Dang Lanh Hoang

Born in Vietnam; studied Chemistry (PhD).1970-1975: professor in Vietnam1975-1988: Research assistant at the National Research Center Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon)1988-1991: Research assistant at the Central Research Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, Berlin1992-2014: Research assistant of the Institute for Applied Chemistry Berlin-Adlershof, and after that at the Leibniz-Institute for Catalysis at the University of RostockSince February 2014: retirement

What brought you to Berlin? Love? World politics? Or was it a coincidence?

First, getting a job as a chemical scientist or maybe really the Fall of the Berlin Wall, so it might have been world policy! I mean, who has the chance to witness the German reunification in Berlin!

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What do you love about Berlin?

The city’s diversity.

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What do you miss in Berlin?

Nothing much.

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What is your favorite spot in Berlin?

Kollwitzplatz, Tiergarten; Mauerweg; Britzer Garten

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Would you say you are a different person in Berlin? A different translator? And if yes, in what way?

Definitely! Berlin is a different world!

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Which existing literary work do you wish you had written?

Such a wish doesn’t exist. Or there’d be many.

2016   scholarship of the Deutsche Übersetzerfonds