Ilse Aichinger was born on November 1, 1921, and died on November 11, 2016.
She was an Austrian writer noted for her accounts of her persecution by the Nazis because of her Jewish ancestry
During 1951, she was invited to join the writer’s group Gruppe 47 where she met the poet and radio play author Günter Eich.
Aichinger won the group’s literary prize in 1952 for her short story “Spiegelgeschichte”.
She and Eich married in 1953; they had a son Clemens (de) (1954–1998), and in 1958 a daughter, Mirjam.
During 1955, she was awarded the Immermann-Preis by the city of Düsseldorf and in 1956, she joined the Academy of Arts, Berlin.
She won the Literaturpreis der Stadt Bremen, in 1957.
Aichinger relocated to Großgmain, near Salzburg, in 1963.
Aichinger was awarded the Nelly Sachs Prize in 1971.
Apparently there was a reveiw for her 1957 volume of her short works in translation, The Bound Man and Other Stories, Anthony Boucher describes Aichinger as “a sort of concise Kafka,” praising the title story, “Der gefesselte Mann” (“The Bound Man”), for its “narrative use of multi-valued symbolism.”
She was honored with the German international literary Petrarca-Preis in 1982.
As of 1985 and beyond Aichinger has increasingly retreated from public life.
During 1987, she received the Europalia Literature Prize, and in 1961 and 1991, she was awarded the Großer Literaturpreis der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste
She also received other honors included the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1995 and the 2000 Joseph-Breitbach-Preis, which she received along with W. G. Sebald and Markus Werner.
Ilse Aichingerpassed away at 95 years old.