Dörte Hansen

Dörte Hansen (also known as Dörte Hansen-Jaax, born 1964 in Husum, West Germany) is a German linguist, journalist and writer.

Life Hansen grew up in Högel in Nordfriesland; her family spoke Low German at home. She learned her "first foreign language," Standard German, in elementary school.

After graduating high school (Abitur) in 1984, she studied sociolinguistics, English studies, Romance studies and Frisian studies at the Christian Albrechts University Kiel. In 1994, Hansen received her doctorate at the University of Hamburg with a sociolinguistic thesis on a special form of bilingualism.

Hansen is married to documentary filmmaker and has a daughter. From 2005 to 2016, she lived with her family in Steinkirchen, Lower Saxony and now lives in Husum.

Work After an internship at the magazine Merian she worked until 2008 as a journalist for several radio stations (NDR, WDR, SWR, hr, DLF) and various magazines, until 2012 then as a permanent cultural editor at NDR Info.

Her second novel Mittagsstunde (2018) explores German village life. The cultural and interpersonal change in the fictional North Frisian village "Brinkebüll" is portrayed from the 1960s to the present day. The author tells the story without idealizing country life and draws in laconic language often bizarre characters with a lot of empathy.

Memberships

PEN Centre Germany

Awards

2006: Media Prize of the foundation "Children's Rights in the One World" in the radio category for her NDR reportage Der Hamburger Kompass – Hilfe für Kinder alkoholkranker Eltern. 2015: for Altes Land. 2016: for Altes Land 2019: Rheingau Literatur Preis for Mittagsstunde 2019: Niederdeutscher Literaturpreis der Stadt Kappeln 2019: Grimmelshausen Literaturpreis for Mittagsstunde 2022: Mainzer Stadtschreiber 2022:

Publications

Fürchte dich nicht vor dem Familienberater. Reportage. In: Chrismon, December 2009. (Der Spiegel Bestseller list number 1)

(Der Spiegel Bestseller list number 2)

Translations

Audio books

Film versions 2020: , director: Sherry Hormann 2022: Mittagsstunde, director: