Janheinz jahn biography of christopher

Janheinz Jahn was born into a well-to-do family in Frankfurt on 23rd July, 1918. Frequent travels to other countries awakened his interest in foreign languages and literatures at an early age.

Even before Jahn took up university studies in drama as well as German, Italian and Arabic language and literature, which were terminated prematurely because of World War II, he was proficient in five European languages. After the war, Jahn initially freelanced as a journalist and also tried his hand at creative writing.

Janheinz jahn biography of christopher columbus

On 1st Dezember 1951, Jahn eventually had a memorable encounter which would shape the rest of his life. On invitation of the Deutsch-Französische Gesellschaft in Frankfurt, Léopold Sédar Senghor, the future President of Senegal and awardee of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (1968), presented a lecture on "La nouvelle poésie nègre de langue française", which Jahn attended.

While Senghor did not present any of his own poetry