If you are from Berlin, or at least have been living there for a while, it is a must to read Uwe Kolbe. He was born in 1957 and has definitely seen, experienced and done more than I could believe. But what I do know is that even Uwe Kolbe was also just born into this world after the war (Hineingeboren). Just like I was born into a split Germany that soon was to be united again.

What I really love about literature is that it is able to blur the temporal boundaries. Kolbe has somehow been able to create pieces of work that really connects generations, no matter how big the gap in between is usually. I would even go so far, even if that sounds a little elevated, and say that his poems are universally valid. Maybe not for every single one and not for every possible situation in life. But more or less most of the time. And that’s enough if you ask me.

In the epilogue of his book “Diese Frau” that was published by Suhrkamp he says: A twenty year old recruit, a thirty year old explorer, a forty year old husband and a fifty year old writer all exhibit their love poems together. And they are all interesting in different ways. They can all tell me something different in their language. Kolbe continues: They use the same name for it, not to create a riddle, but because their orthography, punctuation and so on already is very versatile.

The lyricist and prose author Uwe Kolbe lives and works in Berlin. He is (and has always been) active and productive. His son is the well-known rapper Mach One. His latest book “Heimliche Feste” was published two years ago and is a collection of wonderful poems. A great piece of work that really should be read.

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text by Eugen Braeunig | Photo by Marius Hammerschmidt, 2005