Hansi Bochow-Blüthgen (2 January 1897 in Berlin-Charlottenburg – 30 August 1983 in Munich; actually Hanna Dora Margarethe, née Blüthgen; pen name: Lore Wiesner) was a German writer, editor, and translator in the Post-war years.
Bochow-Blüthgen, was married to the journalist Friedrich Walter Bochow (1889–1946) from the mid-1920s, was the granddaughter of the illustrator Fedor Flinzer and niece of the lyricist Victor Blüthgen (1844–1920).
The photographer Gisèle Freund and the writer Moshe Ya'akov Ben-Gavriel (1891–1965), who dedicated Bochow-Blüthgen his story Ein Löwe hat den Mond verschluckt, were among her friends.
Bochow-Blüthgen worked on their first training as a librarian. She gained recognition through numerous translations from English and American. Among her best known translations into German is Frühstück bei Tiffany (Breakfast at Tiffany's) by Truman Capote. Her sensitive translation was very successful and is yet available. However, it was called advanced in years (betagt) in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung half a century after publication.[2] Another famous translation from Bochow-Blüthgen is Der Kardinal (The Cardinal) by Henry Morton Robinson. 50 years after its appearance on the German book market, it was characterized as a Bestseller in best translation ("Bestseller in Bestübersetzung) in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.[3]
Further translations from Bochow-Blüthgen are Praterveilchen (Prater Violet) by Christopher Isherwood, Sturmwind – Flickas Sohn (Thunderhead) by Mary O'Hara, and Tien Pao ein Chinesenjunge (The House of Sixty Fathers) by Meindert DeJong. Apart from this, Bochow-Blüthgen translated texts by William Makepeace Thackeray, Katherine Anne Porter, and Patricia Highsmith into German.
Whitfield, Raoul, Grünes Eis (Green Ice), Leipzig: Ernst Oldenburg 1931
Secondary literature (selection)
Habel, Walter (ed.): Wer ist wer?, vol. 13, Berlin 1958, p 103.
Schuder, Werner (ed.): Kürschners Deutscher Literatur-Kalender 1967, vol. 55, Berlin 1967, p 80.
Pommer, Ursula: In 56 Tagen den "Kardinal" übersetzt, in: Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel (1976), no. 102, p 1911–1913.
Bochow-Blüthgen, Hansi: Vom heute und vom Jahre Null, in: Die Begegnung, vol. 13 (1977), p 9–14.
Winter, Helmut: Die Not des Exils/Christopher Isherwood: "Praterveilchen", in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 21 Oktober 1998, p 47.
Bedürftig, Friedemann: Ein Bestseller in Bestübersetzung. Lektüre für das Heilige Jahr: Vor fünfzig Jahren erschien Henry Morton Robinsons Roman "Der Kardinal", in: Süddeutsche Zeitung, SZ am Wochenende, no. 190, 19/20 August 2000, p III.
Schneider, Wolfgang: Im Bett mit Holly Golightly. Schlabberei: Truman Capotes "Frühstück bei Tiffany", in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, no. 18, 22 January 2005, p 34.