Elisabeth Graul

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elisabeth Graul (born June 16, 1928 in Erfurt , † December 19, 2009 in Barleben near Magdeburg ) was a German writer and dissident .

Life

Elisabeth Graul grew up in Erfurt. As a child and adolescent she experienced the Nazi dictatorship and after 1945 wanted to help rebuild a democratic, humanistic society. That is why she closely followed the political developments that were emerging in the Soviet occupation zone .

As a student, she experienced growing political indoctrination and votes in Erfurt and Weimar , the results of which only came about under threats. In 1950 she continued her studies in West Berlin . However, she kept her residence in Erfurt. In order to get involved against the increasing political repression in the GDR , she joined the "Resistance Circle of the Youth of the Soviet Zone", which was coordinated from West Berlin.

The circle was a subsidiary organization of the “ Bund Deutscher Jugend ” (BDJ), a youth organization that appeared strictly anti-totalitarian and anti-communist with its own illegal apparatus, the so-called “Technical Service”, which was run by former Wehrmacht and SS members . This organization was founded by Paul Egon Lüth . However, Elisabeth Graul only found out about the existence of this secret apparatus much later after she was arrested by the GDR State Security .

Elisabeth Graul took on courier trips to the GDR and secretly transported leaflets. However, it came in contradiction to the politics of the BDJ and in particular to the intolerable political ideas of its founder Paul Lüth.

In the summer of 1951 she was arrested by employees of the State Security Service because of her membership in the "Resistance Circle of the Youth of the Soviet Zone" when she was visiting her hometown of Erfurt. This was followed by a stay in the central remand prison of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen . In February 1952 Elisabeth Graul and eleven co-defendants were sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Supreme Court of the GDR , presided over by the later Justice Minister Hilde Benjamin . Three of the co-defendants received life sentences. Elisabeth Graul spent almost ten years of her imprisonment in the Hoheneck women's prison . In 1962 she was released.

She then worked for 13 years at the Magdeburg Puppet Theater , first as a puppeteer and later as a director . From 1976 to 1994 she worked as a piano teacher at the Georg Philipp Telemann Music School in Magdeburg. Then she appeared as a freelance writer .

Publications

In her autobiography Die Farce , published in 1991, Elisabeth Graul describes her memories of her imprisonment in the GDR. Several volumes of poetry followed, as well as the novel Shalom for Magdalena , published in 2000 .

Works

  • The Farce - A Piece of Autobiography , Impuls-Verlag Magdeburg 1991
  • I burn and I will always burn - poems , Hockenheim, Edition L. 1996
  • Be a tower keeper - Poems , Hockenheim, Edition L. 1997
  • Blue Morning Glory - A Reading Book , Oschersleben, Dr.-Ziethen-Verlag 1998
  • Bird songs - mostly cheerful - poems , Calbe, Cuno-Druck 1999
  • Shalom for Magdalena - Roman . Hanser Verlag 2000

CD

In the lyric performance I burn and I will always burn , which deals thematically with language and music with the poetry book of the same name from the time of her political imprisonment in the GDR, the type of musical design behind the word creates hidden dimensions of prisoners audible. The Leipzig actor Jörg Dathe and the Dreiländer Quartet, with the musicians Warnfried Altmann (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone), Bernd Born (baritone saxophone, clarinet), Peter Koch (violoncello) and Hans-Christoph Winckel (double bass), are implementing this problem an impressive work of art that, in its chamber music form with partly composed and improvised sections, produces a great emotional effect.

Radio

documentary

  • The farce - story of an arrest , documentary film by Thomas Gaevert. - Production: Schiwago-Film in cooperation with Landesheimatbund Sachsen-Anhalt e. V., Harz University / Department of Media Informatics, Saxony-Anhalt Literature Office, State Center for Political Education and Lotto-Toto GmbH Saxony-Anhalt - color + b / w, 30 minutes - premiere: February 13, 2002, Palais am Fürstenwall, Magdeburg, in of the series "Art in the Palais"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical Lexicon / dissidents.eu
personal data
SURNAME Graul, Elisabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and dissident
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfurt
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 2009
Place of death Barleben near Magdeburg