Ben Witter

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Ben Witter (born January 24, 1920 in Hamburg ; † December 12, 1993 ibid) was a German journalist and writer .

life and work

As a teenager, Witter was a member of the German Scout Association and, although coming from a humble background, attended a higher school. After training as a publisher and antiquarian, he began a traineeship at the Hamburger Fremdblatt and, after passing the editor's examination , worked as a local editor. In the spring of 1943, Witter was dismissed as an "intolerable intellectual" at the instigation of the Reich Propaganda Office in Hamburg. Due to a meningitis illness suffered in his childhood, he was not fit for military service and was subsequently "conscripted" for the rescue and identification of bomb victims during Operation Gomorrah .

After the war ended, Witter worked on the editorial staff of the newly founded daily newspaper Die Welt . From 1948 to 1953 even as her chief reporter. At Ernst Schnabel's request , Witter became a permanent employee of the NWDR in 1953 . At the same time, Witter began writing as a columnist and reporter for the weekly newspaper Die Zeit .

His celebrity portraits and walks with celebrities , which were also published in book form in 1969 and 1982, received special attention . His actual literary production includes poems , stories and novels , but also children's books .

Cushion stone Ben Witter,
Ohlsdorf cemetery

From his debut Diary of a Idler (1962) until the later years ( Idleness is the beginning of all happiness , 1985) he devoted himself to the art of self-contemplation. Siegfried Lenz , an advocate and editor of Witter's narrative works, praised their sense of subtleties:

"In order to measure the poor corner of the ego, the inconspicuous is always significant enough for him."

Witter was also known as a reader of his own works. His idleness is the beginning of all happiness . B. appeared in excerpts as a reading on record a year before it was printed. "(...) after listening, you are immediately tempted to be more careful with yourself," wrote Lenz for the record pocket text.

Ben Witter died of heart failure in 1993. His fortune was transferred to the Ben Witter Foundation, which annually awards the Ben Witter Prize for journalists , which is endowed in a will . His written estate is in the "Carl von Ossietzky" state and university library in Hamburg .

Ben Witter was buried in the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg, grid square D 13 (south of Chapel 4).

Honors

Works

  • Wait a moment! 121 Trying to save the moment . Edited by Rolf Michaelis . Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe, 2007. ISBN 978-3-455-40028-1 .
  • Write fear on white pieces of paper and other texts . Selected and introduced by Siegfried Lenz . Hamburg: Luchterhand-Literaturverlag, 1993.
  • Tapped. Current events in the blink of an eye . With a foreword by Helmut Schmidt and drawing. by Luis Murschetz . Hamburg / Zurich: Luchterhand-Literaturverlag, 1992.
  • Street acquaintances . Short prose. With drawing. by Margrit von Spreckelsen-Elmenhorst. Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1990.
  • Steps and words. Contemporary history in moments . Edited and introduced by Siegfried Lenz. Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe, 1990.
  • The cello on the roof. Stories of little people and big dreams, of strange owls and serious cases . Würzburg: Edition Pestum, 1989.
  • Minute poetry . With drawing. by Hans Hillmann and an afterword by François Bondy . Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe, 1988.
  • It works without a hero. Men's stories . With illustration by Horst Janssen . Frankfurt a. M .: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1986.
  • Idleness is the beginning of all happiness . With drawing. by Horst Janssen. Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe, 1985.
  • Sensations in the armchair. From the professional and love life of Germans . With drawing. by Tomi Ungerer and Hanno Engler. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1983.
  • Women in the afternoon . With drawing. by Margrit von Spreckelsen. Frankfurt a. M .: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1980.
  • Incredible unreasonable demands. New and used stories . Frankfurt a. M. u. a .: Ullstein, 1980.
  • At night when we sleep. 36 big city stories . With drawing. by Hans-Georg Rauch . Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe, 1977.
  • Celebrity portraits . Frankfurt a. M .: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1977.
  • (with Tomi Ungerer): Love services. Instructions for Killing - an unbreakable picture book for adults . Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe, 1976.
  • Too hot for a Monday. Dark stories . With drawing. by Pit Morell . Munich / Zurich: Piper, 1974.
  • With great respect. German prototypes . Munich: Piper, 1974.
  • Annoyances . With drawing. by Pit Morell. Munich / Vienna: Langen-Müller, 1971.
  • Amschel, the gypsy girl . With illustration by Dieter Lange. Vienna / Heidelberg: Ueberreuter, 1971.
  • Nebbich, holes in laughter . With drawing. by Pit Morell. Munich / Vienna: Langen-Müller, 1970.
  • Germany, your crooks. Logs from the underworld . With drawing. by Horst Janssen. Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe, 1970.
  • Conny and Pieps. Big vacation on an old ship . With illustration by Dieter Lange. Reutlingen: Ensslin & Laiblin, 1970.
  • Walks with celebrities . Zurich: Diogenes, 1969.
  • Whoa and the riddle in the vault . With illustration by Erich Hölle. Reutlingen: Ensslin & Laiblin, 1969.
  • Diary of an idler . Hamburg: Claassen, 1962.
  • News from the underworld . With offset lithographs by Dieter Huthmacher. Düsseldorf: Eremiten-Presse 1976.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Celebrity Graves. friedhof-hamburg.de
  2. ↑ Prize winners from 1962 to 1997. ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. BDZV @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bdzv.de
personal data
SURNAME Witter, Ben
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1993
Place of death Hamburg