Hans Hellmut Kirst

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Hans Hellmut Kirst

Hans Hellmut Kirst (born December 5, 1914 in Osterode , East Prussia , † February 23, 1989 in Bremen ) was a German writer .

Life

Hans Hellmut Kirst was born the son of a police officer. As a result of his father's official transfers, he spent his youth in different places in East Prussia. After attending the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Osterode , he entered the commercial college in 1931. In 1932 he worked in the accounting office of the Mühlen manor. At the request of his father, he became a professional soldier in the Reichswehr in 1933 and was then stationed in the air force with the air defense in Königsberg . In the following years he rose from corporal to sergeant and sergeant major on. He was a member of the NSDAP .

During the Second World War , Kirst was promoted to lieutenant and first lieutenant and from August 1944 was first at the Luftkriegsschule VI in Kitzingen and from mid-April 1945 at the Flak Artillery School IV in Altenstadt, Upper Bavaria, National Socialist Commanding Officer (NSFO) and war history teacher . The later Bavarian Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauss was also stationed in Altenstadt with the rank of first lieutenant. In 1945, Strauss accused Kirst of the US occupation forces of having been a supporter of National Socialism . Kirst spent nine months in a US internment camp in Garmisch . It was there that his first literary records were made. Although Kirst was dismissed as politically "unencumbered", Strauss, as district administrator and chairman of the Spruchkammer , imposed a two-year writing ban on him. During this time the bitter arguments between the two began.

In 1947 Kirst moved to Munich and after some odd jobs (gardener, road worker, dramaturge, community clerk) was there until 1972 a film critic for the daily newspaper Münchner Mittag (today: Münchner Merkur ). In 1950 he published his first novel , Wir called Galgenstrick . In 1954 he landed with his novel trilogy 08/15 , The Experiences of Private / Wachtmeisters / Leutnants Asch, an international book success, which was also successfully filmed with Joachim Fuchsberger in the leading role.

Kirst wrote about 60 novels and became a German bestselling author . He wrote detective novels and at the same time dealt with coping with National Socialism, but his critics assigned him to trivial literature . In the 1950s he vigorously opposed German rearmament , which led to violent attacks by the new Federal Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss. In 1960 and 1962 he had two further world successes with the novels Factory of the Officers and The Night of the Generals , which were also made into films.

Among other things, he used his royalties for charitable purposes (social organizations in Israel , war orphans in Poland , students in Norway ). In 1961 he married the actress Ruth Müller (July 13, 1932 - January 2012) and lived with her and their daughter in Feldafing on Lake Starnberg . In 1967, on the 100th birthday of the Bavarian writer and satirist Ludwig Thoma, he donated the Ludwig Thoma Medal for services to society and services to the work of Thomas. Since 1969 he has also worked as a film critic at ZDF in Mainz for the program Advice for moviegoers . From 1972 to 1975 Kirst was a columnist for the Münchner Abendzeitung .

In 1987, the severely affected by an illness, moved with his family from Bavaria to Werdum in East Frisia. On February 23, 1989, Kirst died of cancer in Bremen. He was buried in Werdum.

Awards and honors

Works

Novels

  • We called it Gallows Rope , 1950
  • Did you say justice, Captain? , 1952 (new version 1966, last station Camp 7 )
  • Riots in a small town , 1953
  • 1st volume: 08/15 in the barracks , 1954
  • Volume 2: 08/15 in the war , 1954
  • Volume 3: 08/15 to the end , 1955
  • Death plays the last card , 1955
  • God sleeps in Masuria , 1956
  • With these hands of mine , 1957
  • Nobody gets away , 1957 (online copy of the English edition at archive.org: The Seventh Day )
  • Kultura 5 and the red morning , 1958
  • Happiness cannot be bought , 1959
  • Officers' factory , 1960
  • Comrades , 1961
  • The Night of the Generals , 1962
  • Balance sheet of the dream factory , 1963
  • 08/15 today , 1965
  • Uprising of the soldiers , 1965
  • Last Station Camp 7 , 1966 (First edition title 1952, Did You Say Justice Captain? )
  • The wolves , 1967
  • Germany your East Prussia , 1968
  • No fatherland , 1968
  • Soldiers, officers, generals , 1969
  • Law of the thumb , 1969
  • Heinz Rühmann , (biography), 1969
  • Hero in the Tower , 1970
  • The Udo Jürgens Songbook (text contributions), 1970
  • Criminalistics , BLV-juniorwissen Volume 5, 1971
  • Doomed to Success , 1971
  • Conversations with my dog ​​Anton , 1972
  • Condemned to the Truth , 1972
  • Haunted by Fate , 1973
  • Everything has its price , 1974
  • And Petrulla laughs , 1974
  • The Nights of the Long Knives , 1975
  • Generals affairs , 1977
  • The cats of Caslano , 1977
  • Barbed wire terminus , 1978
  • 08/15 in the party , 1978
  • The post-war winner , 1979
  • The Scary Friend , 1979
  • Dog with husband - report on a friend , 1979
  • A Paper Trap , 1981
  • Worrying Encounter , 1982
  • Money-Money-Money , 1982
  • Sale of Heroes , 1983
  • The Dangerous Truth , 1984
  • The strange people of Maulen , 1984
  • Blitzmädel , 1984
  • Late 45 , 1985
  • The sheep in wolf's clothing. A German Life , 1985
  • A rigged murder , 1987
  • Divorced by death , 1987
  • Stories from East Prussia , 1987
  • The strange wedding in Bärenwalde , 1988
  • Hour of the Gravedigger , 1988
  • The Scary Man of God , 1988
  • Menetekel '39 , 1989
  • Warning in vain, The Polish Campaign , 1989
  • The Assassination of the Rittmeister , 1992
  • Memories of an unforgettable home

Stage plays

  • Even the rabble playing the flutes , comedy, 1947
  • Gallows rope , play, 1948
  • Revolt of the officers , adaptation and direction: Erwin Piscator , 1966

Autobiographical

  • The sheep in wolf's clothing. A German life. Biographical Temptations 1945 to 1957 , 1985

Film adaptations

literature

  • Heinz Puknus (editor): Hans Hellmut Kirst. The author and his work. Information, testimony, criticism. Bertelsmann, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-570-07070-0 .
  • Magdalena Sacha: Topos Mazur jako raju utraconego w literaturze niemieckiej prus wschodnich: Ernst Wiechert, Hans Hellmut Kirst, Siegfried Lenz , Olsztyn 2001 [Summary in German language udT: The Topos Masurens as a lost paradise in the German-language literature of East Prussia ].
  • Armin Mohler : The Kirst case. In: Seen from the right. Seewald, Stuttgart 1974, p. 230ff, ISBN 3-512-00365-6 .
  • Franz Josef Strauss : The memories. Siedler, Munich 1989, p. 333f. ( Invective against Kirst).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c ZERO-EIGHT-FIFTEEN: At a higher level . In: Der Spiegel . No. 21 , 1954 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Franz Josef Strauss: I confess - The memories of Franz Josef Strauss (II): The way to the politician . In: Der Spiegel . No. 36 , 1989 ( online ).
  3. ^ Biography ( memento of October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 24, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Kirst, Hans Hellmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Osterode , East Prussia
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1989
Place of death Bremen