Donrowyn Namdag

Donrowyn Namdag ( Mongolian Донровын Намдаг ; * 1911 ; † March 10, 1984 ) was a Mongolian writer .

Life

Born into a family of poor cattle herders, Namdag learned the Mongolian script as a boy and entered the first middle school in Ulan Bator in 1925 . In the following year he was one of the forty young Mongols who were able to start training in Germany (some also in Paris). By the spring of 1930, Namdag was one of ten students who studied at the Wickersdorf Free School Community in Thuringia, which was considered one of the best reform schools of the Weimar Republic . There special emphasis was placed on musical education - the later well-known publisher Peter Suhrkamp headed the theater group. It stands to reason that this is where the seed was laid for Namdag's lifelong love and close ties to the theater.

In 1931 the State Theater was founded in Ulan Bator, where Namdag was employed from the very beginning and for many years of his life. But in 1932 he was arrested as a member of the "subversive Natsagdordsch group" and was not released until 1934. In the theater he worked as an actor, dramaturge and director, staging plays by Sonombaldschiryn Bujannemech (1902–37) and Daschdordschiin Natsagdordsch , with whom he also wrote the satirical play “I wasn't it” (1934). Other stage works followed, as "The Wolf Pack" (1939) and "The Three Scharaigol khans" (1941), which on an episode of the Mongols well familiar " Gezer " -Epos, the singing from the successful struggle of the title character against the enemy Khane , is based. The play has long been part of the permanent repertoire of Mongolian theaters, although Namdag was arrested again in 1941 on absurd accusations and was imprisoned until 1946. After his release, Namdag wrote other plays, including - with other authors - for children's and youth theater. It was not until 1958, at a time of ideological "thaw", that it was fully rehabilitated. From 1959 the author worked for the Writers' Union, where he made special contributions to the promotion of young literary talents, and again at the Staatsschauspiel.

plant

Today Namdag, who was over 50 years old (until 1964) attended the Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow, is probably the most important Mongolian playwright. Since the 1960s he has written numerous plays that mostly raise ethical questions and are characterized by in-depth psychological analysis of the characters and convincing conflict management. They made a major contribution to overcoming an often didactic-agitational tendency of the previous Mongolian drama. Mentioned are u. a. "In the New House" (1965), "Before the Decision", "The Clash" and "The Professor's Lesson" (1975). In addition to about thirty plays, Namdag wrote opera libretti, film stories and poems.

The author also gained importance as a narrator. In 1960 his volume of short stories "Das teure Bild" and the novel "Unruhige Zeiten" appeared, which artistically convincingly depicts the fates of representatives of different social classes against the background of the unfolding revolution of 1921 and is one of the most successful Mongolian novels. Of his stories, "In expectation of a dead" (1962, German 1976) and "The twofold death of a living being" (1983) are particularly noteworthy. In them, Namdag succeeds in a psychologically convincing, sensitive portrayal of characters that is rarely found in older Mongolian authors.

Along with Natsagdordsch, Tsendiin Damdinsüren and Bjambyn Rintschen, Namdag is one of the continuing identities of Mongolia's artistic intelligence.

translation

• in: Explorations. 20 Mongolian stories, (East) Berlin 1976.

literature

• in: Klaus Oehmichen, Broken Biographies, Mongolian Notes, issue 15/2006

Mongolian name: As is customary in Mongolia, in this article the patronymic is in the genitive case before the proper name. So Donrow is the patronymic , Namdag the proper name. The person is addressed with their proper name.