WRITER

W. G. Sebald

1944 - 2001

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Winfried Georg Sebald (18 May 1944 – 14 December 2001), known as W. G. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of W. G. Sebald has received more than 823,666 page views. His biography is available in 39 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 36 in 2019). W. G. Sebald is the 930th most popular writer (up from 1,272nd in 2019), the 895th most popular biography from Germany (up from 1,311th in 2019) and the 58th most popular German Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 820k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 62.36

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 39

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 7.30

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.98

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Ausgewanderten
1996
Austerlitz
2001
Vertigo
Fiction
First-person narrative describes a journey from Italy during Napoleon's invasion to a Bavarian village, drawing in the memories of notable thinkers such as Franz Kafka and Casanova.
19904 / 5
Nach der Natur
1988
Schwindel, Gefühle
1990
Luftkrieg und Literatur
History
W.G. Sebald completed this extraordinary and important -- and already controversial -- book before his untimely death in December 2001. On the Natural History of Destruction is W.G. Sebald’s harrowing and precise investigation of one of the least examined “silences” of our time. In it, the acclaimed novelist examines the devastation of German cities by Allied bombardment, and the reasons for the astonishing absence of this unprecedented trauma from German history and culture. This void in history is in part a repression of things -- such as the death by fire of the city of Hamburg at the hands of the RAF -- too terrible to bear. But rather than record the crises about them, writers sought to retrospectively justify their actions under the Nazis. For Sebald, this is an example of deliberate cultural amnesia; his analysis of its effects in and outside Germany has already provoked angry and painful debate. Sebald’s incomparable novels are rooted in meticulous observation; his essays are novelistic. They include his childhood recollections of the war that spurred his horror at the collective amnesia around him. There are moments of black humour and, throughout, the unmatched sensitivity of Sebald’s intelligence. This book is a vital study of suffering and forgetting, of the morality hidden in artistic decisions, and of both compromised and genuine heroics.
19994 / 5

Page views of W. G. Sebalds by language

Over the past year W. G. Sebald has had the most page views in the with 95,106 views, followed by German (29,313), and French (14,975). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Hungarian (173.63%), Hebrew (94.63%), and Serbian (83.88%)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, W. G. Sebald ranks 930 out of 7,302. Before him are Miep Gies, Lucius Accius, Vinicius de Moraes, Joost van den Vondel, Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, and Ann Radcliffe. After him are Aimé Césaire, Thomas Pynchon, Jean de La Bruyère, Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Lafcadio Hearn, and Ouyang Xiu.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1944, W. G. Sebald ranks 78. Before him are Jonathan Demme, Gérard Mourou, Nǃxau ǂToma, Kary Mullis, Ashraf Marwan, and R. Lee Ermey. After him are Gianni Morandi, Günter Netzer, Thein Sein, Michelle Phillips, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, and Antonio Damasio. Among people deceased in 2001, W. G. Sebald ranks 34. Before him are William Hanna, Zhang Xueliang, John Lee Hooker, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, and Morris. After him are Timothy McVeigh, Charles Trenet, Juan Antonio Villacañas, Giovanni Leone, Balthus, and Chung Ju-yung.

Others Born in 1944

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Others Deceased in 2001

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, W. G. Sebald ranks 895 out of 7,253. Before him are Saloninus (242), Fritz Haarmann (1879), Hans-Dietrich Genscher (1927), Philip William, Elector Palatine (1615), Joost van den Vondel (1587), and Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1622). After him are Eduard Künneke (1885), Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (1370), Gudrun Ensslin (1940), Götz von Berlichingen (1480), Otto I, Duke of Bavaria (1120), and Maria Anna of Bavaria (1574).

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Among WRITERS In Germany

Among writers born in Germany, W. G. Sebald ranks 58. Before him are Hans Fallada (1893), Stefan George (1868), Achim von Arnim (1781), Anna Seghers (1900), Joost van den Vondel (1587), and Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (1622). After him are Hans Sachs (1494), Kurt Eisner (1867), Tannhäuser (1205), Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse (1868), Christoph Martin Wieland (1733), and Hrotsvitha (935).

German born Writers

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