Horst Bernhard Knöpfel

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Horst Bernhard Knöpfel (born March 3, 1920 in Neumühle / Elster ; † August 16, 2007 in Nuremberg ) was a German writer and publicist . From 1946 to 1953 he was managing director in his parents' company. After fleeing the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany, he ran a grocery store near Nuremberg from 1953 to 1985. In addition to his professional activity, he worked as a writer. He published a play, several volumes of poetry, a novel, a children's book and published in newspapers.

Horst Bernhard Knöpfel is the father of Eckehardt Knöpfel .

Poetry

The focus of his work was in the lyrical area. Four volumes of poetry and many individual publications in newspapers, magazines and school books add up to more than 300 poems . Knöpfel's poetry in the 1970s and 1980s was strongly influenced by his Christian faith. His first volume of poetry bears the subtitle Spiritual Poems. The works in his second volume of poetry from 1986 also deepen theological questions despite the reference to everyday life. God stands at the center of his poetry as the giver of values ​​and norms, yes, as the goal of all human activity. In addition, it opens up a view of nature and one's own self. In the third volume, the question of God is no longer consistently present, but is revealed through moral and ethical ideas, among other things. His last volume "hammelkeule und spherenklanes" shows anthropological depth. Knöpfel shows the weak points of human coexistence, discovers stumbling blocks in the terrain of encrusted social orders. His poetry refers to violent behavior, hypocritical content that is often sarcastic.

prose

His children's stage play, Das Osterlicht, which was created in the GDR in the early 1950s, had already been accepted by the Greiz theater, but was discontinued after the author fled to West Germany. It is not yet shaped by the Christian idea of ​​Easter, but describes the search of some children for the Easter light. This Easter fairy tale interprets Easter as a spring festival. Nature is enlightened and awakened to new life.

Knöpfel's novel "The Secret Beasts - or: A Normal Marriage" appeared as a serial in the Nürnberger Zeitung from October 1992. The protagonists still appear in the subject of a classic late bourgeois marriage with all its constraints. You go through all the scenes of a marriage. Knöpfel's approach to solving conflicts and struggles lies in the psychoanalytic look at the scenario.

Newspaper articles

In the years after 1989 Knöpfel tried, with the help of several newspaper articles, to take stock of the course of German reunification and the consequences for his own life and family history. He does this in a self-enlightening way by focusing on the biographical: Escape from the GDR, roots in the Federal Republic, return to Thuringia.

Readings

After the end of his professional work as a merchant, Knöpfel accepted many invitations to readings, most of which came from the church. In working groups of parishes, synods and adult education circles, he found the public that was necessary as critical feedback for his work.

Publications

• The Easter light. A play for children. The MS is at the Greiz Theater in 1952
• That changes our life. Poems. Hohenloher Printing and Publishing House, Gerabronn 1985; 2nd edition, 1989, ISBN 3-87354-140-8
• Only the sky is unharmed. Poems. Hohenloher Druck- und Verlagshaus, Gerabronn 1986, ISBN 3-87354-147-5
• nothing final on this planet. Poems. Hohenloher Druck- und Verlagshaus, Gerabronn 1988, ISBN 3-87354-169-6
• together with Otto FF Jung: The dispute over the turnip. A fairy tale. Hohenloher Druck- und Verlagshaus, Gerabronn 1988, ISBN 3-87354-175-0
• Return to the former possession in the GDR - report from one of the victims. In: Nürnberger Zeitung. July 7, 1990, No. 154
• The wall in the mind. Two years after the reunification of Germany: attempt to take stock. In: Nürnberger Zeitung. October 2, 1992, no.229
• The secret beasts - or: a perfectly normal marriage. Novel. In: Nürnberger Zeitung. October 29, 1992 to January 14, 1993, No. 251 (1992) to No. 13 (1993), published as a serialized novel
• Become a Thuringian for Thuringians. Repossessing my land, my houses - was that really such a good idea? In: Nürnberger Zeitung. July 3, 1993, no.150
• Lamb leg and the sounds of the spheres. Poems. Hohenloher Druck- und Verlagshaus, Gerabronn 1996, ISBN 3-87354-242-0

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mill and sawmill in Neumühle / Elster
2. ↑ Who changes our lives. 1985; 2nd edition, 1989.
3. ↑ Only the sky is unharmed. Gerabronn 1986
4. ↑ nothing final on this planet. Gerabronn 1988
5. ↑ Lamb leg and the sounds of the spheres. Gerabronn 1996