Giwi Margwelaschwili produced a dense body of philosophical inquiry and literary fiction while navigating the geopolitical ruptures of the twentieth century. Raised as a German speaker in Berlin, his life was defined by the forced transition from Nazi Germany to imprisonment in the Soviet Union, followed by his eventual return to his ancestral home in Georgia and his later life in Germany.
Early Life and Abduction
Born in 1927 in Berlin to Georgian intellectual Tite Margwelaschwili, Giwi experienced a turbulent youth marked by the loss of his mother at age five and the rise of the Nazi regime. He participated in the Swing Kids counterculture during the 1930s and 1940s. Following the war, he and his father were abducted by the Soviet NKVD in December 1945. His father was executed shortly thereafter, while Giwi endured eighteen months of imprisonment at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
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Upon his release, authorities sent him to Tbilisi. There, he learned Georgian and Russian, having previously only spoken German. He pursued studies in English at Tbilisi State University and taught language courses at the Tbilisi Institute of Foreign Languages until 1970. During these decades, he began developing his own phenomenological writings and philosophical perspectives. In 1971, he joined the Institute of Philosophy at the Georgian Academy of Sciences.
Career and Literary Recognition
Margwelaschwili faced significant travel restrictions after contacting dissident Wolf Biermann, limiting his international movement until 1987. With assistance from activist Ekkehard Maaß, he moved to Berlin in 1990 and regained German citizenship in 1994. His literary output, including the autobiographical work 'Muzal: ein georgischer Roman' and his philosophical explorations, gained recognition in the 1990s. He held a poetry professorship at the University of Bamberg and received numerous honors, including the Goethe Medal in 2006.
Fast facts
- Born: 1927, Berlin
- Died: 13 March 2020, Tbilisi
- Occupations: Writer, philosopher, philologist, teacher
- Languages: German, Georgian, Russian, English
- Goethe Medal recipient: 2006
- Presidential Order of Excellence: 2014
- Educated at: Ilia State University
- Citizenship: Germany, Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, Weimar Republic
Questions readers ask
Did he write in Georgian or German?
He primarily wrote his novels and philosophical books in German.
Where did he hold an academic professorship?
He was appointed to a Poetik-Professur (poetry professorship) at the University of Bamberg in 1994.
Achievements
- Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany — 2008
- Goethe Medal — 2006
- Presidential Order of Excellence — 2014
- Held posts at University of Bamberg
