Peter Dempf

"Peter Dempf is a talented story-teller", writes the Augsburger Allgemeine. The winner of numerous literary awards, Dempf is best known for his historical fiction, although he also writes for radio, most notably for Bayerischer Rundfunk, for whom he has penned arts programmes for over two decades. He is the author of various textbooks and works on film projects for the FWU.

Dempf lives with his wife and four children in Augsburg, where he was born in 1959. He studied Literature, History and Sociology, and was a German-language lecturer for foreign students. Before becoming a grammar school teacher in Munich, he taught body language and rhetoric to corporate clients.

Literature Awards

• 1987 the City of Darmstadt's Leonce and Lena Prize ; section: political poetry


• 1989 Literature Prize of the City of Augsburg


• 1999 Irseer Pegasus Prize


• 2001 Augsburg Region Literary Prize

• HC: Lübbe 2010


• Movie & TV: Rights free (AVA international)

The House of the Red Demons

Prague, in the year 1570. Orphan Jan is overjoyed when he gets the chance to serve the famous painter, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and his assistant Contrario. But mysterious things happen in the painter’s house: doors open themselves, as though at the hands of ghosts, the rooms seem to change, and at night Jan thinks he sees demonic creatures flying away. The master’s eerie secret takes the boy’s breath away: Arcimboldo can bring the mythical creatures in his paintings to life – but only if he mixes his colours with the blood of mortals. Contrario is only too happy to assist his master, but when Jan’s beautiful girlfriend Julia is abducted a desperate race against time begins ...

Red blood, blank canvas and a magically transformed Prague. Gloomy, spectacular, mysterious.

• HC: cbj 2010


• Movie & TV: Rights free (AVA international)

The Novices Message

The devil roams behind the walls of San Lorenzo

Venice 1521. The young Isabella becomes a novice in the convent San Lorenzo. She is the niece of a nun, who has recently been murdered, and tries to solve the crime. An old manuscript leads Isabella on the trail of a mysterious document, hidden in the crypt. It’s an unknown gospel, written in Antioch and by a woman called the "Mother of the Redeemer". Isabella starts looking for that gospel to save it from the inquisition und to spread its message throughout the world.

• HC: Lübbe 2008


• Movie & TV: Rights free (AVA international)

• HC: Weltbild 2007

The Stargazer

Florint has just started work in Augsburg when he hears worrying news from home. His father, who is working on a horoscope machine, has suddenly disappeared. Charged with being a heretic, he is sold as a galley slave and sent to Venice. Katrin, the daughter of the man to whom Florint is apprenticed, falls in love with Florint and initiates him into the art of stargazing. Gradually the young man realizes the dangers posed by the horoscope machine. When Katrin's father is murdered, Florint is accused of the crime and sent to Venice too. Katrin follows him to the Venetian lagoon and together they stumble across a plot involving the secrets of stargazing and the most powerful men in the Church...

• HC: Lübbe 2007


• Sold to: The Netherlands (Uitgeverij Kok-Omniboek)


• Movie and TV: Rights free (AVA international GmbH)

Sibylla's Amulet

As a young girl, Sibylla Artzt, daughter of a Patrician family, had turned men's heads. Since then the tomboy has grown into a vivacious young woman whose attentions the eligible bachelors in the city are anxious to secure. But Sibylla turns her back on her aristocratic suitors and bestows her favour on Jakob Fugger, a powerful merchant and trader. Her new life in Augsburg is luxurious, but she soon finds that Jakob is using her connections for his political gain. Money and power do not necessarily bring happiness. Sibylla resolves to take charge of her own destiny and approaches Martin Luther and Albert Dürer. At her request, Jakob agrees to establish the world's first charity settlement for the poor, a decision that changes their lives for ever. In the course of the project, Sibylla is reunited with her childhood friend Konrad Rehlinger, whom she has never stopped loving. Her talisman is an antique gold coin, marked with the head of the Emperor. But Sibylla is married to a Fugger...

