Erwin Sylvanus

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Erwin Sylvanus (born October 3, 1917 in Soest ; † November 27, 1985 ibid) was a German writer .

Life

Erwin Sylvanus grew up in Soest and Hombruch . Since the mid-1930s, he made journalistic contributions to the press in his hometown of Soest. After graduating from high school, he volunteered for the Reich Labor Service and later for the Wehrmacht . During the Second World War , several stories and a novel by him were published, which prove his proximity to National Socialist ideology at the time. After a serious war wound, Sylvanus was forced to stay in hospitals and sanatoriums for long periods of time. From 1953 he lived as a freelance writer in Soest and Völlinghausen .

In the 1950s, Sylvanus went through an ideological change: He distanced himself from his attitude during the Third Reich and turned to committed humanism . He wrote mainly dramatic works in which, under the influence of Pirandello, he largely renounced conventional illusion theater and devoted himself to the topics of violence, political arbitrariness as well as guilt and responsibility of the individual. An international success was his play Korczak und die Kinder , through which the fate of the Polish-Jewish pedagogue Janusz Korczak, who was murdered in Treblinka , first became known to a broader public. As a result, Sylvanus undertook extensive trips, u. a. to Czechoslovakia, Scandinavia, South America and the Soviet Union. Since the 1970s, he also lived temporarily on the Greek island of Aegina . In addition to works for the stage, Sylvanus wrote radio plays and journalistic works.

Erwin Sylvanus was a member of the PEN Center of the Federal Republic of Germany and, since 1955, of the authors' association Die Kogge ; In 1961 he was a co-founder of Gruppe 61 . In 1959 he received the Leo Baeck Prize , the Jochen Klepper Medal in 1960 and the Prize of the Joseph Winckler Foundation in 1961 .

Erwin Sylvanus, under the name Erich Fabrizius, is one of the two main characters in Friedrich Kröhnke's novella The Wise of Love and Death .

Works

  • Ring of the year , Soest 1936
  • The Eternal War , Berlin 1942
  • The Paradise Driver , Berlin 1942
  • The circle of poets , Vienna 1943
  • The shell , Hamburg 1947
  • The Soest Peace Game , Soest 1952
  • The Graf-Gottfried game from Neheim-Hüsten , Neheim-Hüsten 1956
  • Shepherds in our field , Münster / Westf. 1956
  • The miners ' St. Barbara game , Bochum
    • Textbook , 1956
    • Instructions for use , 1956
  • Korczak and the children , Reinbek near Hamburg 1957
  • Winner without victory , Völlinghausen-Möhne 1958
  • Two words kill , Reinbek near Hamburg 1959
  • Under the constellation of Libra , Reinbek near Hamburg 1960
  • Korczak and the children. Jan Palach. Sanssouci , Frankfurt am Main 1973
  • Family in crisis , Reinbek near Hamburg 1974
  • Victor Jara , Frankfurt am Main 1975
  • Paper theater or life, opinions and deeds of Hieronimus Jobs, the candidate , Frankfurt am Main 1978
  • Lessing's Jews , Frankfurt am Main 1979
  • Pieces , Frankfurt am Main 1980
Editing
selection
  • Reading book Erwin Sylvanus. Compiled and with an afterword by Ulrike Witt and Paul Forssbohm. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2019 (Nylands Kleine Westfälische Bibliothek 81). ISBN 978-3-8498-1321-5 .

See also

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Sylvanus, Erwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Soest
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 1985
Place of death Soest