Gunter Groll

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Gunter Groll (born August 5, 1914 in Liegnitz ; † June 5, 1982 in Munich ) was a German dramaturge , film critic, editor and writer. He was one of the most influential film critics of the post-war period .

Life

schooldays

His father Walter Groll, author of several non-fiction books, ran the Hedwig School in Liegnitz. His mother, the teacher Gertrud Groll (née Brüggemann), ran a private high school for girls in later years . Gunter Groll attended the humanistic grammar school in Liegnitz. A classmate's ball hit him in the eye during a soccer game. As a result, the eye had to be surgically removed, and resentment was life one eye patch .

After Bechterew's disease broke out during his school days , doctors put him in a cast from neck to feet for months. This was followed by a sepsis and for one year a leather stretch Association . Grudge called him sickness dungeon . He couldn't go to school for a long time. He continued to study at home, read sophisticated literature and increasingly occupied himself with religious, psychological and mystical topics. He wrote poems in vocabulary books. When he was able to go back to high school, he skipped two classes. The consequences of his illnesses shaped his later life.

A few months before his Abitur, Gunter Groll was expelled from school. He and classmates had rebelled against what they understood to be harassment of a teacher. At the time, Groll was a member of a group of young communists. From now on he had to drive to a school in Jauer every day . There he passed his Abitur in March 1933 with good grades.

Political difficulties

He began to study art history, literature and theater studies in Wroclaw . The effects of National Socialist politics increasingly threatened those around him. His best friend was mistreated by Nazi thugs. Friends of the Jewish and Communist youth got into trouble, and some fled across the Czech border. Grud also decided to leave Germany, especially since his father accused him of endangering the family and especially his brother Helmut with his political stance. He was refused an exit visa. With his friend Günther Riesenfeld he made his way to Vienna. In 1934 the now 20-year-old returned to Munich.

Education

At the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich he studied psychology, literary history, art history, newspaper and literary studies. The main role model for him was the theater professor Artur Kutscher . Hanna Lüer and Falk Harnack were among his fellow students. With Falk, the brother of Arvid Harnack , Lambert Schomerus and Peter Philip, he founded a small student resistance group . You risked leaflet campaigns several times, life-threatening at the time. Groll received his doctorate summa cum laude in 1937 with a thesis on the dramaturgy and aesthetics of film. The dissertation was published under the title Film, the undiscovered art with a foreword by the actor Mathias Wieman in the publishing house CH Beck . Gunter Groll married Hanna Lüer. The couple had two children.

Professional

In 1940 Groll published the very first written collection of jokes about the famous Viennese joke figure Count Bobby under the pseudonym Sebastian Grill with the title " Count Bobby and Baron Mucki: Stories from Old Vienna ". The book became a classic and long seller in Graf Bobby business that many more joke - anthologies of other well-known authors drew on the comical Count to yourself.

He began as a dramaturge at Bavaria-Filmgesellschaft . From 1945 on he wrote freelance film, theater and cabaret reviews and articles on general cultural policy for the Süddeutsche Zeitung . Sometimes he used the pseudonym Sebastian Grill . His reviews could be recognized by the external form: They were always divided into small paragraphs, separated by Roman numerals , following the example of the critic Alfred Kerr . These polished, punchy reviews attracted attention in the professional world. Der Spiegel called Groll the "uncrowned king of Munich and South German film critics".

Groll recognized the importance of Group 47 early on . As early as 1947, he predicted that it would become an indispensable part of public and private discussions about young contemporary literature . The first imprint of the newly founded bi-monthly publication Neues Europa - For International Understanding , which was founded in 1948 by the Kurt Desch publishing house , was recorded by Groll as a permanent employee. In 1953 he was promoted to chief editor at Kurt Desch. He was a member of the 12-person jury of The Film Critics ' Prize , which was awarded for the first time in 1957 on the initiative of the film and television illustrated magazine Star-Revue . Co-jurors included Friedrich Luft , Hans Hellmut Kirst and Klaus Hebecker.

Colleagues and companions gave him a special honor with a book compiled for him by the Friends for his 50th birthday on August 5, 1964, presented by the Kurt-Desch-Verlag . This included Horst Lange , Joachim Kaiser , Hermann Kesten , Joe Lederer , Günter Eich and Alfred Andersch . Illness caught up with Gunter Groll again. After a heart attack and impending blindness, he had to quit his work as a film critic. He was able to continue working for the Kurt Desch publishing house. Until 1971 he accompanied numerous writers with expert opinions and the revision of their manuscripts. A stroke forced him to give up this activity too.

Gunter Groll died at the age of 67. Part of his estate is in the Munich State Library. At Monacensia in the Hildebrandhaus in Munich 54 letters and a manuscript of Groll are kept.

Works

  • as editor: Film, the undiscovered art. With a foreword by Mathias Wiemann . Publishing house CH Beck, Munich 1937.
  • as Sebastian Grill: Count Bobby and Baron Mucki: Stories from Old Vienna . Verlag Ernst Heimeran, Munich 1940 (reprint 1989)
  • as publisher: De profundis: German poetry in this time. An anthology from 12 years . Desch-Verlag, Munich 1946.
  • Magic lantern or The night is full of dreams. Kurt Desch publishing house, Munich 1947. (New edition 1956)
  • Lights and Shadows: Films During This Period - 100 Reviews . Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1956.
  • Count Bobby, Baron Mucki and Poldi: 123 times in words and pictures . Heimeran Verlag, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-436-02324-8 .
  • Coming to this theater soon. Critical notes on film, time and the world . Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1957.
  • Fairy tales from 1001 nights, retold by Gunter Groll. Knaur Verlag Munich, new edition 2012, ISBN 978-3-426-65317-3 .
  • as publisher: Der Zauberspiegel: Fantastic stories of world literature . Verlag Kaiser, Klagenfurt 1968.

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Payer: The stupid sweet pages , Die Presse, March 25, 2011.
  2. ↑ In cinematic terms: clothes. It was a monkey's fault. In: Der Spiegel 17/1949. April 23, 1949, p. 26 , accessed on July 4, 2014 : “When Gunter Groll, film reviewer of the Süddeutsche Zeitung and uncrowned king of Munich and South German film critics, kindly but firmly refused the invitation to the premiere dinner after the performance, the initiated knew how the criticism would be the next day. "
  3. ^ Ingo Löchel: The forgotten past: The price of the film review. Retrieved July 4, 2014 .
  4. ^ Supplement to the estate of Gunter Groll
personal data
SURNAME Resentment, Gunter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grill, Sebastian (pseudonym); Larsen, Wolf (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German dramaturge, film critic, editor and writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Liegnitz
DATE OF DEATH 5th June 1982
Place of death Munich