Maxim Biller

Maxim Biller (born 25 August 1960 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a German writer and columnist.

Early life

Born in Prague to Soviet Jewish parents, Rada Biller and Semjon-Jevsej Biller. He emigrated with his parents and sister to West Germany in 1970, when he was ten years old.^[1] After living for a long time in Hamburg and Munich, he now lives in Berlin, frequently writing about issues relating to Jewish and German relations.^[2] His maternal grandfather was Armenian.^[3]

Works

In 2003 his novel Esra excited attention when its sale was prohibited shortly after its release. Two persons had a provisional order obtained, because they claimed to have seen themselves reflected in characters in the book. A German court obliged their request to take the book from circulation on these grounds.^[4][5]

His first works translated into English (by Anthea Bell) are the collection Love Today (2008), some of which appeared in The New Yorker.^[6]

Beliefs

Biller strongly identifies as a Zionist and is very critical of antisemitism within the anti-Zionist movement.^[7]

Controversy

In June 2025, Biller published a column in Die Zeit titled Morbus Israel. In it, he described the Israeli government's starvation blockade of Gaza as "strategically correct." He also made a joke about an Israeli soldier who goes to a doctor and says he no longer wants to kill Arabs, to which the doctor advises him against stopping. Biller claimed that the German public exhibits a pathological obsession with Israeli policy during the war in Israel and Gaza. He wrote that critics of Israel’s actions in Gaza — such as Tilo Jung, Ralf Stegner, or Amnesty International — were on a “pathological, likely psychologically very stressful anti-Israel horror trip.” Following criticism of the column, The piece was quietly removed by Die Zeit because it apparently “did not meet the newspaper’s editorial standards”.^{[8] [9]}

Publications

• Wenn ich einmal reich und tot bin: Erzählungen (Someday when I'm rich and dead: Narratives), Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-423-11624-2 (including the narrative Harlem Holocaust)
• Die Tempojahre: Essays und Reportagen, Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-423-11427-4
• Aufbruch nach Deutschland: Sechzehn Foto-Essays
• Land der Väter und Verräter: Erzählungen, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-423-12356-7
• Harlem Holocaust (short novel), Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-462-02761-1
• Die Tochter, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-423-12933-6
• Kühltransport, 2001
• Deutschbuch, 2001
• Esra : Roman, 2003, ISBN 3-462-03213-5 (distribution was prohibited from publishing by court)
• Der perfekte Roman: Das Maxim-Biller-Lesebuch, 2003
• Bernsteintage: Erzählungen, 2004
• Maxim Biller Tapes (CD with songs and poems), 2004
• I Love My Leid (video), 2004
• Moralische Geschichten: Satirische Kurzgeschichten, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2005 ISBN 3-462-03477-4
• Adas größter Wunsch (children's book), 2005
• Menschen in falschen Zusammenhängen (comedy), 2006
• Liebe heute (short stories), 2007
• Ein verrückter Vormittag (children's book), 2008
• Der gebrauchte Jude (self-portrait), Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-462-03703-6
• Kanalratten (theater play), Fischer 2013 ISBN 978-3-596-19007-2
• Im Kopf von Bruno Schulz: Novelle, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-462-04605-2
• Jack Happy (children's book), Atlantik, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 3-455-37008-X
• Biografie: Roman, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-462-04898-8
• Mama Odessa: Roman, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2023, ISBN 978-3-462-00486-1

Awards

• 1994 Toucan Prize from the city of Munich
• 1996 Preis des Europäischen Feuilletons: "Feuilleton" are the culture pages in German speaking newspaper
• 1996 Otto Stoessl Prize [de]
• 1999 Theodor Wolff Prize
• 2008 Brothers Grimm Poetics Professorship of University of Kassel^[10]
• 2012 Würth-Literaturpreis