Karl Heinz Bohrer

Karl Heinz Bohrer (26 September 1932 – 4 August 2021) was a German literary scholar and essayist. He worked as a chief editor for literature of the daily FAZ, and became co-publisher and author of the cultural magazine Merkur. He taught at the Bielefeld University for decades, and also at Stanford University, California. His autobiography appeared in two volumes in 2012 and 2017. Bohrer is regarded as a disputative intellectual thinker and critic, reflecting his time. He received notable awards for criticism, German language and literature, including the Johann Heinrich Merck Prize and the Heinrich Mann Prize. For his extensive work, Bohrer was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with Ribbon.

Life and work Bohrer was born in Cologne in 1932, Rhineland, Prussia, Germany. He received a doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in 1962 with a dissertation about the philosophy of history of the German Romantics.