Editor Martin Hielscher set up the fiction program at C.-H.-Beck-Verlag. Now he stops. A conversation about offended writers’ souls, the discovery of Christian Kracht and the books of his life.
Working life today is fraying, changing into something else, at least not ending with retirement, especially not that of Martin Hielscher. For more than 22 years he managed the literary program of the C.-H.-Beck-Verlag, put his stamp on it and was the only editor for most of it. He was always found fervently enthusiastic about what he was doing, but buried in an immense workload. The publisher says goodbye to him this weekend. His successor is Susanne Krones, who was previously responsible for German-language literature at Penguin and other Random House publishers. But of course Hielscher is still full of ideas and projects.