»Dempf is an expert on early Renaissance Augsburg... He depicts the city with all its energy, vitality and contradictions – a city torn between the middle ages and modernity and caught up in the maelstrom of the early Renaissance. [...] The story of the Fuggers is a vivid tale of opposing forces told against the momentous backdrop of a contradictory era.« (Augsburger Allgemeine)

• HC: Lübbe 2006


• Film & TV: Rights free (AVA international)

My Heart is so very Light
Novel about Mozart

Twenty-one-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus is a good-for-nothing, uncouth young lad who, despite his prodigious musical talent, is unlikely to progress in the world unless he can acquire certain crucial skills, including diplomacy and a little subservience. During his first concert tour without paternal supervision, he makes innumerable blunders and succeeds in offending the assembled worthies in his father’s home town. Professionally, his stay in Augsburg is only moderately successful, but something happens during his time there that will have a decisive impact on his life – Wolfgang Amadeus meets his cousin. Together with Maria Anna, he roams the streets, playing practical jokes on all and sundry, until he gradually realizes that their relationship is closer than decorum would permit … This is a charming, empathetic and imaginative novel about three decisive weeks in which the boy genius Wolfgang Amadeus becomes the celebrated musician Mozart.

• HC: Eichborn-Verlag 2004


• PB: Ullstein Buchverlage 2005


• Audio-Book: Eichborn Verlag 2005


• Sold to: Czech Republic (Moravska Bastei MOBA), Poland (Twoj Styl)


• Movie & TV: Rights free (AVA international)

The Lady of the Words
The Legends of Fantastica

A long time ago, the Fog Dwarves had an important task. They travelled through Fantastica collecting stories and uncovering the secrets behind the words.  In this way they protected the inhabitants of Fantastica from an enormous threat, the source of the word-swallowing oblivion-the Demon that causes nightmares. He has returned ...

There is almost nothing is left of the glorious past of the Fog Dwarves. Instead of travelling throughout Fantastica, the dwarves have settled down and fear the Collector, a secretive stranger who steals their words and in whose wake the Nightmare Demon has also returned to Fantastica.

The Fog Dwarf maiden Kiray doesn’t seem to be destined to be a storyteller; she stutters.  Yet it is she who must break out to search for the legendary Lady of the Words. Before she reaches her goal, however, she has to survive many adventures ...

• HC: Droemer 2004


• Sold to: Japan (Softbank Pub.)


• Movie & TV: Rights free (AVA international)

Caravaggio's Legacy

Peter Dempf recounts the tragedy of a painter, gambler, drinker and lover who lives life like a candle burning at both ends. Michelangelo Merisi, or Caravaggio as he is known, habitually defies all limits and boundaries: his hedonism ruins his health, his choleric temper and violence land him in jail, and his paintings incur the displeasure of the Vatican, although the common people love his work. Only a few friends stick by him during his final years, including the young artist Nerina, who paints the background of his canvases and protects him from Papal persecution. When they flee from Rome via Naples to Malta, Nerina realizes that Caravaggio has provoked the enmity of a man who is determined to destroy him. In order to expose the identity of his persecutor, Caravaggio includes his likeness in a painting, ‘The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist’, and gives it to Nerina. Now her life is in danger too…

»Peter Dempf’s art-world crime novel about Caravaggio’s final years is historically precise, his characters are authentic, and his vivid language conjures the paintings on to the page. Dempf traces the story of Caravaggio’s amazing artwork, leaving the reader with only one desire: to see the paintings for oneself.« (SN) »Dempf turns art history into an educational project and a fictional treat.« (Welt am Sonntag) »Caravaggio’s Legacy is one of few fictional biographies worthy of the genre.«(Donaukurier)

• HC: Eichborn-Verlag 2002


• TB: Goldmann 2004


• Sold to: Japan (Quintessenz Shuppan), Czech Republic (Moravska Bastei MOBA s.r.o.), Spain (Viamagna 2004, S.L.)


