Erich Loest

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Erich Loest, 2008

Erich Loest [ løːst ] (born February 24, 1926 in Mittweida , Free State of Saxony , † September 12, 2013 in Leipzig ) was a German writer . He also wrote under pseudonyms .

Pseudonyms

Loest has published numerous books under the pseudonyms Hans Walldorf and Waldemar Naß . Bernd Diksen's attribution is contradictory . In the overview of The Criminal History of the GDR , Loest's authorship is considered a “persistent, fictitious legend”. Reference works and specialist publications are in favor of either Loest or Werner Dembski .

Origin, family, way of writing

Erich Loest's parents' house in Mittweida am Pfarrberg 12

Erich Loest's parents owned a hardware store. He attended elementary school in Mittweida from 1932 and high school from 1936. In 1936 he joined the Hitler Youth (HJ) and became the youth leader . Loest addressed these personal experiences in 1981 in his autobiographical text Durch die Erde ein Riss - Ein Lebenslauf . According to his information, he applied for membership in the NSDAP in 1944 . The recording took place on April 20 of that year. He wanted to join the Waffen SS , but this failed because his headmaster did not approve.

Loest was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1944. According to his own statement, he was deployed behind the American lines with the werewolf towards the end of the war . He had a personal say in the ZDF series "ZDF History" in the episode "Organization" Werewolf "- Hitler's last contingent". He came on May 6, 1945 in Bischofteinitz in US captivity . After a short imprisonment, Loest worked in agriculture and as an unskilled worker in the Leuna Works in 1945 . He made up his Abitur and became a member of the SED in 1947 . From 1948 to 1950 he worked as a journalist for the Leipziger Volkszeitung . In 1949 he married his first wife Annelies, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.

Writer, imprisonment

Erich Loest, 1955

He has been a freelance writer since the publication of his first book Boys Who Leftovers in 1950. In the mid-1950s he studied at the Johannes R. Becher Literature Institute in Leipzig.

A defining event for Loest was the uprising on June 17, 1953 . In November 1957 Loest was for alleged " counter-revolutionary group formation" in the context of discussions about the Stalinization arrested and on 14 November 1957, seven and a half years prison sentenced. He served this sentence in Halle and in Bautzen II prison . During this time he had no access to paper and pens, which amounted to a writing ban. While in detention, he suffered a stomach disease.

After his release from prison in September 1964 - in the meantime (August 1961) the wall had been built - Loest worked again as a writer and published a number of novels (including very popular detective novels under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf ) and short stories in the GDR . The biographical novel Swallow, my brave Mustang about the Saxon writer Karl May , who was reviled by the GDR leadership at the time, and the unusual Nazi satire Ich war Dr. Ley , written as a memoir of his fictional doppelganger.

In protest against the censorship of his novel Es geht seine Gang oder Mühlen im Our Ebene , which was published in April 1978 by Mitteldeutscher Verlag Halle and Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart, the author resigned from the GDR Writers' Association in autumn 1979 . The protagonist of the novel, which takes place in 1974/75, is Wolfgang Wülff, an engineer who lives with his wife and daughter in Leipzig's October district.

Departure to the west

Because Loest was exposed to great reprisals because of his opposition stance, he moved to the Federal Republic in March 1981. He first settled in Osnabrück and from 1987 lived in Bonn - Bad Godesberg . In November 1988 he visited the GDR (Leipzig) for the first time. Apart from Swallow and the subsequent editions, he published his books only in West German publishers. In the 1980s he was involved in the West German Association of German Writers (VS), but he disapproved of its indulgent attitude towards the GDR rulers . On December 15, 1989, Loest read again for the first time in Leipzig, in Gohlis Castle.

Linden Publishing House

In 1987 he founded the Linden publishing house in Künzelsau with his son and daughter-in-law . He mainly publishes Loest's own works and has been based in Leipzig since 1989. Loest litigated his son for book rights, but lost in court.

