Prof. Dr. Friedhelm Marx is Chair of Modern German Literature at the University of Bamberg. He studied German and Catholic theology in Tübingen, Bonn and at the University of Virginia from 1984 to 1989. In 1994 he received his doctorate in Bonn with a thesis on Goethe and Wieland; in 2000 he habilitated at the University of Wuppertal with a thesis on christ-figures in the work of Thomas Mann. Friedhelm Marx has been vice president of the German Thomas Mann Society since 2006.

Publications (Selection)

2019 | Literatur im Ausnahmezustand. Beiträge zum Werk Kathrin Rögglas, edited together with Julia  Schöll, Königshausen & Neumann
2017 | Handlungsmuster der Gegenwart. Beiträge zum Werk von Lukas Bärfuss, edited together with Marie Gunreben, Königshausen & Neumann
2015 | Über Grenzen. Texte und Lektüren der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur, edited together with Stephanie Catani, Wallstein
2015 | Thomas-Mann-Handbuch, edited together with Andreas Blödorn, Springer Verlag


Awards (Selection)

Since 2016 | Member of the Jury awarding the Kunstförderpreis (Literatur) of Bavaria
Since 2015 | Chair of the jury awarding the Thomas-Mann-Preises of the city of Lübeck and of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste
Since 2012 | Member of the international Board Jahrbuch der Gegenwartsliteratur
Since 2006 | Vice President of the Deutsche Thomas-Mann-Gesellschaft

Project Description

In his project, Friedhelm Marx' aims to examine how the European visions of exiled writers of the interwar period have changed in the face of U.S. political reality. In doing so, he wants to explore the questions of which European debates took place in California's exile and what role the observations of American politics played in this context. In addition, Marx would like to measure the current image of Europe of the USA in the context of current world political events and intra-European crises.