Heinrich Henkel (playwright)

Heinrich Henkel (born April 12, 1937 in Koblenz ; † March 2, 2017 in Basel ) was a German playwright who wrote for theater and radio plays. Before and after his first success with the piece Eisenwichser (1970) he worked as a master painter himself .

Life

Henkel spent his childhood in Bad Ems . After elementary school he completed an apprenticeship as a painter. From 1955 worked as a flat painter. In 1964 he moved to Switzerland as a master painter. Here u. a. Shop steward for the Swiss Construction and Woodworkers Union, initially continuing to work as a painter, he began to work as a freelance writer for the theater in 1970, after he had already started writing texts. After receiving the Gerhart Hauptmann Prize 1970 for Eisenwichser and the Schiller Memorial Prize 1971 and other, albeit less successful, pieces ( Spiele um Geld , 1971, Olaf and Albert, 1973 and The Closure of the Company , 1975), from 1975 onwards, Henkel worked exclusively as a painter again for five years. Then more paperwork in the areas of theater and radio play.

In his works, Henkel primarily processed experiences from the world of work and relationships, which was very popular with critics at the time of his first appearance on the literary stage.

literature

• Brigitte Marschall: Heinrich Henkel . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 823 f.

Web links

• Literature by and about Heinrich Henkel in the catalog of the German National Library