• Movie & TV: Rights free (AVA international)

The Mystery of Hieronymus Bosch

‘The Garden of Love,’ a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, has been vandalised and is undergoing restoration in Madrid. While he is working on the picture, Michael Keie, a picture restorer, discovers mysterious symbols in the deeper layers of paint. They point to the origins of the painting, to Hertogenbosch in Brabant, where a power struggle is raging between the city council, the Dominicans, the inquisition and the Adamites, a notorious sect. Dempf’s book is far more than a straightforward historical novel, for it breathes life into art history and gives the reader access to the powerful imagery and pictorial language of the Flemish master painter.

• HC: Eichborn-Verlag 1999


• PB: Goldmann 2000


• Sold to: The Netherlands (Karakter Uitgevers.b.v.), Czech Republic (Moravska Bastei MOBA s.r.o.), Russia (AST Publishers), Poland (Wydawnictwo Ksiazkowe Twoj Styl Sp. z o.o.), Bulgaria (Uniscorp Publishers), Korea (Thinking tree publishing Co. Ltd.), Spain (Maeva Editiones)


• Film & TV: Rights free (AVA international)

Salomon Idler's Satanic Bird

Salomon Idler is an Augsburg shoemaker who comes into possession of a manuscript that sets out plans for a flying machine. Since the city is under siege, his talk of flying doesn't go unnoticed. On either side of the city walls, people are determined to seize the plans for the machine, balking at nothing to get hold of the script. Soon Idler's wife is captured, tortured and driven to madness, so he takes refuge among the beggars of the city. These are murderous times, but Idler won't let go of his dreams... A dramatic portrait of a past age and a homage to man's eternal dream of flight.

»In this meticulously precise and breathtakingly realistic book Peter Dempf describes a city and its habitants during a time of crisis.« (Brigitte)

• HC: Eichborn-Verlag 2000


• PB: Goldmann 2002


• Film & TV: Rights free (AVA international)

Legends of Augsburg

Peter Dempt tracks down the stories that make up the history of a city - his city. Each literary miniature is an individual masterpiece. Dempf's writing is spare, precise and full of feeling for his subject and its historical context.

• HC: Wißner-Verlag 2000

From Other, More Distant Worlds

He meets her in a train, but can't summon up the courage to talk to her, so he writes her love letters and names her Camille. By the time she receives the missives, their author has vanished, but the voyeuristic thoughts alarm her, and she publishes the letters together with her response.

»As Dempf so artfully puts it, these characters are no longer aware of their journey.« (Augsburger Allgemeine)

• OE: Wider-Wort-Verlag 1997


• PB: Rights free

Ulrich Schwarz

Premiered in Augsburg, 13/04/2002

»Peter Dempf's tragedy Ulrich Schwarz premiered on Saturday to standing ovations... A resounding success .« (Donaukurier)

• PB: Wißner-Verlag 2002

Your Very Own Dreamcatcher
Illustrated by Gabriele Dal Lago

Anna has had a bad dream, but luckily her granddad knows exactly what to do. Anna needs a dreamcatcher! Together with her granddad, she sets off on a quest, and soon they find some mysterious objects. First they discover a ring-shaped stone that looks as though it could be worn by a water nymph. Then they find a feather — but who could it belong to? Maybe it comes from a dreambird... Anna puts her new treasures in her dreamcatcher and hangs it over her bed. She's got nothing to be afraid of now — equipped with her very own Dreamcatcher, she'll always have sweet dreams! A picture book with magical illustrations, plus a dreamcatcher of your own — perfect for anyone who'd like to sleep soundly at night!

• HC: arsEdition 2005

The Reichstag Conspiracy

It is 1510 AD, and parliament has been convened in Augsburg. Georg flees to the town, pursued by bloodhounds. But instead of finding protection, he is pulled into a whirlwind of events involving an alchemist and the Emperor. Then Arabella, Georg's beloved, disappears without trace. This is the start of a race against time...

• OE: Wider-Wort-Verlag 1997


• PB: Rights free

Magritta
A Schoolgirl's Suicide

»Magritta opens the reader's eyes to what is normally left unspoken at school. It shows the oppressiveness of families where young people are simply expected to function on their own.« (Augsburger Allgemeine)

• HC: Wißner-Verlag 1996


• PB: Wißner-Verlag 2000