Herta Müller

Valentina Glajar (Texas State University at San Marcos)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Among contemporary German-Romanian writers who began a new life and career in Germany, Herta Müller is undoubtedly the most successful, especially after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2009. Born August 17, 1953, in Nitzkydorf, Banat, Romania, she left the country in 1987 after she and her then husband, writer Richard Wagner, endured persecution under Ceauşescu’s totalitarian regime. In Germany, as she has stated in many interviews, Müller as well as Wagner wanted to be accepted as political refugees, not as ethnic Germans. Müller and Wagner’s application for political asylum complicated and delayed the process of establishing their status in Germany, since what German immigration officials were looking for was proof of German ethnicity, even if it meant disclosing a…

1999 words

Citation: Glajar, Valentina. "Herta Müller". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 January 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12545, accessed 29 March 2024.]

12545 Herta Müller 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.