Claus Hammel

Claus Hammel (born December 4, 1932 in Parchim ; † April 12, 1990 in Ahrenshoop ) was a German playwright .

Life and work

Claus Hammel was the son of a master saddler. The family lived in Parchim until 1934 and then moved to Demmin , where Claus Hammel spent most of his childhood and youth. From 1949 he studied singing in West Berlin , but dropped out in 1950. In the same year he began to work for the FDJ in East Berlin on cultural policy. In 1955 he became a theater critic of New Germany , in 1957 editor of the literary magazine ndl and in 1959 an editorial assistant for Sonntag . Since 1972 Hammel was active in the artistic direction of the Volkstheater Rostock .

In 1958, Hammel made his debut as a playwright with Hier ist ein Neger zu lynchen , a new version of the play Street Corner by Hans Henny Jahnn . Many of his works are adaptations of prose, including Frau Jenny Treibel , which was commissioned by Theodor Fontane in 1964 . But Hammel's "Frau Jenny Treibel", like many other of his adaptations, shows clear differences to the novel in order to better correspond to the zeitgeist of the time and the ideology of the GDR.

Hammel became known beyond the GDR with his play At nine on the rollercoaster, which was also premiered in 1964 . In it he describes the story based on a true story of a girl who grew up as an adopted child in the GDR, goes to West Germany with her birth mother, but finally decides to return to the GDR. In the foreground is not the criticism of the Federal Republic, but the process of self-discovery of a young woman in divided Germany.

In addition to his work for the theater, Hammel also worked for DEFA . In 1966 he wrote the screenplay for Reise ins Marriage Bed with Joachim Hasler , and his play Le Faiseur or Waiting for Godeau (based on Honoré de Balzac ) was made into a film in 1974. As in many of his works, he criticizes capitalism in "Le Faiseur" and especially the manipulation of the bourgeoisie through false promises in advertising.

In 1978, Hammel honored the founder of the Cheka , Feliks Dzierżyński , in the form of the original reading of his work Reflections on Feliks D. at the Rostock Volkstheater. The artistic director was Hanns Anselm Perten , the reader was Hans-Peter Minetti .

Awards

• 1967: Erich Weinert Medal
• 1968: Lessing Prize of the GDR
• 1979: National Prize of the GDR for art and literature

Works (selection)

• 1958: A Negro is to be lynched here
• 1962: Fisher children
• 1964: Mrs. Jenny Treibel
• 1964: At nine on the roller coaster
• 1966: Journey to the marriage bed (film script)
• 1967: Tomorrow the chimney sweep comes
• 1967: A Yankee at King Arthur's court
• 1970: Le Faiseur or Waiting for Godeau , Premiere October 11, 1970 Deutsches Theater (Berlin)
• 1976: Rome or The Second Creation of the World
• 1977: The yellow window, the yellow stone , premiered January 16, 1977 in the Rostock Volkstheater
• 1978: Reflections on Feliks D.
• 1980: Humboldt and Bolivar or Der Neue Continent
• 1981: The Prussians arrive
• 1984: The locomotive in the asparagus field
• 1986: This country - and another
• 1987/88: The neighbor

literature

• Fritz Rödel: Claus Hammel . In: Hans Jürgen Geerdts (Hrsg.): Literature of the GDR in single representations (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 416). Kröner, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-520-41601-7 , pp. 473-489.
• Kurt Böttcher u. a. (Ed.): Meyers Taschenlexikon: Writers of the GDR. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1974, DNB 770509908 .
• Fritz Rödel: Claus Hammel. In: Hans-Jürgen Geerdts (Ed.): Literature of the GDR. Individual representations . People and Knowledge, Berlin 1976, DNB 540314595 .
• Gottfried Fischborn: piece writing. Claus Hammel, Heiner Müller, Armin Stolper . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1981, DNB 810655187

Remarks

1. ^ Based on the novel The Wedding of Länneken by Herbert Nachbar

Web links

• Literature by and about Claus Hammel in the catalog of the German National Library