Andreas Bengsch

Andreas Bertolt Bengsch (pseudonyms: Terenz Abbé , Bert Bennen ; born March 26, 1953 in Berlin ; † March 7, 2017 there ) was a German journalist and book author and from 1989 to 2003 President of the Romani- PEN Center .

Life

Bengsch grew up in the GDR. He began his journalistic training in 1971 at the German Television Broadcasting Corporation (DFF) and later continued it at the Berlin Broadcasting Corporation . He worked at the DFF as an editorial assistant, later as an editor for radio, television and daily newspapers.

His open refusal to face state constraints, the public criticism of Wolf Biermann's expatriation , the alleged "anti-state establishment and group formation" led to repression by the Ministry for State Security from 1977 , which saw him as an "increasingly threatening disruptive factor" with a professional ban and a subsequent political detention.

In the spring of 1987, Bengsch moved with his family to West Berlin with the help of the Protestant Church as part of the free purchase practice . He worked as a journalist for the broadcaster RIAS and the SFB . During the time of upheaval , he was committed to the newly emerging press landscape in East Germany and was a guest lecturer at universities in Germany and abroad. Personal experiences and the friendly relationships with Melvin Lasky , Hans Sahl , Wolfgang Harich , Gerhard Zwerenz and Rajko Đurić shaped the thematic selection of many of his publications on the radio and in the print media. From 1990 to 1993 Bengsch worked mainly for the German broadcaster Kultur as a reporter, editor and presenter. In 1994 he also graduated as a graduate philosopher.

Bengsch was the author of numerous radio features. He has worked as a freelance journalist for radio, television and the press.

Romani-PEN

At the time of the upheaval in Eastern Europe , Bengsch also conducted an interview with the philosopher and poet Rajko Đurić, a member of the Roma, who was persecuted in Yugoslavia . This led to an exchange of information about the background to the war in Yugoslavia and about the history and living conditions of the Roma and Sinti. Although a Gadjo , in 1989 Bengsch the first president of the Romani PEN (later Romani-PEN Center) voted -Clubs. It was a pragmatic decision to bring together Eastern European Roma authors with Western European Sinti writers. According to a new statute, Đurić and Bengsch tried to apply for membership to non-Roma Sinti artists who have made outstanding contributions to the rights and culture of the Roma and Sinti. Members were u. a. Sir Yehudi Menuhin , Jorge Amado , Gabriel García Márquez and Günter Grass , who founded the “Foundation for the benefit of the Roma people” in 1997 with his wife Ute. In 1993 Bengsch represented the Romani PEN Club for the first time at an international PEN congress in Santiago de Compostela.

literature

• The disintegration of Yugoslavia (with Rajko Đurić ), with an exclusive interview with Milovan Djilas . Translated from Serbo-Croatian by Barbara Antkowiak and Angela Richter , Morgenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-371-00325-6 .
• Without a home, without a grave - The history of the Roma and Sinti (with Rajko Đurić, J. Becken), Aufbau Verlag, Berlin 1996, 2002 ISBN 3-7466-8081-6 .
• Andreas B. Bengsch and Udo Scheer : Divers in the desert. The nights and days of Carl Graff . Novel. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2018, ISBN 978-3-96311-015-3 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Andreas Bengsch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Music-Language Literature of the Roma - Bengsch ( Memento from February 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
• DRA - Interview G. Grass, Rolf Hochhuth (PDF; 1.7 MB)