Gert Westphal

Curt Gerhard Westphal, stage name Gert Westphal, (5 October 1920 – 10 November 2002) was a German actor, one of the best-known audiobook narrators and speakers in German, described as "König der Vorleser" (king of reciters) and "der Caruso der Vorleser" (the Caruso of reciters). After his reading of her husband's works, Katia Mann called him "des Dichters oberster Mund" (the poet's principal voice). The literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki said he was probably the best reciter of German.

Career

Born in Dresden as the son of a culturally interested factory director,

Awards 1975: Literature prize of Kanton Zürich

Awards for recordings Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik Ehrenurkunde, 1991, as the first and so far only speaker*

by Ingeborg Bachmann, 2001 Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull by Thomas Mann, 2002

Awards for audio plays Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden for Prinzessin Turandot by Wolfgang Hildesheimer, 1955 (direction) for Der trojanische Krieg findet nicht statt by Jean Giraudoux, music by , 1955 (direction) Prix Italia for Wovon wir leben und woran wir sterben by , 1957(speaker) Karl-Sczuka-Preis for Ungeduld des Herzens by Stefan Zweig, music by Peter Zwetkoff, 1961 (direction) for Udo der Stählerne by and Josef Alois Gleich, January 1994 (narrator)

Literature

Oliver W. Grabow: Gert Westphal. Gesamtverzeichnis seiner Arbeiten von 1940 bis 2002. Arethousa Verlag, München 2013. Katrin Krämer: Vorlesen ist ein Liebesakt. Gert Westphal – Die Stimme der Literatur, biographic feature, Radio Bremen 2000, aired 22 November 2015