Facts and Figures
On this page you can find visualizations depicting the various aspects of the translation flows from Dutch-speaking countries to Germany. The visualisations are based on the data available in the Digital Library and Bibliography for Literature in Translation and Adaptation (DLBT). They illustrate the number of translations of Dutch titles per year, the Authors most translated in Germany, the most successful titles, publishers and translators.
Dutch Literature in Germany (2000-)
This time line shows the number of publications of Dutch books in Switzerland per year from 2000 onwards, both original and reprint. The data include all major genres. Using the slider under the graph, you can indicate which period you wish to see.
The overview shows that attention to literature from the Netherlands and Flanders in Germany was fairly large and constant in the first two decades of this century. Usually more than 100 titles translated from the Netherlands were published by German publishers every year. This is a great success. We see an outlier around 2016 on the occasion of the Frankfurter Buchmesse where the Netherlands and Flanders were hosts for the second time (#Fairs). At that time, we also see such outliers in Switzerland and (to a lesser extent) also in Austria. It is also striking that this event does not really lead to a change. After 2016, the number of translations from Dutch in Germany falls back to the level before the book fair.
The most translated authors in Germany
This overview immediately shows who defined the image of Dutch literature in Germany: Cees Nooteboom. He is also the only author whose collected works were published in Germany (see also: Cees Nooteboom). Besides Nooteboom, Margiet de Moor is the second Dutch-language author who was published by a German publisher and attracted a lot of attention. But otherwise, it is mainly authors of literature for children and young people who have attracted the attention of German readers.
It is interesting to note that not only Simone van der Vlugt's publications with Swiss publishers, but also her publications with German publishers were very successful. Apparently, many publishers were interested in Simone van der Vlugt's work and the author did not feel tied to any particular publisher. The fact that Guus Kuijer's work also appears in this survey once again confirms the importance of children's and youth literature from the Dutch-speaking world in Germany.
The most translated titles in Germany
Cees Nooteboom's Die folgende Geschichte is one of the most successful works translated from Dutch in Germany (see also: Cees Nooteboom). No less successful, however, was Sturmflut by Margiet de Moor. And further, as can be seen in the picture, it was children's books that achieved great success: Klassentreffen by Simone van der Vlugt, Der Brief für den König by Tonke Dracht and Der Gruselbus by Paul van Loon, published in Austria by Picus.
The most important publishers in Germany
Suhrkamp published more than 140 titles translated from Dutch in this century, of which a good 50 per cent were by Cees Nooteboom. In addition, Suhrkamp had a considerable list of authors from the Dutch-speaking world under contract. To name the most important ones: Gerbrand Bakker, Marente de Moor, Erwin Mortier, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and A.F.Th. van der Heijden. Suhrkamp is definitively the publisher in the German language area that determined the renommee of Dutch-language literature in the German language area (see also: Suhrkamp).
That what Suhrkamp meant for literature for adults, Gerstenberg, Urachhaus and Carlsen meant for literature for children and youth. Gerstenberg published the work of Linda de Haan (see also König & König for this), Jan de Leeuw, Bibi Dumont Tak, Enne Koens, Marco Kunst, Toon Tellegen, Henri Van Daele, Edward van de Vendel, Jan van der Veken and Joke van Leeuwen to list the most important authors of this publisher.
A second major publisher of children's and children's literature in Germany is Urachhaus. This publisher has accommodated authors such as Thea Beckmann, Paul Biegel, Hans Hagen and Dick Laan. No less important in Germany is Carlsen publishers, with whom not only the work of Maarten Toonder was published, but also most of the translations of Edward van de Vendel and Anna Woltz.
The most important translators in Germany
The number of translations some translators from Dutch have to their name is impressive. The spectrum of translations done by Rolf Erdorf, the translator of Edward van de Vendel, is wide and there is little point in listing all the names here. Besides Edward van de Vendel, who has already been mentioned, the most successful authors translated by Erdorf are Jan de Leeuw, Martha Heesen, Harmen van Straaten and Bette Westera. No less impressive is the number of translations Helga van Beuningen, the translator of Cees Nooteboom, Margriet de Moor, Marcel Möring, Jan Brokken and A.F.Th. van der Heijden, has to her name.
No less well-known than this translator is Mirjam Pressler. She is not only a translator of the Diaries of Anne Frank. She has also played an important role in translating the work of authors of children's and youth literature such as Veronica Hazelhoff and the internationally highly successful author Bart Moeyaert. (See: Bart Moeyaert and Bart Moeyaert laureate of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award) Also specialising in the translation of children's and juvenile literature from the Dutch-speaking world are the translator of Anna Woltz, Andrea Kluitman and the main translator of the work of Simone van der Vlugt and Paul van Loon, Eva Schweikart.