Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Hans Magnus Enzensberger (11 November 1929 – 24 November 2022) was a German author, poet, playwright, essayist, translator, and editor. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Elisabeth Ambras, Linda Quilt and Giorgio Pellizzi.

Quotes

• We cannot solve the situation in Kashmir; we know little of the struggle between the Sunnis and the Shiites, between the Tamils and the Sinhalese; whatever is to become of Angola must, in the first instance, be decided by the Angolans. And before we put a spoke in the wheels of the warring Bosnians, we ought to mop up the civil war in our own country. Our priority is not Somalia, but Hoyerswerda and Rostock, Mölln and Solingen. That is something we are capable of doing, a position we can expect everyone to support. That is what we have to answer for. But you don't have to be German to understand what that means: Hic rhodus, hic salta! First things first. Everywhere we look the war is on our own doorstep.
  • Civil Wars: From L.A. to Bosnia, translated by Piers Spence (New York: New Press, 1994), ch. 11, p. 69

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Hans Magnus Enzensberger on Wikipedia