Muschelhaufen


Muschelhaufen is a German annual, originally combining literature and graphic arts. It was founded by Erik Martin from Viersen in 1969 and published - with an interruption of 11 years - until 2008, when the last issue came out.

History

The annual replaced a small magazine that was published from 1962 – 1969 in the wake of the German Youth Movement. When the members finally spread all over the country, literature, arts and music became the main subjects of the review. In 1969 it got the new title and the Muschelhaufen was born.
From 1975 to 1985 there was a publishing-break. Since 1993 only first publications were edited and each issue had an overboarding part of graphics, paintings, cartoons and photographs. In 1999 Muschelhaufen was subtitled "Jahresschrift für Literatur und Graphik". Among the permanent members of the editorial staff were artist Martin Lersch und writer Peter Klusen.

Subjects and specialities

The subjects of each issue were prose, poetry, essay and critique – throughout combined with illustrations, photographs and graphics. Lots of famous writers published poems and stories in Muschelhaufen but also new texts by upcoming authors were included, e.g. Katrin Askan, Uwe Tellkamp and Markus Orths – all of whom were awarded later the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. Theo Breuer, freelancer of Muschelhaufen from 1994 to 2008, annually contributed long essays and new poems.
Erik Martin edited numerous special editions. Further special editions concerning the literature of Greenland and the young Danish and Norwegian literature.

Writers and artists

Well-known writers that published in Muschelhaufen are the Austrian poet Ernst Jandl, Annemarie Schimmel, Günter Kunert, Siegfried Lenz, Walter Bauer, Christoph Meckel, Lutz Rathenow and James Krüss and many more.
Erik Martin invested special efforts in recovering the work of the aouthors Werner Helwig and Albert Vigoleis Thelen. There were young and well-known poets publishing in the annual and famous artists delivered their photographs and paintings to it.

Secondary Literature