendations regularly became bestsellers - and Heidenreich became a literary pope.

But in 2008, Heidenreich was kicked out of ZDF – she had publicly insulted her own broadcaster because of the allegedly poor quality of the program. Because of the great influence of the show, publishers still tried to get ZDF to retract the ban. But it stayed that way. Beyond the anger, Heidenreich also fell out with Reich-Ranicki.

However, this did not change her status as the best-known literary critic in the German-speaking world. She still reviews books on Swiss television, writes book reviews for magazines and also appears on talk shows time and time again. Heidenreich is still polarizing there to this day and has already caused a stir in the social networks – she is said to not be bothered by it.

Perhaps Heidenreich, as a frequent reader, simply manages to distract herself with literature. "A day when I don't read doesn't happen," she revealed to the Literaturcafe.de portal. She cannot say what role reading will play in the future. But she is convinced: "The alliance 'man, armchair, lamp, book' is unbeatable."