Helmuth Frauendorfer

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Helmuth Frauendorfer (born June 5, 1959 in Voiteg , Timiș District , People's Republic of Romania ) is a German writer and journalist .

life and work

Helmuth Frauendorfer was born in the German-speaking Romanian Banat . From 1965 he lived in Timișoara and attended the Nikolaus Lenau Lyceum , where most subjects were taught in German.

As a schoolboy he published small texts in the local press, whereupon the Romanian secret service Securitate became aware of him. Since he attended the Adam-Müller-Guttenbrunn literary circle , in which dissident and non-loyal writers such as Rolf Bossert , Johann Lippet , Herta Müller , Horst Samson , Richard Wagner , William Totok and others. a. were active, the secret service wanted to blackmail him into cooperation, which he refused and which made him the persecuted himself.

Nevertheless, he was able to study German and English at the University of the West Timișoara and since 1979 has regularly published texts in the country's German-language publications. During his studies he was the editor in charge of the German-language literature supplement to a student magazine, head of a student theater group, and member of the Adam-Müller-Guttenbrunn literary group . In 1984 he published the volume of poetry "On the edge of a wedding". At the same time, reprisals began again, with long-term interrogation and beatings by the officers of the Romanian security service for "subversive activity".

A publication ban followed. He initially worked as a teacher and published translations under pseudonyms. In 1986 the chairman of the Romanian Writers ' Union declared him a "persona non grata". Publications about him in the West and his acceptance into the West Berlin Association of German Writers proved to be a protection against even more brutal reprisals .

In 1987 he left the country, initially lived in West Berlin and began to get involved as a human rights activist. In 1988, together with other dissidents who had left the country and West German human rights activists and politicians (including Petra Kelly ), he founded the “Romania Human Rights Committee” in the Heinrich Böll Foundation , of which he was temporarily the full-time coordinator. This is how the International Days of Action Romania were organized, and after the overthrow of the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, the first International Human Rights Conference in the University of Timișoara.

He has also published poetry, prose, essays, reviews and reports in various newspapers and magazines, as well as radio reports. From 1991/1992 he also worked as a television journalist. From March 1998 he lived in Dresden and Berlin, since June 2000 in Leipzig and Berlin as a freelance editor of the MDR editorial team Zeitgeschehen for the magazines Fakt (ARD) and Exakt .

In April 2010 Frauendorfer became a consultant for political education and deputy director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial . In September 2018 Frauendorfer was dismissed after allegations against himself and Hubertus Knabe for violent behavior and sexual harassment . Frauendorfer sued against the termination, but this was confirmed in 2019 by judgment of the ArbG Berlin .

Single track

  • On the verge of a wedding. Poems , Kriterion Verlag, Bucharest 1984.
  • Landscape of the moles. Poems , dipa Verlag Frankfurt am Main 1990.
  • The fall of the tyrant. Romania and the end of a dictatorship , edited together with Richard Wagner, rororo aktuell, Rowohlt Verlag Reinbek near Hamburg, 1990.
  • The democracy of the nomenklatura. On the current situation in Romania , Ed., Heinrich Böll Foundation, Cologne, 1991.

Awards

  • 1982 Adam Müller Guttenbrunn Sponsorship Award
  • 1989 Prize from the Henning Kaufmann Foundation to maintain the purity of the German language (together with seven other German-speaking writers from Romania)
  • 1992 Prize for the ARD report "The Children's March" (TV debut)
  • 2nd journalist award of the food and drink restaurant union
  • 2010 Journalism Prize from the Taxpayers' Association of North Rhine-Westphalia

Anthologies

  • Ernest Wichner (Ed.), Living is not a place. Texts and symbols from Siebenbürgen, the Banat and the areas of attempted arrival. die horen, 32nd vol. 3/1987, edition 147;
  • A. Franck, G. Vesper (eds.), C'est la vie! Impressions - France en passant, rororo panther, Reinbek near Hamburg, 1989;
  • Literary March 1989, Paul List Verlag, Munich, 1989;
  • Wilhelm Solms (ed.), Obituary for Romanian German literature, Hitzeroth Verlag, Marburg 1990.
  • Bahman Nirumand (ed.), German conditions. Dialogue about a country at risk, rororo aktuell, Rowohlt Verlag Reinbek, 1993.
  • Edwin Kratschmer (ed.), Literature and Dictatorship, Collegium Europaeum Jenense, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Jena, Berlin, 1997.

Movies

  • The children's march. On the run from Romania, 45-minute report, MDR 1992, first broadcast: April 16, 1992 ARD 8:15 p.m. - Received the 2nd journalist award from the food and drink restaurant union for this.
  • In doubt. For violence? (Together with Gerhard Widmer), co-production ORB and RB, 45 minutes, first broadcast on ARD February 8, 1996, 11 p.m.
  • Tears and rubble. Faith and Hope in Sarajevo - 30 minutes, first broadcast by ORB, February 25, 1996.
  • The Tsar von Torgelow. An East German entrepreneur on the road to success (together with Margarete Wohlan) - 45 minutes, NDR, first broadcast on December 22, 1997.
  • The beginning of the end. Tour group 88 in the GDR - 30 minutes, ORB, March 1998
  • USA in the crosshairs, 30 minutes, ARTE theme evening (together with MDR colleagues)
  • Headquarters of Terror. The Stasi prison Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, 30 minutes (together with Hubertus Knabe), premiere in June 2004 as an introductory film for the Hohenschönhausen memorial, first broadcast on MDR November 10, 2004.
  • numerous magazine articles u. a. for ARD-Kulturreport, ARD-FAKT, MDR-WIR / exact, MDR-Windrose, ORB-Klartext
  • Written in the margin - Romanian-German writers in the crosshairs of the Securitate, film premiere October 5, 2010

theatre

  • "The fields lie before us smelling of hay" Poetry montage with texts by Romanian-German authors, compilation and staging, Timișoara Student Culture House, 1980
  • "How Mockinpott's suffering was driven out" by Peter Weiß, directed together with Dietmar Zerwes, Timișoara Student Culture House, 1981
  • The interrogation. Staged reading in the Stasi prison with Max Volkert Martens, Sven Riemann and Udo Schenk based on the novel Solar Eclipse by Arthur Koestler. Editing and direction. World premiere on September 3, 2005 at the Hohenschönhausen Memorial, Genslerstr. 66, 13055 Berlin (Hohenschönhausen)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Accumulation of harassment allegations: Hubertus Knabe has to leave the Stasi memorial. In: Spiegel Online . September 26, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  2. ↑ ArbG Berlin press release No. 27/19 of November 13, 2019
  3. ↑ Journalist Prize for Helmuth Frauendorfer ( Memento from September 12, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. ↑ Written to the margin - Romanian German writers in the crosshairs of the Securitate ( Memento from December 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Frauendorfer, Helmuth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 5th June 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Voiteg , Timiș County , Romania