Eric T. Hansen

Eric T. Hansen, 2008

Eric T. Hansen (born July 3, 1960) is a bilingual American writer known in Germany for his humorous non-fiction, critical satire and novels.

Life

Eric T. Hansen was born in Bellingham, Washington, and moved with his family to Hawaii when he was six. He was raised a Mormon and served a two-year mission to West Germany from 1980,^[1] where he also met his future wife. He then returned to Germany to study at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, where he earned a Masters in the literature of the German Middle Ages in 1989.^[2]

After leaving university, Hansen began a career as a freelance journalist writing about German politics, media and culture for American and British publications including The European, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter (where he was German Bureau Chief), The Washington Post.^[3]

In 2001/2002 he took a one-year trip through Germany in a VW Bus in search of the Middle Ages and turned his experiences into the travel book Die Nibelungenreise (The Nibelung Trip), which was published only in German. His second book, Planet Germany, about Germany through the eyes of an American and written in German, was a bestseller. Since then, he has continued writing books in German as well as articles for German publications including Cicero, Süddeutsche Zeitung, GEO and, currently, a political column for the online edition of the leading weekly German newspaper, Die Zeit.^[3] Starting with Planet Germany, Hansen has written all his books entirely in German with his co-writer and companion Astrid Ule, who had translated Nibelungenreise from English, and with whom Hansen writes thrillers under the pseudonym "Ule Hansen". Hansen also occasionally appears in German television and has written and spoken a satirical weekly radio column about Berlin for the local station RadioEins.

Hansen is divorced and is no longer a member of the LDS Church; he currently lives with Astrid Ule in Berlin.

"The Hansen method"

Hansen’s books tend to combine journalistic research with political analysis and humor or even sarcasm and gravitate toward themes that question popular German attitudes. For example, while many Germans tend to think of themselves as "americanized" and as "critical thinkers", Hansen goes out of his way to prove that "americanization" is a myth^[4] and that "critical thinking" is often no more than a sophisticated way of complaining.^[5] While many Germans tend to perceive American conservatives in a negative light, Hansen in various articles during the 2012 US-presidential election explained the rationale behind the sometimes extreme positions of both parties and criticized the often one-sided perspective in the German press. The critic Henryk M. Broder in the newsweekly Der Spiegel has noted Hansen's fervor for attacking sacred cows and identified "the Hansen method" as forcing readers to view themselves from an unfamiliar and uncomfortable perspective.^[4]

Hula Ink

In 2015 Hansen launched a micropublisher named Hula Ink, specializing in literary fiction and non-fiction, mostly short e-books. In 2017, Hula Ink published its first print edition, Hansen's book-length essay "Losing My Religion."

Ule Hansen

In 2016, Hansen and Ule launched a series of thrillers under the pseudonym "Ule Hansen," starting with Neuntöter, the first in the announced Emma Carow trilogy, set in Berlin.

Works

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eric T. Hansen.

• Eric T. Hansen Homepage
• Homepage of Astrid Ule
• Hansen’s columns in Zeit Online
• "Sind die Deutschen lauter Außerirdische?", review Planet Germany, t-online.de, 28 December 2006