Erich Loest at the Leipzig Book Fair , 2006

Return to Leipzig

Loest, who was fully rehabilitated by the GDR Supreme Court in April 1990 after the fall of the Wall , had also had his second residence in Leipzig since 1990. From 1994 to 1997 he was chairman of the Association of German Writers . "His greatest success in office was the initiative for German-Polish reconciliation, a piece of reparation for the failures of his predecessors." Since 1998 he has been based exclusively in Leipzig again. Erich Loest was a member of the Saxon Academy of the Arts and a member of the PEN Center Germany and the Else Lasker Student Society .

plant

Erich Loest was an important representative of realistic German-language literature in the second half of the 20th century. In his novels and stories he also dealt with historical and legendary characters from his Saxon homeland, such as the folk hero Karl Stülpner . Since the late 1980s, Loest's main theme has been the division and reunification of Germany, as well as the history of the city of Leipzig. His screenplay “ Nikolaikirche ” (later also published as a novel ) was filmed as a successful multi-part television program. In addition to his political novels, Loest has also written numerous crime novels and travel feuilletons .

Historical-political engagement

Loest raised his voice on political questions that deal with dealing with the cultural heritage of the GDR. He campaigned for the rebuilding of the Paulinerkirche (Leipzig) (which was blown up on May 30, 1968). He advocated banning works of art from the GDR era from the public. So he turned in open letters to the media and politicians against the restoration of the bronze relief Aufbruch of the Karl Marx University in Leipzig and against the painting Working Class and Intelligence by Werner Tübke ; both belong to the collection of the university custody. In 2012 he received the Hohenschönhausen Prize from the Friends of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial for his services to come to terms with the SED dictatorship .

Transfer of Loest's coffin to Mittweida
The grave of Erich Loest and his wife in Mittweida

End of life

On September 29, 2010, on the occasion of the award ceremony for the Kulturgroschen in Berlin , Loest announced for his “outstanding artistic and political commitment”: “Today marks the festive conclusion to my artistic and political activities.” He is no longer novels or lengthy stories expected. His book Man is No More Eighty , published in 2011, contained diary entries from August 2008 to September 2010.

In the last years of his life, Loest was seriously ill. On September 12, 2013, Erich Loest died at the age of 87 in the Leipzig University Hospital after falling out of the window; according to the police investigation, it was a suicide . Loest was buried in the new cemetery in his birthplace Mittweida at the side of his first wife Annelies (1930–1997). The eulogy held Werner Schulz in the Nikolai Church (Leipzig) .

Works

Books

Titles under the pseudonym Bernd Diksen appear separately at the end of this list.

