Max Czollek Explained

Max Czollek (born 6 May 1987 in East Berlin) is a German writer, lyric-poet, stage performer and curator. He is a member of the "G13" authors' collective.[1] [2]

Life

Czollek was born in Berlin in 1987. His paternal grandfather was a German Jew who survived several concentration camps, lived in exile in China for several years, and then returned to East Germany in the late 1940s. His only surviving Jewish relative is his paternal aunt.[3] Max Czollek attended the Jewish Upper School German: {{ill|Jüdisches Gymnasium Moses Mendelssohn|de||he|הגימנסיה היהודית על שם משה מנדלסון in Berlin, passing his school finals (German: [[Abitur]]) in 2006. During his time at school he took a year abroad in Texas.[1] Between 2007 and 2012 he studied political sciences at Berlin. Then, from 2012 to 2016 he worked on his doctorate at the Center for Research on Antisemitism (TU Berlin) and at Birkbeck, University of London. He was supported with a stipend from the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Scholarship Fund.[4] Since 2016 he has been a member of the producers' collective "Jalta – Positionen zur jüdischen Gegenwart" ("Yalta - Positions on the Jewish Present").[5]

Czollek has been part of the lyric-poetry collective G13 since 2009. In 2013 he initiated the international "Babelsprech" lyric-poetry project, in order to network a young German language "lyric scene".[6]

Since 2014 he has teamed up with the novelist to organize the literature series "Gegenwartsbewältigung" at the Maxim Gorki Theater (Studio Я). Together with Sasha Marianna Salzmann he was co-instigator of the "Disintegration Congress" (2016)[7] on contemporary Jewish thinking and of the "Radical Jewish Arts Days" ("Radikale Jüdische Kulturtage" 2017).[8] During 2016/2017 he was co-leader with of the Maxim Gorki Theater's "Young Berlin Council" project.[9]

Controversy about Jewish identity

Czollek self-identifies as Jewish. In 2021, Jewish writer Maxim Biller accused Czollek of appropriating a Jewish identity, as, according to traditional halakha, Czollek is not a Jew, having only one Jewish grandfather.[10] In his column in the newspaper Die Zeit, Biller compared Czollek to Benjamin Wilkomirski, a Swiss writer who had confabulated his alleged Jewish origins.[11]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Max, der Denker. Philosophie und Ausland: Wie ein junger Mann an der Jüdischen Oberschule ein Einser-Abi schaffte. 13 July 2006. Jüdische Allgemeine, Berlin. Christine Schmitt. de. 19 November 2017.
  2. Web site: Dichter am Erfolg. Mit Jan Wagner war erstmals ein Lyriker für den Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse nominiert. In der Lyrikszene sorgt das für Aufregung – nicht nur im Positiven.. taz Verlags u. Vertriebs GmbH, Berlin. de. 19 November 2017.
  3. Web site: In Germany, a Jewish Millennial Argues That the Past Isn’t Past . . 2023-12-24.
  4. Web site: Das Antisemitismus-Dispositiv. 18 May 2016. Max Czollek. Academia.edu. de. 19 November 2017.
  5. Web site: Jalta – Positionen zur jüdischen Gegenwart. Neofelis Verlag GmbH, Berlin. 19 November 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171022104606/https://www.neofelis-verlag.de/zeitschriften-reihen/jalta-positionen-zur-juedischen-gegenwart/. de. 22 October 2017. dead.
  6. Web site: Babelsprech International. Literaturbrücke Berlin e. V.. de. 19 November 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20190130030322/http://www.babelsprech.org/. 30 January 2019. dead.
  7. Web site: Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin. Desintegration. Ein Kongress zeitgenössischer jüdischer Positionen kuratiert von Max Czollek und Sasha Marianna Salzmann . de. 20 November 2017.
  8. Web site: Radikale Jüdische Kulturtage. Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin. de. 20 November 2017.
  9. Web site: Open Call zum Jungen Berliner Rat. Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin. de. 21 November 2017.
  10. Book: Keßler . Katrin . Jewish Life and Culture in Germany after 1945: Sacred Spaces, Objects and Musical Traditions . Ross . Sarah M. . Staudinger . Barbara . Weik . Lea . 2022-08-22 . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG . 978-3-11-075081-2 . 195–197 . en.
  11. Web site: ZEIT ONLINE Lesen Sie zeit.de mit Werbung oder im PUR-Abo. Sie haben die Wahl. . 2023-07-18 . www.zeit.de.