Herbert Mühlstädt

Herbert Mühlstädt (born October 6, 1919 in Leisnig ; † June 17, 1988 ) was a German author , editor , teacher and university lecturer . He achieved particular fame in the GDR through his historical books for children and young people .

Life

Herbert Mühlstädt was born in Leisnig in 1919 as the son of a worker. There he attended elementary school from 1926 to 1934 and then worked as a warehouse worker until 1936. During the Second World War he was drafted, suffered a leg amputation and was taken prisoner by the Soviets.

In 1947 Mühlstädt completed training as a new teacher so that he could work as a history teacher at an elementary school. Then he became a lecturer at the workers and farmers faculty in Leipzig. During this time he joined the SED and wrote several audio images of historical events.

In 1951 Mühlstädt took up a position as director of studies at the Berlin workers 'and peasants' faculty and worked as a schoolbook editor who was true to the line. From 1954 to 1959 he was editor-in-chief of the magazine Geschichte in der Schule and headed the history department at the Volk und Wissen publishing house . In 1955 his first historical story, Die Brücke, appeared . He also published several history textbooks and essays on teaching methodology in socialist history lessons. Nevertheless, he was expelled from the SED for lack of classification.

From 1960 to 1964 Mühlstädt was a research associate for historical methodology at the University of Rostock . In 1962 the first volume of his successful series The History Teacher Told was published . This combination of history textbook and entertainingly told historical short stories, which were nonetheless true to the line, should help to make history lessons more effective, appeared in nine editions and was reissued in a modified version in the 1980s. In 1964 he left the university in a dispute with the authoritarian institute director Friedrich Donath , who accused him of greed and lack of membership in the SED.

From 1964 Mühlstädt worked again as a history teacher for four years. During this time, Ebbo defends himself , his first historical children's novel.

In 1968, after re- joining the SED, Mühlstädt also became a member of the German Writers' Association and in the following years concentrated exclusively on his writing , with which he earned enough. As a freelance writer living in Rostock, he published other historical children's books and stories.

In 1972 Mühlstädt received the Rostock District Art and Literature Prize . In the same year he published Hans Warnke - a communist , a biographical work on Johannes Warnke , which found numerous reviews in GDR literature. From today's perspective, there are gaps.

Mühlstädt died in 1988, even before the fourth and last part of his life's work The History Teacher Told was published by the Volk und Wissen publishing house . From 2003 to 2005 an ideologically defused edition “Narrated History” was published by Cornelsen Verlag , which had taken over the GDR publishing house.

Works (selection)

Children's and youth literature

• Ebbo defends himself. Berlin 1965, children's book publisher .
• Radko rings storm. Berlin 1969, children's book publisher.
• Andres - dinghy of the Lemme Pors. Berlin 1969, children's book publisher.
• Andres - friend of the Likedeeler. Berlin 1971, children's book publisher.
• 172 days from the life of the teacher Egon Schultz. The small trumpeter books , Berlin 1973, children's book publisher.

Textbooks

• Peasants, Citizens and Feudal Lords: Textbook for History Lessons. 6th school year. Berlin 1957, people and knowledge.
• The history teacher tells, volume 1. Berlin 1962, people and knowledge. (New version 1980)
• The history teacher tells, Volume 2. Berlin 1965, People and Knowledge. (New version 198)
• The history teacher tells, volume 3. Berlin 1966, people and knowledge. (New version 1985)
• The history teacher tells (new version), Volume 4: From Napoleonic rule and the Wars of Liberation to the end of the First World War. Berlin 1991, people and knowledge.

Biographies

• Hans Warnke - a communist. Rostock 1972, Hinstorff.

Non-fiction

• History and contemporary studies: 1945-1956. Berlin 1957, people and knowledge.
• Cultural history in history lessons. Berlin 1961, people and knowledge.
• Literature in the Baltic Sea District: Recommendations and information on literary policy work. Rostock 1975, Willi Bredel Library.

Essays

• The truth belongs in school books! 1956, Geschichte in der Schule 9, 2, pp. 86–92.
• The central task - educate socialist! 1957, Geschichte in der Schule 10, 9, pp. 483–486.
• The historical hero also influences knowledge. 1972, Deutsche Lehrerzeitung 34, p. 6.
• Historical fiction or illustrated history? 1973, Contributions to children's and youth literature, 26, Berlin Kinderbuchverlag, pp. 29–40.

literature

• Rudolf Bonna: The narrative in the historical methodology of the Soviet Zone and GDR , Bochum 1996 (= Diss. Dortmund 1995)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Rüdiger Steinlein (Ed.), Heidi Strobel (Ed.), Thomas Kramer (Ed.): Handbook on Children's and Young People's Literature: SBZ / GDR. From 1945 to 1990. Metzler, 2006, ISBN 978-3476021779 .
2. ^ ^{A b} Gundula Reich: 65th birthday of the GDR writer Herbert Mühlstädt. Bibliographical calendar sheets of the Berlin City Library, ISSN  0323-5327 , Vol. 26. 1984, 10, pp. 14-17.

Web links

• Literature by and about Herbert Mühlstädt in the catalog of the German National Library