Jan Konst (*1963) works at the Freie Universität Berlin and holds the Chair of Dutch Philology: Literary Studies. His academic publications are devoted to early modern literature, Dutch-German literary relations and contemporary Dutch-language literature.

Last published: Na de revolutie. Kind van de jaren zeventig (After the Revolution. Child of the Seventies) – an autobiographical cultural history of a decade of social change.

Three previously published books focus on Germany and recent German history: Iedereen is op weg naar de Brandenburger Tor. Nederlandse en Vlaamse schrijvers over Berlijn (Everyone is on their way to the Brandenburg Tor. Dutch and Flemish authors on the city of Berlin), Alles waan. Louis Ferron en het Derde Rijk (All Delusion. Louis Ferron and the ‚Third Reich‘) and De wintertuin. Een Duitse familie in de lange twintigste eeuw (The Winter Garden. A German Family in the Long 20th Century ).

Jan Konst teaches on three degree programmes: BA Dutch Philology, MA Dutch Studies in an International Context and MA Applied Literary Studies / Contemporary Literature. As a „Auslandsphilologe“, he also wants to be a conveyor of language and culture. Over the years, Jan Konst has (co-)organised numerous literary events and regularly presents Dutch-language authors on German stages.

Jan Konst is a member of the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (MDNL – 1993), an international member of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (KHMW – 2019) and a corresponding member of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (KNAW – 2001).

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I want to be active for a broader audience,
do a kind of applied humanities.
Interview with Amely Schneider | Der Tagesspiegel | April 22, 2020

I see De Wintertuin (The Winter Garden) and Na de Revolutie (After the Revolution)
as a form of the applied humanities.
Interview with Jannetje Koelewijn | NRC | December 4, 2021

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In Papieren Vrienden (Paper Friends), Jan Konst embarks on a search for the meaning of life, and he does so in a highly original way. This time it is not theologians or philosophers he consults, but his paper friends: the most diverse characters from eight hundred years of Dutch literature.

They ask the big questions about meaning and existence because they are affected by the human condition just like us. How do they deal with misfortune, disappointment, illness and grief – the integral parts of every life? What can we learn from them? How should we deal with adversity, how do we keep our spirits up?

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Under the motto Alles außer Flach (Everything but flat), the Netherlands and Flanders will be presenting their literature together at the Leipzig Book Fair in March 2024. The guest country appearance is an opportunity for the Niederlandistenverband – the professional association of university Netherlandists in the German-speaking world – to take stock. In this volume, more than twenty-five Netherlandists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland introduce new German translations: Novels, children’s and young adult literature, graphic novels, non-fiction and poetry.

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Na de revolutie
Kind van de jaren zeventig

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We waren te jong voor de sixties, werden gevormd
in de uitbundige jaren zeventig en baanden ons een weg
naar de volwassenheid in het decennium na 1980.

Wir waren zu jung für die sechziger Jahre,
wurden in den entfesselten siebziger Jahren erzogen
und machten uns im Jahrzehnt nach 1980
auf den Weg zum Erwachsensein.

We were too young for the sixties,
educated in the exuberant seventies
and made our way to adulthood in the decade after 1980.

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De Volkskrant – Een holografisch generatieportret | „A holographic portrait of a generation“
De Telegraaf – Een feest van herkenning | „A feast of recognition“
Trouw – Steevast gekruid met treffende beelden | „Always spiced up with vivid images“
Reformatorisch Dagblad – Beeldend en boeiend | „Vivid and captivating“
Nederlands Dagblad – Zonder rancune of weemoed | „Without bitterness or nostalgia“

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De wintertuin
Een Duitse familie in de lange twintigste eeuw

Hilde lived to be almost 100 years old. Born in the imperial era, shaped by the First World War, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi dictatorship, the Second World War, the GDR era and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, she even lived through the first decade of reunified Germany. 

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Uitgeverij Balans (2018) | Europa Verlag (2019) | Uitgeverij Balans (2020) | Goldmann Verlag (2020)

De Volkskrant – Literaire non-fictie op haar best | „Literary non fiction in Bestform“
De Telegraaf – Een prachtig familie-epos | „A great family epic“
NRC Handelsblad – Een boeiend boek | „A captivating book“
Reformatorisch Dagblad – In één woord: prachtig | „In one word: Great“
Sächsische Zeitung – Eine einzigartige Chronik | „A one-of-a-kind chronicle“

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On the road as an author

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Bremen Globale 2019 – Meißen Schloß Proschwitz 2019 – Berlin DDR Museum 2019 – Leipzig Liest 2019 – Amsterdam Goethe Institut 2019 – Bodenseefestival 2019 – Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig 2019 – Seifhennersdorf Rathaus 2021 – Schloß Weesenstein 2021 – Leipzig Alte Nikolaikirche 2019 – Leipzig Buchhandlung Ludwig 2019

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