Kronauer was born in Essen, and grew up with her mother. She studied pedagogy and worked as a teacher in Aachen and Göttingen. She moved to Hamburg in the mid-1970s, where she began her literary work. Her first novel appeared in 1980, Frau Mühlenbeck im Gehäus, published by, which also published all her following works. The novel has autobiographic elements. Its language was unusual in the literature after World War II, with sentences constructed with acrobatic audacity. Kronauer named Jean Paul as influential for her work. As in his writing, Kronauer's sentences often contain double-meanings and ironic allusions. She wrote successful novels such as Berittener Bogenschütze, Teufelsbrück, Verlangen nach Musik und Gebirge, Errötende Mörder, Zwei schwarze Jäger, Gewäsch und Gewimmel and Der Scheik von Aachen. Her novel Das Schöne, Schäbige, Schwankende is scheduled to appear in August 2019. It is focused on a woman writer, full of self-irony. In 2005, she was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize for her literary oeuvre. Among other awards, she received the Jean-Paul-Preis in 2011, and the Thomas Mann Prize in 2017. Kronauer died on 22 July 2019 in Hamburg, after a long illness.
Legacy
Kronauer's colleague Martin Mosebach, who delivered the laudatory speech when she received the Thomas Mann Prize, said in an interview by Deutschlandfunk on 24 July 2019 that he regards her as writing in the tradition of Jean Paul in a noble way, mentioning aspects such a sublime artistry and a tender humour with a floating, ironic, delicate undertone. He described her as a person open to visual impressions, describing a character's emotions by noting how they are reflected in mimics, and great nature scenes, realising how nature "arches over the little odd human being", again similar to Jean Paul. He described her as a person with a penetrating mind, a perfect careful control of expression, always trying hard to find the right word, and of great kindliness. The FAZ called her one of the greatest post-World War II women writers in German. When she received the Jean-Paul-Preis of Bavaria, her writing was described by the jury: "The brilliance of her style makes her an exceptional phenomenon in contemporary German literature", with characteristics such as "inventiveness, humanity and a sense of humour that accompanies the often idiosyncratic characters of her books with love, and never betrays them", while also considered the 'grand master of spite".
2000: Kronauer was chosen for of 2001, a literary prize awarded by the television channelsZDF and 3sat as well as the city ofMainz. Kronauer returned the award in March 2001, however, due to disagreements with ZDF about the so-called "electronic diary", a film whose production and broadcasting would have been part of the award, along with 24.000 DMprize money and the right to lodge in the Gutenberg Museum for one year.
