Walter Jens

{{Short description|German philologist and writer (1923–2013)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Walter Jens

| image = WalterJens1.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Jens addressing the Academy of Arts, Berlin (2005)

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|03|08|df=y}}

| birth_place = Hamburg, Germany

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2013|06|09|1923|03|08}}

| death_place =

| occupation = Professor, philologist, writer

}}

Walter Jens (8 March 1923 – 9 June 2013) was a German philologist, literature historian, critic, university professor and writer.{{cite web|url=http://www.dw.de/german-writer-and-intellectual-walter-jens-dies/a-16870351 |title=German writer and intellectual Walter Jens dies | News | DW.DE | 10.06.2013 |publisher=DW.DE |date= |accessdate=11 June 2013}}

He was born in Hamburg, and attended the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums from 1933 to 1941, when he gained his Abitur,{{cite web | title=Walter Jens | website=Johanneum | url=https://johanneum-hamburg.de/index.php/schola-nostra/schule-mit-geschichte/beruehmte-alumni/61-walter-jens | language=de | access-date=27 April 2022}} before studying at the University of Hamburg.{{cite web | url =http://www.whoswho.de/bio/walter-jens.html | title =Biografie – Walter Jens | publisher =Who's Who | access-date =21 February 2016 }}

In the early 1940s, Jens joined the NSDAP.{{cite web | title=Zur NSDAP-Mitgliedschaft von Walter Jens | website=Deutschlandfunk | date=26 April 2021 | url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/zur-nsdap-mitgliedschaft-von-walter-jens-100.html | language=de | access-date=27 April 2022}}{{cite web | last=Kellerhoff | first=Sven Felix | title=Hitler-Jugend: Hat Walter Jens über seine NSDAP-Zeit gelogen? | website=DIE WELT | date=14 July 2012 | url=https://www.welt.de/kultur/article3178914/Hat-Walter-Jens-ueber-seine-NSDAP-Zeit-gelogen.html | language=de | access-date=27 April 2022}} He denied having applied for membership actively and claimed that he had become a member automatically because he was a member of the Hitler Youth and that he never received a membership card.

During World War II, he earned a doctorate in Freiburg with a work about Sophocles' tragedy and habilitated at age 26 with the work Tacitus und die Freiheit (Tacitus and Freedom) at the University of Tübingen.{{cite web | last=Hammelehle | first=Sebastian | title=Zum Tode Walter Jens': Ein Nachruf | website=Der Spiegel | date=10 June 2013 | url=https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/zum-tode-walter-jens-ein-nachruf-a-904763.html | language=de | access-date=27 April 2022}}

From 1950 onward, he was a member of the Group 47.{{cite web | last=Weinzierl | first=Ulrich | title=Tod mit 90: Walter Jens war der "Redner dieser Republik" | website=Die Welt | date=6 October 2015 | url=https://www.welt.de/kultur/article116981463/Walter-Jens-war-der-Redner-dieser-Republik.html | language=de | access-date=27 April 2022}} That year, he had his breakthrough with the novel Nein. Die Welt der Angeklagten.{{cite book | title=Nein | publication-place=Reinbek bei Hamburg | isbn=978-3-688-10077-4 | oclc=965627068 | language=de | page= | last1=Jens | first1=Walter | date=9 October 2023 }}{{cite web | title=Nein - Walter Jens | website=Rowohlt | date=1 February 1954 | url=https://www.rowohlt.de/buch/walter-jens-nein-9783688100774 | language=de | access-date=27 April 2022}}

From 1965 to 1988, Jens held the chair for General Rhetoric at the University of Tübingen, which was created in order to keep him at the university. Under the pseudonym Momos, he wrote television reviews for Die Zeit.{{cite news | title=Tausendundkein Momos | website=Die Zeit | date=22 February 1985 | url=https://www.zeit.de/1985/09/tausendundkein-momos | language=de | access-date=27 April 2022 | last1=Leonhardt | first1=Rudolf Walter }} From 1976 to 1982, he was president of the International PEN center in Germany. From 1989 to 1997, he was president of the Academy of Arts, Berlin, and afterwards he was the honorary president.{{cite web | title=Jens | website=Akademie der Künste, Berlin | url=https://www.adk.de/de/akademie/mitglieder/index.htm?we_objectID=50687 | language=de | access-date=27 April 2022}} From 1990 to 1995, he was chairman of the Martin-Niemöller-Foundation.{{cite web | last=Stöllner | first=Heinrich | title=Utopie und Phantastik in der deutschsprachigen Hochliteratur Folge 9: Walter Jens: Nein. Die Welt der Angeklagten | website=Zauberspiegel | url=https://www.zauberspiegel-online.de/index.php/phantastisches/gedrucktes-mainmenu-147/34958-utopie-und-phantastik-in-der-deutschsprachigen-hochliteratur-folge-9-walter-jens-nein-die-welt-der-angeklagten | language=de | access-date=27 April 2022}}