Walter Hinck | |
|---|---|
 Hinck in 2013 | |
| Born | 8 March 1922 Selsingen, Nether saxony, Germany |
| Died | 21 August 2015 Landau, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation(s) | Germanist and writer |
| Years active | 1964–1987 (professor) |
Walter Hinck (8 March 1922 – 21 August 2015[1]) was a German Germanist and writer. He was professor of German literature at the University of Cologne from 1964 to 1987.
Born in Selsingen,[2] Hinck served in the Wehrmacht after his Abitur in 1940 and was a prisoner of war until 1950.[3][4] In 1956 Hinck earned his doctorate at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen with the dissertation "Die Dramaturgie des späten Brecht" (The Dramaturgy of the Late Brecht) and worked there from 1957 to 1962 as scientific assistant at the Seminar for German philology. In 1962 he moved to the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel as an assistant, where he obtained his habilitation in 1964.
From 1964 to 1987 he was Professor of Modern German Language and Literature at the University of Cologne.[1] His work focused on German drama from the 18th to the 20th century, and contemporary poetry. He was a member of the PEN Centre Germany and since 1974 a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. He was a corresponding member since 2009. Hinck wrote a large number of essays as well as narrative literature.[1]
From 1965 to 2010 he lived with his wife in Rösrath. Since 2010 they lived in Landau in Landau in der Pfalz.[1] He was awarded the Kassel Literary Prize (1992) and the prize of the Frankfurter Anthologie (2003).
Hinck died in Landau at age 92.[1]
