Dana von Suffrin
area: Literature
Key Facts
nationality
Germanyarea
Literatureresidence
Munichrecommending institution
BMEIAtime period
September 2025 - October 2025Dana von Suffrin was born in Munich and studied in Munich, Naples and Jerusalem. She completed her doctorate with a thesis on the role of science and ideology in early Zionism.
Her debut novel "Otto" was honoured with numerous awards, her second novel "Nochmal von vorne" (among others on the longlist for the German Book Prize) and the anthology "Wir schon wieder" (Rowohlt Hundert Augen) as well as the BR radio play "Unter uns" were published in 2024. In autumn 2025, another radio play will be broadcast for the first time, "Niewiedergut" (BR), which is about Philipp Auerbach, a Holocaust survivor and politician who took his own life in 1952 after an anti-Semitic campaign. Dana von Suffrin writes short stories, radio plays, theatre texts and essays.
During her residency at MQ, Dana von Suffrin is revising her third novel "Toxibaby", which is due to be published by Kiepenheuer&Witsch in 2026. "Toxibaby" tells the story of a couple who cannot live with or without each other. But love is just one aspect among many: A romance novel is, perhaps even primarily, about our society - the neoliberal age, in which everyone has become a competitor, is leading to a time of multiple crises, certainties are shaken, life plans are uncertain, family models are broken, love and desire are commodified, the individual is more atomised than ever. The millennial generation in particular seems to be feeling the effects; in the novel, this generation is juxtaposed with Toxibaby's parents, baby boomers, for whom everything still seemed attainable.