Erich Köhler (Author)

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Erich Köhler (born December 28, 1928 in Taschwitz near Karlsbad , † July 16, 2003 in Alt Zauche ) was a German writer .

Life

Erich Köhler was the son of a porcelain grinder and a color printer . He grew up in the Egerland . After attending elementary school , he began teaching as a baker , tailor and painter between 1943 and 1945 , all of which he broke off. In 1946 Köhler moved to the Soviet occupation zone , where he worked in various places in agricultural and industrial companies in the following years. In 1949/50 he went on a hike through West Germany and the Netherlands . After the attempt to be accepted by the French Foreign Legion failed, Köhler returned to the GDR in 1950. There he became a member of FDJ , FDGB and DSF ; from 1950 to 1954 he worked underground in the uranium ore mining of Wismut AG in Marienberg and Oberschlema . From 1954 to 1955 he studied at the workers and farmers faculty in Leipzig . He then worked again in agriculture, this time in Marnitz, Mecklenburg . After he published his first book in 1956, Köhler studied from 1958 to 1961 at the "Johannes R. Becher" literature institute in Leipzig. In 1959 Köhler became a member of the SED . 1961/62 he worked again in the LPG Marnitz. From 1962 to 1968 he was a freelance writer . From 1968 to 1970 he was a salaried author at the Lübbenau power plant . He then worked again as a freelance writer in Alt Zauche until 1981 . The Erich Köhler House is located there today . From 1981 he was again employed as a writer, this time at VEG Radensdorf in the Spreewald ; In 1990 he was given early retirement .

Köhler was from 1972 to 1975 as IM "Fritz" and from 1975 to the end of the 1980s as IME "Heinrich" an unofficial employee of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR. Köhler's refusal to voluntarily leave the East German PEN after his Stasi involvement became known was one of the obstacles that blocked the unification of the West and East German PEN centers until 1998. In April 2002, Köhler was excluded from the PEN by a majority vote, a measure that he considered unjustified and against which the author fought until the end of his life. From 1997 he was a member of the German Communist Party .

Erich Köhler was the author of novels , short stories , dramas and essays . His narrative work initially consisted of conventional stories about social upheavals in agriculture in the early GDR; only in the course of the years did the author switch to fantastic forms which he put in the service of conveying moral messages. Köhler saw himself as a representative of a new type of proletarian revolutionary literature, the focus of which should be on the description of production. In the face of opposition in the SED, Köhler was able to achieve the change from freelance writer to author as a permanent employee, which he hoped would bring him closer to the workforce, at least for himself and for a time.

Erich Köhler was a member of the GDR Writers' Association from 1958 to 1990 .

Honors

Köhler received the following awards: 1957 the Fritz Reuter Art Prize of the City of Schwerin , 1964 the Art Prize of the FDGB, 1977 the Heinrich Mann Prize , 1988 the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze and in 1991 the honorary award of the German Schiller Foundation .

Works

  • The horse and its master. Berlin 1956
  • The devil's mill. Berlin 1958
  • Treasure hunter. Rostock 1964
  • Gold nose. Berlin 1965
  • Nils Harland. Rostock 1968
  • Platekatel-Banzkosumirade or The Search for the Lost Pin. Berlin 1973
  • The snake king. Berlin 1975
  • Behind the mountains. Rostock 1976
  • Der Krott or Das Ding unterm Hut. Rostock 1976
  • The thinking machine. Berlin 1979
  • Travel around the earth in eight days. Berlin 1979
  • Hartmut and Joana or a present for children. Rostock 1980
  • Kiplag stories. Berlin 1980
  • Nothing against Homer. Rostock 1986
  • The enchanted mountain. Berlin 1988
  • Stubborn and the German heart. Rostock 1990 (delivery only partially carried out)
  • Blow agoria. Berlin 1996
  • Sentences versus Black Book. Berlin 1998
  • Credo or How equal striving binds hero and poet. Berlin 2000
  • Sture and the German Heart - A Troll Novel. Kulturmaschinen Verlag, Berlin 2009
  • Radauer or rise and fall of Politania. Kulturmaschinen Verlag, Berlin 2010 (unpublished manuscript from the estate)

theatre

literature

  • Horst Lohr: On the function of mythical, fairy tale, legend and legend-like elements in the literature of the GDR of the sixties and seventies. Berlin 1981
  • Jürgen Tischer: Representation and design of the relationship between the individual and society in GDR literature. Erfurt 1985
  • Karsten Kruschel : Erich Köhler . In: Erik Simon , Olaf R. Spittel (ed.): The science fiction of the GDR. Authors and works. A lexicon. Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-360-00185-0 , pp. 170–172.
  • Tanja Hemme: The literary work of Erich Köhler. Kiel 1995
  • Martin Weskott : Behind the mountains of files, writers and state security using the example of Erich Köhler. Catlenburg 2002, ISBN 3-928407-84-8
  • Andreas Kölling:  Köhler, Erich . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Erich Köhler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Koehler, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Taschwitz near Karlsbad
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 2003
Place of death Alt Zauche