Volker Kutscher

Volker Kutscher (born December 26, 1962) is a German novelist, best known for his Berlin-based Gereon Rath crime series, which serves as the basis for Sky thriller series Babylon Berlin.

Volker Kutscher
Kutscher at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2018
Born26 December 1962 (age 58)
Lindlar
OccupationNovelist, screenwriter
LanguageGerman language
ResidenceCologne, Germany
Period1995–present
Website
www.gereonrath.de

Biography

Volker Kutscher was born on December 26, 1962 in Lindlar, North Rhine-Westphalia outside of Cologne, Germany.[1] At university, Kutscher studied German, philosophy and history, and later worked as a newspaper editor prior to beginning his career as a novelist.[2]

In 1996, he published his first crime novel Bullenmord, set in his native region Bergisches Land. He followed this with two other standalone books, published in 1998 and 2003, respectively.[1]

Volker Kutscher works as a full-time author and lives in Cologne.[2]

Gereon Rath series

Inspired by his historical knowledge as well as The Sopranos, the 2002 gangster film Road to Perdition (set in 1931), and Fritz Lang's 1931 Berlin-based film M, Kutscher began working on the Gereon Rath series in the early 2000s.[1] Set in the Weimar Republic, the series are meticulously researched and confronts fictional as well as non-fictional characters. Of note, Kutscher's works are the first German crime novels set in the "golden" 1920s.[1] The series was an instant hit in Germany and was awarded the Berlin Krimi-Fuchs Crime Writers Prize in 2011 and has sold over one million copies worldwide.[2]

His award-winning Gereon Rath series, published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch, currently consists of eight novels, set one per year beginning with Der nasse Fisch (2007), set in 1929. Der stumme Tod (2009) is set in 1930, Goldstein (2010) is set in 1931, Die Akte Vaterland (2012) is set in 1932, Märzgefallene (2014) is set in 1933, Lunapark (2016) is set in 1934. In 2017, Kutscher published Moabit (a short story set before the first Rath novel and portraying his partner Charlie's entrance to the world of criminal investigation) and in 2018 the novel Marlow, set in 1935.[1] The eighth installment, Olympia, set in 1936, was released in Germany on November 2, 2020.

Television adaption

In the mid-2010s, a writer-director team of Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Hendrik Handloegten used Kutscher's novels as the basis for the show Babylon Berlin. The series premiered on October 13, 2017 on Sky 1, a German-language entertainment channel broadcast by Sky Deutschland. Netflix has released the first three seasons in the US, Canada, and Australia.

The show has received many accolades and has brought Kutscher's books to an international audience. The show has received many awards including a Bambi in the category Beste Serie des Jahres (Best series of the year),[3] four awards at the Deutscher Fernsehpreis,[4] a Grimme-Preis,[5] a Goldene Kamera for lead actor Volker Bruch. In December 2019, the European Film Academy awarded the series with the inaugural Achievement in Fiction Series Award at the European Film Awards.[6]

Bibliography

Novels

Gereon Rath series:

  1. Der nasse Fisch, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-462-04022-7.
    English translation: Babylon Berlin, Picador, London 2018, ISBN 978-1-250-187048, translated by Niall Sellar
  2. Der stumme Tod, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-462-04074-6.
    English translation: The Silent Death, Picador, London 2018, ISBN 978-1-250-187017, translated by Niall Sellar
  3. Goldstein, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-462-04238-2.
    English translation: Goldstein, Picador, London 2019, ISBN 978-1-250-206343, translated by Niall Sellar
  4. Die Akte Vaterland, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-462-04466-9.
    English translation: The Fatherland Files, Sandstone, Highland 2019, ISBN 978-1-912-240562, translated by Niall Sellar
  5. Märzgefallene, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-462-04707-3.
    English translation: The March Fallen Sandstone, Highland 2020, ISBN 978-1-913-20704-5, translated by Niall Sellar
    • "Märchen mit Zündhölzern", 2016, short story
    • "Durchmarsch", 2016, short story
  6. Lunapark, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-462-04923-7.
    • "Plan B", 2017, short story
    • "Moabit", short story, prequel, Galiani, Berlin/Cologne 2017, ISBN 978-3-86971-155-3.
  7. Marlow, Piper, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-492-05594-9.
  8. Olympia, Piper, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-492-07059-1.

Standalone:

  • Bullenmord, Emons Verlag, Cologne 1995, ISBN 3-924491-87-9, with Christian Schnalke
  • Vater unser, Emons Verlag, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-89705-131-1, with Christian Schnalke
  • Der schwarze Jakobiner, Emons Verlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-89705-313-6

Comics
  • Der nasse Fisch, Carlsen, Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-551-78248-9, with Arne Jysch, adaptation of his homonymous novel

Scripts
  • Ladylike – Jetzt erst recht! (2009), TV movie
  • "Rot wie der Tod" (2010), episode of series Einsatz in Hamburg (2000-2013)
  • Babylon Berlin (2017-), series

Adaptations

References
  1. "The novels". Babylon Berlin. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  2. "Volker Kutscher | Sandstone Press". sandstonepress.com. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  3. "Goldenes Bambi lässt Hollywood strahlen". B.Z. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  4. Silber, Christoph. "ROMY-Sonderpreise: Schweighöfer, "Babylon", Ninjas & Universum". Kurier (in German). Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  5. "Babylon Berlin (ARD Degeto/Sky)". grimme-preis.de (in German). Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  6. Scott, Sheena. "'Babylon Berlin': The Brilliant And Captivating German Series Celebrated At The European Film Awards 2019". Forbes. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
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