Alexander Isaakowitsch Gelman

Alexander Isaakowitsch Gelman ( Russian Алекса́ндр Исаа́кович Ге́льман ; born October 25, 1933 in Donduşeni , Kingdom of Romania ) is a Soviet - Russian writer, screenwriter and playwright.

As a child, Gelman was deported with his family to a ghetto in Bershad in the Ukraine during the Second World War . He and his father survived a death march in late 1944 . After the war Gelman first worked as a locksmith in Chișinău , he attended a military school and was trained as a naval officer. In 1966 he went to Leningrad and worked as a journalist. He began to write scripts and plays, including the work "Minutes of a session" (Протокол одного заседания, German premiere in 1976 at the Landestheater Halle ). Gelman also used the play as a template for the screenplay of the 1974 film "The Premium" (Премия) for which he was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1976.

Gelman's plays, including the works "Wir, die Endesunterzeichnenden" and "Zwei auf einer Bank", have been translated into several languages ​​and performed in the German-speaking area, especially in the theaters of the GDR .

Gelman was considered a supporter of the perestroika policy of Mikhail Gorbachev , he was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1989. In 1990 he was on the XXVIII. Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Member of the Central Committee , but resigned from the CPSU in January 1991.

Gelman is a member of the Russian Jewish Congress (Российский еврейский конгресс). His son Marat Gelman is a well-known Russian gallery owner.

Works (selection)

• Minutes of a meeting ( Протокол одного заседания ), 1974
• We, the final signatories ( Мы, нижеподписавшиеся ), 1979
• Alone with everyone ( Наедине со всеми ), 1982
• Two on a Bench ( Скамейка ), 1983

Web links

• Brief biography of Gelman
• Data on the film "The Premium"
• Article in the Tagesspiegel about an appearance by Gelman in Berlin in 2002