  • Boys who were left. Leipzig 1950, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, ISBN 978-3-95462-065-4 .
  • Night over the lake and other short stories. Leipzig 1950.
  • Love stories. Leipzig 1951.
  • The Westmark continues to fall. Halle (Saale) 1952.
  • Sports stories. Halle (Saale) 1953.
  • The year of the exam. Halle (Saale) 1954.
  • Action boomerang. Halle (Saale) 1957.
  • Slivovitz and fear. Berlin 1965.
  • I was dr Ley. Berlin 1966 (under the pseudonym Waldemar Naß )
  • The killer was at Wembley Stadium. Halle (Saale) 1967 (under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf )
  • Gun carousel. Berlin 1968 (under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf )
  • Help through tendrils. Berlin 1968 ( Blaulicht 93, under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf )
  • The slope. Berlin 1968.
  • Oil for Malta. Berlin 1968.
  • The eleventh man. Halle (Saale) 1969.
  • Painting with inlay. Berlin 1969 (Blaulicht 105, under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf )
  • Beautiful woman and chain mail. Berlin 1969 (Blaulicht 107, under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf )
  • Blackmail with curves. Berlin 1970 (Blaulicht 119, under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf )
  • Oakins and the Elephant. Berlin 1972 (Blaulicht 137, under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf )
  • With the smallest caliber. Halle (Saale) 1973 (under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf )
  • Shadow boxing. Berlin 1973. Also as Roman newspaper 1976.
  • Wildslayer and Big Snake. Berlin 1974.
  • Into the open knife. Berlin 1974.
  • A ball made of zinc. Berlin 1974 (Blaulicht 157, under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf )
  • Stage Rome. Berlin 1975.
  • Oakins is making a career. Berlin 1975.
  • Red ivory. Halle (Saale) 1975 (under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf )
  • The grandma in the dinghy. Berlin 1976.
  • It goes its course or toil on our level. Halle et al. 1978.
  • Rendezvous with Syrena. Halle et al. 1978 (together with Gerald Große).
  • Gun at sixteen. Hamburg 1979.
  • Swallow, my brave Mustang. Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, Hamburg 1980.
  • A crack through the earth. Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-455-04523-5 .
  • [add. with Heinz Klunker :] Hard pace. The rise and fall of the novel "It goes its way or its toil on our level" - a piece of GDR literary politics. Cologne 1983.
  • Völkerschlachtdenkmal. Hamburg 1984.
  • The fourth censor. Cologne 1984.
  • Orderly retreats. Hanover 1984.
  • Heartbeat. Niddatal 1984.
  • The mice of Dr. Ley. Olten 1984.
  • Onion pattern. Hamburg 1985.
  • Leipzig is inexhaustible. Paderborn 1985.
  • Key West season. Munich et al. 1986.
  • Brother Franz. Paderborn et al. 1986.
  • A Saxon in Osnabrück. Freiburg i. Br. 1986.
  • Frog concert. Munich et al. 1987 (filmed as Die Frosch-Intrige , ZDF 1990)
  • The bridge over the Lipper Ley. (Radio play, Hessischer Rundfunk) 1987.
  • A romantic trip around the world. Künzelsau 1988.
  • Crime scene: Haunted ice age . (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) 1988.
  • Height of fall. Künzelsau 1989.
  • A romantic trip through Europe. Künzelsau 1989.
  • Stomach shots. Künzelsau 1990.
  • The wrath of the sheep. Künzelsau 1990.
  • The Stasi was my corner man or: my life with the bug. Göttingen 1991.
  • Today comes a visitor from the west. Goettingen 1992.
  • Hangover breakfast. Leipzig 1992.
  • Islands of Dreams. Künzelsau 1993.
  • Onions for the father of the country. Goettingen 1994.
  • Nikolaikirche (filmed under the same title , 1995)
  • When we came to the west. Stuttgart 1997.
  • Good comrades. Leipzig 1999.
  • Reichsgericht , Leipzig 2001
  • Dreams of a frontier worker. Stuttgart 2001.
  • Summer thunderstorm. Göttingen 2005.
  • The killer was at Wembley Stadium. Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-86521-250-6 (revision of the edition by Mitteldeutscher Verlag Halle from 1967 based on a review by the author of the locations in London and the 2006 soccer World Cup in Germany ).
  • Litigation costs. Göttingen 2007.
  • Once in exile and back. Göttingen 2008.
  • Laundry basket. Göttingen 2009.
  • Lion City. Göttingen 2009.
  • You're not eighty anymore. Steidl, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-86930-236-2 .
  • Work edition. Künzelsau and others
    • Vol. 1. Boys Who Were Left Over. 1991.
    • Vol. 2. The eleventh man. 1992.
    • Vol. 3. Shadow boxes. 1993.
    • Vol. 4. Onion Pattern. 1994.
    • Vol. 5. Swallow, my brave Mustang. 1996.
    • Vol. 6. The mice of Dr. Ley. 2000.
  • Better to go wrong a hundred times. Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-86930-665-0 .
Books under the pseudonym Bernd Diksen, controversial authorship
  • Half death. Berlin 1970 ( DIE series )
  • The killer wore sandals. Berlin 1970.
  • The loser pays. Berlin 1971. (DIE series)
  • The prejudice. Berlin 1974. (THE series)
  • Empty hands. Berlin 1976. (THE series)

