Egon Günther
Egon Günther (born March 30, 1927 in Schneeberg (Ore Mountains) , † August 31, 2017 in Potsdam ) was a German film director and writer .
Life
Egon Günther came from a working-class family. He completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith and then worked as a technical draftsman in a design office. 1944/45 Günther took as a soldier of the Wehrmacht at the World War II in part and got into the Netherlands in captivity , managed to escape from him. After the end of the war he initially worked as a new teacher in the Soviet occupation zone . From 1948 to 1951 was followed by a study of pedagogy , German studies and philosophy at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig ; then he worked again as a teacher. In 1952 his son Thomas was born, who emerged as a poet after reprisals in the GDR and worked as an art dealer and publisher in Berlin after the fall of the Wall - died in 2018. He later switched to publishing. There he became a lecturer at Mitteldeutscher Verlag in Halle / Saale . From 1958 he worked as a playwright , screenwriter and director for the film studio Babelsberg the DEFA operates; from 1961 he lived as a freelance writer and director in Potsdam-Babelsberg .
Since the 1960s, Günther's literary work, who had published short stories and novels since 1953 , took a back seat to his work for film and television. Gunther wrote a number of scripts and led from 1961 also self- directed in feature film production of the DEFA . Ever since the ban on satire When you are grown up, dear Adam in 1965, the director repeatedly had problems with the GDR censorship when filming contemporary subjects ; on the other hand, his literary adaptations were great successes. His collaboration on the screenplay " Chingachgook, the big snake " remained unnamed, he only appeared on the record as the author of the lyrics (not used in the film). He also wrote the text of the Christmas carol "Stars over silent streets". From 1965 he worked with the writer and screenwriter Helga Schütz , with whom he also had a private relationship.
A particularly productive working relationship with actress Jutta Hoffmann shaped six great cinema and television films by Egon Günther from 1969 to 1978. When he was accused of the allegedly unrealistic imagery of his film Ursula in 1978 , Günther responded by leaving the GDR's Association of Film and Television Workers . He left the country (but kept his GDR passport) and in the following years only worked on West German film and television productions. He only returned to the GDR in 1990. Even after the reunification he made a number of feature films , of which the bride , the story of Goethe's lover and later wife Christiane Vulpius , caused a sensation. Günther also worked as a lecturer at the Potsdam-Babelsberg Film Academy . He last lived in Groß Glienicke with his third wife and daughter .
The director Egon Günther and the actress Inge Keller were invited to a reading on the occasion of a screening of Arnold Zweig's novel Junge Frau von 1914 in the Tilsiter Lichtspiele cinema on July 16, 2009 .
Egon Günther was a member of the SED and the GDR Writers' Association . In 2014 he was honored with a star on the Boulevard der Stars in Berlin.
Awards
- 1971 - National 3rd class award for his achievements as a director in film and television
- 1972 - Main prize of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for the film The Third
- 1972 - Silver Lion of San Marco for the film The Third
- 1974 - TV film award of the German Academy of Performing Arts for the best overall performance in education before Verdun (together with his team)
- 1983 - Honorable recognition at the Adolf Grimme Prize for Exile (together with Robert Muller and Gérard Vandenberg )
- 1993 - Special prize from the Minister of Culture of North Rhine-Westphalia at the Adolf Grimme Prize for Lenz
- 1999 - Honorary Prize of the German Film Prize in Gold for his complete works
- 2002 - Prize for services to German film from the DEFA Foundation
- 2016 - Honorary citizenship of the city of Schneeberg, ended by death in 2017.
Works of fiction
- Till , Halle (Saale) 1953
- Mason class 3c , Leipzig 1954 (together with Werner Persicke)
- Flanders Final , Halle (Saale) 1955
- Five games based on the Brothers Grimm , Leipzig 1955
- The future sits at the table , Halle (Saale) 1955 (together with Reiner Kunze )
- The adventures of the brave little tailor , Leipzig 1957
- Level to the ground , Halle / Saale 1957
- The bought girl , Leipzig 1957
- The Cretan War , Halle (Saale) 1957
- The black limousine , Berlin 1963
- Don't shoot! , Berlin 1964
- Combat rule , Berlin 1970
- Returning from a great distance , Berlin 1970
- The strange circumstances of the Marquise von O , Berlin 1972
- Once to Carthage and back , Berlin [and others] 1974
- Reitschule , Berlin [ao] 1981
- Der Pirat , Berlin [et al.] 1988
- Rosamunde (= Bastei-Lübbe-Taschenbuch , Volume 13279, General Series ), Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1990, ISBN 3-404-13279-3 .
- Palazzo Vendramin, Richard Wagner's last love, novel, Gustav Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1993, ISBN 3-7857-0688-X .
- The bride (= assembly paperbacks , volume 1547), assembly, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-7466-1547-X .
- Richard Wagner's last love , novel (= assembly paperbacks , 1692), assembly, Berlin ISBN 3-7466-1692-1 .
Edits
- Erwin F. Albrecht : The Lions of Cyrenaica , Leipzig 1954
- Yü-hsiang Ch'ao : Two viewpoints , Leipzig 1959
- Klaus Günther: The flag , Leipzig 1954
- Peter Karvaš : People on our street , Halle (Saale) 1953
- Igor V. Lukovskij : The triple knot , Leipzig 1955
- Albert Maltz : The election , Leipzig 1954
- Martin Selber : The drum girl , Leipzig 1955
- Isidor Stok : The Devil's Mill , Leipzig 1957
- Ivan Turgenew : Lack of money , Leipzig 1954
- Aleksandr W. Uljaninski : A decisive day , Leipzig 1959
- Aleksandr W. Uljaninski: Urlaub , Leipzig 1954
- About the bad wolf, the frog prince, a book of fairy tales and other strange things , Leipzig 1954
Filmography
- 1961: The Stranger
- 1961: The dress (together with Konrad Petzold )
- 1963: Now and in the Hour of My Death (screenplay)
- 1964: Alaskan Foxes
- 1965: Lot's wife
- 1965: When you grow up, dear Adam
- 1968: Farewell
- 1970: Young Woman from 1914 (TV movie)
- 1971: the third
- 1971: Inrun (TV film)
- 1973: Education before Verdun (TV film)
- 1974: the keys
- 1975: Lotte in Weimar
- 1976: The suffering of young Werther
- 1978: Ursula (TV)
- 1978: Weimar, you wonderful
- 1979: Blauvogel (as a performer)
- 1980: exile
- 1981: I can confess to you
- 1983: Morenga
- 1983: Hanna from eight to eight
- 1984: mom's birthday
- 1985: the last role
- 1988: local history museum
- 1988: Rosamunde
- 1991: stone
- 1992: Lenz
- 1999: Else
- 1999: the bride
literature
- Leonore Krenzlin, Bernd-Rainer Barth : Günther, Egon . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
- Ralf Schenk: For the 90th birthday of the director and novelist Egon Günther . In: Das Blättchen , 20th year, No. 8 from April 10, 2017
Web links
- Literature by and about Egon Günther in the catalog of the German National Library
- Egon Günther in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Egon Günther at filmportal.de
- Egon Günther in the online director's guide
- Text and melody of the song "Stars over silent streets"
- Jutta Hoffmann on the death of Egon Günther on MDR KULTUR
Individual evidence
- ↑ Egon Günther is dead , in: Tagesspiegel from August 31, 2017.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Günther, Egon |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Günther, Hermann Egon (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German film director and writer |
DATE OF BIRTH | March 30, 1927 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Schneeberg |
DATE OF DEATH | August 31, 2017 |
Place of death | Potsdam |