Hans Werner Richter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hans Werner Richter (born November 12, 1908 in Neu Sallenthin on Usedom , † March 23, 1993 in Munich ) was a German writer .

Richter is less known for his own works. As an initiator, spiritus rector and “gray eminence” of Group 47 - the most important German writers' group of the post-war period  - he achieved worldwide fame and recognition.

Hans Werner Richter, 1992 in Munich

Life

Hans Werner Richter was the son of a fisherman. As a 16-year-old, he completed a three-year apprenticeship as a bookseller in Swinoujscie from 1924 and then worked as a bookseller's assistant in Berlin.

In 1930 Richter joined the KPD . After two years he was expelled in 1932 on charges of Trotskyism . After he witnessed an NSDAP march on the Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin in 1933 , however, he again made connections with the illegal KPD and tried to form a resistance group. When he did not succeed, he fled to Paris with his girlfriend . His emigration failed because of his hopeless financial situation.

After his return in 1934 he worked as a bookseller and editor in Berlin and became politically active in the underground. In 1940 the Gestapo temporarily arrested Hans Werner Richter. After his leadership in an illegal pacifist youth group could not be proven, he was drafted into military service (1940-1943). Both he and his three brothers survived the war.

In the American captivity (1943-1946), first in the camp Ellis ( Illinois ), later in Fort Kearney ( Rhode Island ), Richter published the anti-fascist magazines Lagerstimme and Der Ruf since spring 1945 . Alfred Andersch , Gustav René Hocke and Walter Kolbenhoff also worked on Der Ruf . Richter and Andersch, who only met personally after their release, continued to publish Der Ruf in Munich from August 1946 . After the magazine was banned by the American occupation forces in April 1947 because of too left-wing, pro-communist attitudes, a group of writers and critics finally formed, which was formed as Group 47 at the informal invitation of Hans Werner Richter in alternating line-ups, first every six months and later until 1967 met annually.

In March 1958, the Bundestag voted with the votes of the CDU and DP to equip the Bundeswehr with the most modern weapons. Thereupon Richter had a committee against nuclear armament entered in the register of associations. Numerous intellectuals, artists and public figures became members of the advisory board, such as Ingeborg Bachmann , Helmut Gollwitzer , Ruth Leuwerik and Loriot . The SPD was pleased, but soon withdrew. The approximately 1500 committee members felt left alone.

The first years of Group 47 saw the most productive phase in Richter's life as a writer. In 1951 he was awarded the Fontane Prize , in 1952 the René Schickele Prize fell for you , in 1972 the Culture Prize of the German Trade Union Federation , in 1979 the Great Federal Cross of Merit , in 1986 the Great Literature Prize of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and in 1992 the Pomeranian Culture Prize .

After his death on March 23, 1993 in Munich, he was buried at his own request in the Bansin cemetery on the island of Usedom. The former fire station in Bansin was converted into a memorial - the so-called Hans-Werner-Richter-Haus  - on the ground floor of which, among other things, the Munich office was reconstructed.

Hans Werner Richter and Group 47

Group 47 was Richter's life's work; his name can hardly be separated from it. He is consistently recognized as the sole authority of the group. Sometimes the opinion is expressed that in this way many very great people were discovered (e.g. Ingeborg Bachmann ), but also overlooked, for example Paul Celan , who, because of his pathetic speech melody and his high level of style, did not speak to some of the writers during the reading liked, failed mercilessly. Furthermore, many hopeful young poets were turned away from their career aspirations by their traumatic experience at the group conference. Richter considered it one of the two greatest merits of Group 47 to have "prevented a lot of bad literature" in this way.

The group met for the last time in 1967, and there were harmless disturbances from students protesting against the establishment. The group was not broken up or disbanded, Richter simply stopped sending out invitation postcards.

Works

  • 1947: Your sons Europe - poems by German prisoners of war.
  • 1949: The defeated .
  • 1951: They fell from God's hand.
  • 1953: tracks in the sand.
  • 1955: You shouldn't kill.
  • 1959: Linus Fleck or The Loss of Dignity.
  • 1962: Inventory - A German balance sheet. As editor. Kurt Desch, Munich
  • 1965: Plea for a new government, or: No alternative.
  • 1965: people in a friendly environment. Six satires. Wagenbach, Berlin
  • 1966: Karl Marx in Samarkand , a journey to the borders of China, photos: Antonie Richter, Luchterhand, Neuwied and Berlin
  • 1971: rose white, rose red. Novel. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg, ISBN 3-455-06270-9 .
  • 1974: Letters to a young socialist. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-423-11252-2 .
  • 1980: The escape to Abanon. Nymphenburger, Munich, ISBN 3-485-00382-4 .
  • 1981: The hour of false triumphs. Wagenbach, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-8031-2642-9 .
  • 1982: Stories from Bansin. Nymphenburger, Munich, ISBN 3-485-00418-9 .
  • 1982: A July day . Nymphenburger, Munich, ISBN 3-485-00431-6 .
  • 1986: In the Establishment of Butterflies - twenty-one portraits from group 47. Nymphenburger, Munich, ISBN 3-446-14543-5 .
  • 1989: traveling through my time. Life stories. Hanser, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-446-15402-7 .
  • 1990: Germany your Pomerania - truths, lies and rascal talk. Reich, Rostock, ISBN 3-86167-020-8 .
Diaries
  • In the middle. The diaries 1966–1972 . Edited by Dominik Geppert in collaboration with Nina Schnutz. With a foreword by Hans Dieter Zimmermann and an afterword by Dominik Geppert. Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63842-8 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d LITERATURE / GROUP 47: Richter's topping-out ceremony . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1962 ( online ).
  2. ↑ 1958: Peace / Disarmament. In: protest-muenchen.sub-bavaria.de. February 21, 1958, accessed December 31, 2016 .
  3. ^ Municipality of Seebad Bansin (ed.): Seebad Bansin, 100 Years, 1897–1997, Festschrift. Neuendorf Verlag, Neubrandenburg 1997, ISBN 3-931897-05-2 , p. 52.
  4. ^ Hans-Werner-Richter-Haus. ( Memento of the original from January 25, 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. bansin-info.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bansin-info.de
  5. ↑ Review by Helmut Böttiger : Diaries by Hans Werner Richter: “Do you make me smaller in order to get bigger yourself?” In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 30, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Richter, Hans Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH New Sallenthin , Usedom
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1993
Place of death Munich