Radio plays and features

  • 1974: Correspondence with a colleague ; together with Gerhard Zwerenz (Hessischer Rundfunk)
  • 1975: A lecturer's business trip (GDR radio) Director: Horst Liepach
  • 1976: A gentleman from Berlin (Hessischer Rundfunk) Director: Mathias Neumann
  • 1979: A very old story (Hessischer Rundfunk / Radio Bremen) Director: Hans Drawe
  • 1979: Thirty-five fried eggs or a very good girl (manuscript discarded by the radio of the GDR on October 10, 1979 with a remuneration fee)
  • 1980: Messerstecher (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) Director: Heinz Wilhelm Schwarz
  • 1983: Schlesisches Himmelreich (Hessischer Rundfunk / Sender Free Berlin / Süddeutscher Rundfunk) Director: Jörg Jannings
  • 1985: Froschkonzert (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) Director: Otto Düben
  • 1986: Hermannsbrötchen (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) Director: Otto Düben
  • 1987: Die Brücke am Lipper Ley (Hessischer Rundfunk) Director: Günther Sauer
  • 1990: The Stasi was my Eckermann or: my life with the bug - Director: Hans Peter Klausenitzer ( Feature - DLF )
  • 1991: One friend less (SachsenRadio / Westdeutscher Rundfunk) Director: Peter Groeger
  • 1991: I've never had champagne (Sachsenradio / Norddeutscher Rundfunk) Director: Klaus Zippel
  • 1992: But deliver us from evil (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk) Director: Horst Liepach
  • 1999: Good Comrades (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk) Director: Peter Groeger
  • 2009: Ratzel dines in the 'Falco' revolutionary radio play (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk 2009) Director: Wolfgang Rindfleisch

Readings on sound carriers

  • 2002: Erich Loest reads from his books: “It goes its way”, “Völkerschlachtdenkmal”, “Nikolaikirche”, “Reichsgericht”. CD, 65 min., MCS Sachsen Dresden
  • 2006: summer thunderstorm. Read by Erich Loest, Ursula Karusseit and Maria Simon , directed by Rainer Schwarz , 6 CDs, 420 min., MDR FIGARO / Steidl, ISBN 3-86521-505-X
  • 2020: A crack through the earth - A curriculum vitae , unabridged reading with Kurt Böwe , director: Matthias Thalheim, 2 mp3 CDs, 6 h 49 min., SachsenRadio 1990 / Der Audio Verlag 2020, ISBN 978-3-7424-1455- 7 .

Awards

Literary prizes

Honors

Posthumous honors

  • 2016: The Leipzig district library Gohlis was given the name Erich Loest on the occasion of its 90th birthday .
  • 2016: On the occasion of his 90th birthday, the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig launched the Erich Loest Prize , which will be awarded every two years from 2017 on February 24th, Loest's birthday.

literature

  • Andrea Sahlmen: The vehicle of the imagination. Frankfurt am Main 1992.
  • It went its way. Cologne 1996.
  • Erich Loest on his 70th birthday. Leipzig 1996.
  • Marie-Geneviève Gerrer: Le thème de l'autorité chez un écrivain saxon de RDA. Nancy 1996.
  • Gudrun Schneider-Nehls: Cross-border commuters in Germany. Potsdam 1997.
  • Sabine Brandt: From the black market to St. Nikolai. Leipzig 1998.
  • It goes its way ... - Erich Loest, the GDR and the story of a novel. Sound carrier, ed. by the Federal Foundation for Work-Up and Deutschlandfunk , 2003
  • Kulturstiftung Leipzig (Ed.): Leipziger Blätter, special issue: Erich Loest. A German biography. Leipzig 2007.
  • Regine Möbius: Word Power and Word of Power. Political Loest. Plöttner Verlag, Leipzig 2009.
  • Short biography for:  Loest, Erich . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Bernhard M. Baron : Erich Loest - a werewolf in the Upper Palatinate. A reminiscence. In: Oberpfälzer Heimat . Vol. 56, Weiden id OPf. 2012, ISBN 978-3-939247-19-7 , pp. 209-224.
  • Erich Loest: Gentle horror. Diary 2011–2013. With an addendum by Linde Rotta . Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2014, ISBN 978-3-95462-196-5 .
  • Erich Loest: The eleventh man . Novel. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2018, ISBN 978-3-96311-041-2 .

