Hellmuth Karasek, critic and journalist, died at 81

  Dead Famous

Hellmuth Karasek, born on January 4, 1934 and died September 29, 2015.

Hellmuth was a German journalist, literary critic, novelist and the author of many books on literature and film.

He was born in Brunn, Czechoslovakia. Hellmuth attended the National Political Institutes of Education in Loben.

In 1944, when he was ten, his family fled from Bielitz (today Poland) to Bernburg.

After finishing his schooling in the early 1950s he moved from there-then part of East Germany-to West Germany and became a student at the University of Tübingen.

After his graduation Hellmuth started working as a journalist, and in 1968 became the theatre critic of Die Zeit.

From 1974 until 1996 he worked for Der Spiegel. In 1999, he was a member of the jury at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.

In later years, Hellmuth has frequently appeared on German television, both in quiz shows and, together with Marcel Reich-Ranicki, as one of the permanent members of Das Literarische Quartett.

He died at age 81 on September 29, 2015.