Photo: Paulus Ponizak / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Ferdinand von Schirach is the rare lawyer-turned-writer whose courtroom years clearly fuel the fiction. He didn't publish until forty-five, then Crime and The Collini Case made him one of Germany's biggest authors, translated into dozens of languages. What hooks me is the spare, clinical prose and the moral questions he refuses to resolve neatly, never more so than in Terror, which literally lets the audience deliver a verdict. He's German, Munich-born 1964, not American as the data says, and yes, his family name carries a heavy Nazi-era history he's reckoned with publicly. A genuinely thought-provoking writer about guilt and law.
Overview
Ferdinand Benedikt von Schirach (born 12 May 1964) is a German lawyer and writer. He published his first short stories at the age of forty-five. Shortly thereafter he became one of Germany's most successful authors. His books, which have been translated into more than 35 languages, have sold millions of copies worldwide and have made him "an internationally celebrated star of German literature."
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Ferdinand von Schirach
- Name (Japanese)
- フェルディナント・フォン・シーラッハ
- Reading
- ふぇるでぃなんと・ふぉん・しーらっは
- Born
- May 12, 1964 (age 62)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Dragon
- Origin
- Munich, Upper Bavaria, Germany
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- lawyer / writer / short story writer / novelist / jurist
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- University of Bonn
Awards & achievements
- 2010 Kleist Prize
- 2011 Berliner Bär
- 2015 Bavarian TV Awards
- 2018 Ricarda-Huch-Preis
- 2012 Japan Booksellers' Award
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | The Collini Case | — | |
| Notable work | Terror | — |
6. Links
Lawyer — see all → · Writer — see all → · More people from Germany →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.