Eduard Zak

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Eduard Zak (born December 7, 1906 in Linz , † May 15, 1979 in Berlin ) was an Austrian writer, translator and critic.

Zak is best known in Germany for his translations of the works of the French author Robert Merle (Moncada: Fidel Castro's 1st Battle; The Island; A Reasonable Animal ; Malevil ) .

Life

Zak comes from a bohemian family. During his school days in Linz from 1912 onwards , he met the later photographer Heinrich Heidersberger , with whom he was to become a long-term friend. After leaving school there was a conflict in the Zak family. Since Zak's father had studied law, he also requested this from his son Eduard, who only reluctantly accepted his request. Between 1926 and 1931 Zak studied law and philology in Graz, Paris and Vienna.

Between 1927 and 1928 Zak moved with Heidersberger to Paris, where they first lived with a British nurse in the Hôtel Dorian in Rue de Vaugirard . Zak devoted himself extensively to the study of pre-Surrealist writings, in particular the work The Chants of Maldoror by the French poet Comte de Lautréamont .

In 1930 Zak joined the Austrian Communist Party .

Zak returned to his birthplace in Linz with Heidersberger in 1931. Heidersberger and the playwright Franz Pühringer founded a literary cabaret there in the same year, which they called "Thermopylae" based on a battle of the Persian Wars. Zak worked in cabaret alongside Heidersberger, Pühringer, Gretl Burgasser and Stiegler.

Zak then moved to The Hague , where he met again with Heidersberger, Giesegen and the Swiss writer Ludwig Hohl , whom Heidersberger knew from his time in Paris. Because of political activities Zak was expelled from Holland in 1934 and settled in Germany. Zak, who had sympathized with communism since his time in Paris, was arrested in Hamburg in the autumn of 1934. In the autumn of 1935 Zak was arrested again and remained imprisoned in the Fuhlsbüttel correctional facility until March 1936 . He then returned to Austria. After the annexation of Austria , Zak was drafted for military service and served in the Wehrmacht between 1940 and 1945 . After the end of the war, he was taken prisoner by the United States, from which he was released in 1946.

Zak, who had already met his future wife, the writer Annemarie Auer (1913–2002) in 1939 , moved to East Berlin in the Soviet occupation zone , where he worked as a writer, translator and literary editor (including the Sunday newspaper ) from 1946 .

In 1949 Zak ​​contributed with Das Telegram one of thirty stories for the short story anthology Thousand Gramms, published by Wolfgang Weyrauch , in which works by important authors of the Kahlschlag literature are collected. In the late 1960s and 1970s he translated several works by the writer Robert Merle from French.

Eduard Zak died in Berlin in 1979. His wife noted on the back of a photo in retrospect in 1998:

“Here is this deeply thinking, highly gifted Eduard Zak, who began his life in 1950 (visiting the Stasi), high offers that Eduard Zak rejected with a categorical NO. He was placed on the translation slave chain until his death on May 15, 1979. Fiction for Zak as well as for me Annemarie Auer did not receive a war contract. Both authorship was destroyed. "

- Annemarie Auer

Works (selection)

Own works

  • Eduard Zak: Morning light and shadow: Roman . Payne, Leipzig 1940.
  • Eduard Zak: The poet Peter Huchel : attempt to portray his lyrical work . New Life Publishing House , Berlin 1953.
  • Eduard Zak: Land on the Havel . Sachsenverlag , Dresden 1953.
  • Eduard Zak: Wetterfichten on the Kahleberg: Hikes and encounters in the eastern Ore Mountains . Sachsenverlag, Dresden 1955.
  • Eduard Zak; Hans-Joachim Else: Beacon over Kolumbari . German military publisher , Berlin 1964.

Translations

  • Jelle Schippers: Unrest on the quay . Karl Dietz Verlag Berlin , Berlin 1963; Translation from the Dutch by Eduard Zak.
  • Pierre Courtade: Two dozen oysters . Volk und Welt publishing house , Berlin 1963; Translation from the French by Eduard Zak.
  • Robert Merle : Moncada: Fidel Castro's 1st battle . Aufbau-Verlag , Berlin, Weimar 1968; Translation from the French by Eduard Zak.
  • Robert Merle: The Island . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, Weimar 1970; Translation from the French by Eduard Zak.
  • Robert Merle: A rational animal . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, Weimar 1971; Translation from the French by Eduard Zak.
  • Vercors : The raft of the Medusa . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, Weimar 1971; Translation from the French by Eduard Zak.
  • Jean Thibaudeau: May 68 in France . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, Weimar 1972; Translation from the French by Eduard Zak.
  • Robert Merle: Malevil . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, Weimar 1975; Translation from the French by Eduard Zak.

Awards

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Berlin Bibliography (1978 to 1984) in the Berlin Senate Library, Volume 69 By Ute Schäfer, Rainald Stromeyer. Retrieved January 22, 2010 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Stations of a life. The cosmopolitan Heinrich Heidersberger. Retrieved January 22, 2010 .
  3. ↑ Switzerland: between desire and reality. By Jattie Enklaar and Hans Ester. Retrieved January 22, 2010 .
  4. ↑ F. C. Weiskopf Prize - List of Prize Winners. Retrieved January 22, 2010 .
personal data
SURNAME Zak, Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Linz
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1979
Place of death Berlin