Nelly Sachs
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Nelly Sachs
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1966
Born: 10 December 1891, Berlin, Germany
Died: 12 May 1970, Stockholm, Sweden
Residence at the time of the award: Sweden
Prize motivation: “for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength”
Language: German
Prize share: 1/2
Life
Nelly Sachs was born in Berlin to a wealthy family with Jewish roots. Her father was a factory owner. Sachs suffered from poor health and so was schooled at home. She became fascinated with Selma Lagerlöf's works at a young age, and corresponded with Lagerlöf by letter. Lagerlöf helped Sachs and her mother to flee from Nazi Germany to Sweden in 1940. Several members of Sachs' immediate family ultimately became victims of the Holocaust. The Nazi persecution left deep scars in Sachs' psyche and also influenced her writing. Sachs continued to live in Stockholm until her death.
Work
The fate of the Jewish people casts a dark shadow over the 20th century. It is also the basis for Nelly Sachs' literary works. Sachs borrows subjects for her poetry from the Jewish beliefs and mysticism, but her authorship is also strongly colored by Nazi persecution of the Jews, with the horrors of the death camps as its ultimate expression. Sachs' poetry combines echoes from the poetry of ancient religious texts with modernist language. Besides poetry, her writings also include a couple of plays.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
