Michael Rutschky grew up in Spangenberg, Hesse. From 1963 to 1971, he studied Sociology, Literary Science and Philosophy at the Universities Frankfurt am Main (amongst others under Theodor W. Adorno and Jurgen Habermas), Gottingen and FU Berlin. From 1969 to 1978, he worked as a social researcher at the Freie Universitat Berlin; he would attain a Doctorate there as a Doctor of Philosophy. From 1979 to 1984, he lived in Munich. There he belonged to the Editing of the periodical Merkur and the editor of the TransAtlantik in 1980/81. Since 1985, he again works and lives in Berlin. From 1985 to 1997, he was contributing editor to the periodical Der Alltag.
Michael Rutschky is a writer of essays in whose Narrative passages and sociological interpretation of the everyday present enter into an original mixture and a comical work not seldom produced.
Michael Rutschky is a member of the PEN Zentrums Deutschland. He received the 1997 Heinrich Mann Prize; in 1999 he held the poetic dozent of the University of Heidelberg. He is Scholar at the Internationales Kunstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg.
He was married to the educationalist and publisher Katharina Rutschky until her death in January 2010.
Schuler im Literaturunterricht (Students in the Literary Teaching), Cologne 1975 (together with Hartmut Eggert and Hans Christoph Berg)Studien zur psychoanalytischen Interpretation von Literatur (Studies of the Psychoanalytical Interpretation of Literature), Berlin 1978Erfahrungshunger (Experience Hunger), Cologne 1980Lekture der Seele (Lectures of the Soul), Frankfurt am Main [et al.] 1981Wartezeit (Waiting Time), Cologne 1983Zur Ethnographie des Inlands (Of the Demographics of the Home Country), Frankfurt am Main 1984Auf Reisen (From Trips), Frankfurt am Main 1986Was man zum Leben wissen mus (What one must know to live), Zurich 1987Thomas – mach ein Bild von uns! (Thomas - make a Picture of us!), Munchen [et al.] 1988 (together with Thomas Karsten and Peter Brasch)Reise durch das Ungeschick und andere Meisterstucke (Trips through the Awkward and other Mater Pieces), Zurich 1990Mit Dr. Siebert in Amerika (With Dr. Siebert in America), Zurich [et al.] 1991Traumnachrichten (Dream News), Hersbruck 1991Unterwegs im Beitrittsgebiet (Away in the Member Area), Gottingen 1994Die Meinungsfreude (The Opinion's Friends), Gottingen 1997Der verborgene Brecht (The Hidden Break), Zurich [et al.] 1997 (together with Juergen Teller)Lebensromane (Life Novels), Gottingen 1998Berlin, Berlin 2001Wie wir Amerikaner wurden (How we became American), Munchen 2004Errungenschaften (Achievements), Frankfurt am Main 1982Ein Jahresbericht (The Yearly Report), Frankfurt am Main 1983Tag fur Tag (Day for Day), Frankfurt am Main 1984Die andere Chronik (The Other Chronicle) 1987, Cologne 1987