Web links

Commons : Erich Loest  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus Behling : The criminal history of the GDR. Berlin 2017, p. 298, digitized
  2. ↑ Kindler's literary history of the present. The literature of the German Democratic Republic. Munich, Zurich 1971, pp. 349, 579. - Killy Literature Lexicon , Volume 7, 2nd edition 2010, p. 485, digitized . - Walter Schmitz, Jörg Bernig (editor): German-German literary exile. Writers from the GDR in the Federal Republic. Dresden 2009, pp. 588, 750. - Gerhard Schilling: East German crime literature after the turn. A thematic and genre-historical investigation. Dissertation, Marburg 2013, p. 218, digitized
  3. ↑ Kürschner's German Literature Calendar, 1984 . Berlin / New York 1984, p. 207. - Wilhelm Kosch, German Literature Lexicon. The 20th century. Volume 6, Zurich / Munich 2004, Spp. 57, 259 f. - Jörg Weigand: pseudonyms. A lexicon. Code names of the authors of German-language narrative literature. Baden-Baden, p. 53. - Achim Saupe: The historian as a detective - the detective as a historian. History, forensics and National Socialism as a detective novel. Dissertation, Berlin 2007, p. 347, digitized
  4. ↑ Hometown Mittweida. In: YouTube. Retrieved November 1, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Erich Loest: Through the earth a crack. Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-455-04523-5 , u. a. P. 13 ff.
  6. ^ Author Erich Loest was a member of the NSDAP. ( Memento of December 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Free Press , February 7, 2011.
  7. ↑ "Truth must always come out" - Erich Loest about his friend Günter Grass and the Waffen-SS. In: Nordwest-Zeitung Online, August 15, 2006.
  8. ↑ Exile Archives
  9. ↑ FAZ.net June 8, 2008
  10. ↑ Jana Kučerová: German Wenderoman and Erich Loest PDF, pp. 27 & 45
  11. ↑ a b Matthias Biskupek : The lives of men. Reviews u. a. at litigation costs. In: Eulenspiegel , 53./61. Vol., No. 11/07, ISSN  0423-5975 , p. 52.
  12. ↑ Jana Kučerová: German Wenderoman and Erich Loest PDF, p. 10
  13. ↑ http://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/video329902.html
  14. ^ Deutsche Welle September 13, 2013: Literature: Erich Loest: Chronicler of German History
  15. ↑ Erich Loest died. In: FAZ.NET of September 13, 2013. Accessed on September 13, 2013.
  16. ^ Suffering from the division of Germany , Neue Presse Coburg, September 14, 2013
  17. ↑ Hannes Schwenger : Upright walk and lintel. On tagesspiegel.de of September 13, 2013. Accessed September 15, 2013.
  18. ↑ stiftung-hsh.de ( Memento of the original from October 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stiftung-hsh.de
  19. ↑ ARD - Videotext p. 402 of September 29, 2010.
  20. ↑ taz.de
  21. ^ Writer: Author Erich Loest is dead Die Zeit, September 12, 2013
  22. ↑ East German writer dead: Author Erich Loest throws himself out of the window. Focus Online website. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  23. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Erich Loest
  24. ↑ LVZ (with link to the pdf of the funeral speech)
  25. ↑ rewi.hu-berlin.de ( Memento of the original from December 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Review of Erich Loest: Reichsgericht by Thomas Henne @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / fhi-legacy.rg.mpg.de
  26. ^ Honorary doctorate from the University of Gießen for Erich Loest , press release from the University of Gießen, in: Informationsdienst Wissenschaft dated November 12, 2009, accessed on November 13, 2009.
  27. ^ LVZ of February 24, 2016
  28. ↑ Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig "Prize for the freedom and future of the media: Erich Loest Prize" Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig. (No longer available online.) In: www.leipziger-medienstiftung.de. Archived from the original on November 4, 2016 ; Retrieved November 4, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.leipziger-medienstiftung.de
personal data
SURNAME Loest, Erich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walldorf, Hans (pseudonym); Naß, Waldemar (pseudonym); Diksen, Bernd (pseudonym, uncertain)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Mittweida
DATE OF DEATH September 12th, 2013
Place of death Leipzig