Heinz Winfried Sabais

Heinz Winfried Sabais (born April 1, 1922 in Breslau ; † March 11, 1981 in Darmstadt ) was a writer , poet and politician . From 1971 to 1981 he was Lord Mayor of Darmstadt.

Grave of Heinz Winfried Sabais in the old cemetery in Darmstadt (2011)

Life

Sabais was born on April 1, 1922 in Breslau. He came from a working class family whose ancestors immigrated from France. Sabais passed the secondary school leaving certificate and began a commercial apprenticeship in a Wroclaw wholesaler. In the autumn of 1940 he passed the trade assistant examination and in the spring of 1941 the gifted school leaving examination. The conscription to the armed forces prevented the start of studies. During the Second World War he served as a pilot. Sabais crashed as an air force pilot and was able to study for four semesters in Vienna and Prague as a guest student from 1943 to 1945 due to his unsuitability for the front. In 1945 he became an American prisoner of war , which, according to his own statements, was the trigger for his literary work.

After returning from captivity, he came to Weimar via Rudolstadt in 1947 . There he worked as an editor for various magazines and lecturer at Kiepenheuer-Verlag. From January 1948 he was chief secretary of the German Goethe Committee Weimar / Berlin involved in the organization of the Goethe Year 1949. He accompanied Thomas Mann from Frankfurt am Main to Weimer, which resulted in a friendship with Thomas Mann. He was a member of the LDPD . In 1950 Sabais left the GDR with his wife and came to Darmstadt via Berlin in 1951, where he initially worked again as editor of the "New Literary World" on behalf of the German Academy for Language and Poetry. In January 1954, at the age of only 32, he took over the city's cultural advisor. In the following years he was responsible for the "International Summer Courses", the "Darmstadt Talks" and the exhibitions at Mathildenhöhe . On January 1, 1963, he was elected the city of Darmstadt's first full-time head of culture. During this time u. a. the initiation of the Leonce and Lena Prize of the City of Darmstadt.

In 1971 he became Lord Mayor of Darmstadt as successor to Ludwig Engel . His term of office was mainly characterized by the heavily criticized redesign of Darmstadt's Luisenplatz . Sabais was also President of the German Stage Association from 1971 to 1981 .

Sabais died of cancer on March 11, 1981, while he was still acting Lord Mayor of Darmstadt. He was buried in the Alter Friedhof (Darmstadt) (grave site: II Mauer 128). Heinz Winfried Sabais was married to his childhood sweetheart Ingeborg Sabais (1922–2009). The marriage resulted in three children.

Honors

• 1981: Wilhelm Leuschner Medal of the State of Hesse.
• July 5, 1989: On the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, a square was named after Sabais.

Publications

• 1947: And above all be love, poems, Rudolstadt.
• 1965: gods, emperors dictators . Rütten & Loening Verlag, Munich 1965.
• 1972: Darmstadt views, Darmstadt.

Sabais' "Darmstadt thesis"

An alternative, etymological derivation of the name Darmstadt goes back to Sabais . Contrary to the variant favored by others, that Darmstadt is derived from the proper name Darimund, Sabais used the oldest known spelling “Darmundestat” on the individual parts dar for Tor (derived from the Indo-European tar ), munde for protection (derived from Munt ) and stat for site back. So the name would have been a functional designation: the site on a fortified passage .

Quotes

“I am European, Europe raised me. I call any country in which human rights rule without delaying a fatherland. I respect you who respect me. Europe is the great association of the individual, our working group for the development of freedom. "

"I don't believe in Darimund"

literature

• Article Heinz Winfried Sabais , in: Stadtlexikon Darmstadt, 2006, Stuttgart p. 768f.
• Heinz Winfried Sabais: Conclusion. Poem and prose, Darmstadt 1982.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Short biography with: Ursula Heukenkamp (Ed.): Unterm Notdach: Post-war literature in Berlin 1945-1949 . Schmidt, Berlin 1996, p. 553
2. ↑ Darmstadt views, speeches and articles, Justus-von-Liebig-Verlag, 1972, p. 33