Frank Wittchow (writer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frank Wittchow (born 1942 ) is a German science fiction writer, editor and physicist . Wittchow studied physics at the University of Hamburg , where he received his doctorate in 1979. Together with Claus-Peter Lieckfeld, he was the editor of the journal Natur published by Horst Stern in the 1980s . Together with Lieckfield he wrote the novel 427. In the Land of the Green Isles , which was awarded the German Science Fiction Prize in 1987 .

427. In the land of the green islands

The novel is set in 2009, 25 years after George Orwell's 1984 , in a Federal Republic largely destroyed by environmental catastrophes , in which the "Association of Allergy Sufferers and Environmentally Damaged" (VAU) in Karlsruhe sued the Federal Republic of Germany with the aim of analogous to the war victims to receive adequate redress for any damage to health suffered. In the vision of the future at that time, the Lüneburg Heath has become a desert, the low mountain ranges have been deforested, after a major grapevine death, wine is only affordable for a new elite of computer-savvy "Informs", but the then 79-year-old Helmut Kohl (in the book Hermann Kalb) remains in spite of everything, unshakably optimistic and cannot fault himself.

But otherwise the picture of the future is not without optimism. In an enclave between the Odenwald and the Black Forest , the Bonn government has allowed the establishment of a “Free Republic of Kraichgau” in an area ruined by agricultural overexploitation and soil erosion . Here a “refuge for the refusers, the soft-way people, the newly inspired Christians” is established, who let new hope for a better world sprout from sparse crumbs.

In the appendix to the book, the authors provide a factual background to the fiction and try to assess the plausibility of the described consequences of landscape destruction, genetic engineering and new media .

bibliography

  • Experimental investigation of charge reversal processes when alkali ions and atoms pass through cesium and potassium vapor in the energy range from 1 to 30 keV. Dissertation University of Hamburg 1979.
  • with Claus-Peter Lieckfeld: 427. In the land of the green islands. Schönberger, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-89114-023-1 .

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wittchow, Frank
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German science fiction writer, editor and physicist
DATE OF BIRTH 1942