Jürgen Gross

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jürgen Siegmar Franz Groß (born June 4, 1946 in Brandenburg an der Havel ) is a German dramaturge , theater director and playwright . He was the in-house author of the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. His best known work is Match , which is about a group of young people in an extreme situation.

Life

Jürgen Groß was born in Brandenburg an der Havel in 1946. His father was an upholsterer who was imprisoned as a communist resistance fighter in a concentration camp under National Socialism and died in 1960.

Jürgen Groß spent his childhood and youth in Brandenburg / Havel and in Kyritz . He passed his Abitur in 1965 at the children's and youth sports school in Brandenburg / Havel.

From 1965 to 1967 he worked as a stage assistant, artistic director of an amateur theater and assistant director for German television . During this time he married and in 1967 his daughter was born. In the same year he began studying theater studies at Berlin's Humboldt University . This training, successfully completed with a diploma, lasted until 1971.

After his first theater practice in 1971 as a studio stage manager at the Städtische Theatern Karl-Marx-Stadt and the birth of his son in 1972, he was employed as the first dramaturge and director at the Meininger Theater from 1972 to 1974 . He then served from 1974 to 1977 scientific aspirant at Berlin's Humboldt University at Rudolf coin .

In 1974 he wrote his first self-composed work for the theater, the children's play City of Children , which was premiered by a Thuringian amateur theater . Although Groß did not direct his main focus on children's and youth theater, he did not stay away from the segment and, for example, developed the musical youth theater piece, Arme Teufel, in 1991 together with the children's and youth author Brigitte Werner .

After the family moved to Neuenhagen near Berlin in 1975 , Groß began to write intensively. As the first adult play, he presented beaten track in 1976 , using a short novel by Daniil Granin . The premiere took place the following year. In 1977/78 he was also employed as head of drama at the directorate for theater and orchestra in Berlin.

The promising new author received a sponsorship contract, the result of which in 1978 was the much-acclaimed play Match , which helped him to work as an in-house author at the Maxim-Gorki-Theater Berlin. He stayed at this theater for a total of five years, until 1983, after which he worked as a freelance writer.

His first comedy Revisor or Katzen aus dem Sack was written in the summer of 1981, in the following years he only made changes, and in August 1988 he declared it complete. While the premiere in January 1989 at the German-Sorbian People's Theater in Bautzen remained unopposed, the staging , which was presented a little later at the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam, was banned after three performances because the city leaders felt that they were being performed there.

Jürgen Groß went to Gelsenkirchen in 1990 , but returned to the former GDR territory in 1995, namely to Hohen Woos in Mecklenburg .

plant

Jürgen Groß said in a newspaper interview about his inner drive: “For me, writing pieces is a joyful work of discovery, searching through questions.” Elsewhere he explained the intention inherent in his pieces: “What I have in common in my pieces is my attitude towards my society , my point of view: to make social processes transparent, to assert changeability and changeability, not to describe our world as a final development in a cheerful way, to break up historically necessary, to let my characters persist or not to persist in painful knowledge and awareness of new beginnings and existential challenges. "

In an epilogue, Gudrun Klatt characterized Groß as an author who is constantly working on himself and who takes on subjects and topics that seem existential to him. She added: “The fact that Groß combines this individual motivation to write with an instructive and enlightening pathos directed at the viewer indicates how he sees himself as a playwright. Jürgen Groß insists on the educational function of theater, and he primarily relies on cathartic effects. "

According to Peter Reichel, another afterword author, Groß is one of the “administrators of their generation”, as the subject matter, conflict, ensemble of figures and audience approval were easy to recognize.

His best-known play, Match, is about a group of young people who - running away from a police operation - come together at a place of refuge where everyone reveals their attitude towards life. Reichel wrote in his epilogue that it was about the "life problems of young GDR citizens". He drew a parallel to, among other things, Ulrich Plenzdorf's The New Sorrows of Young W.

In Match, Groß uses "the method of enabling identification with the characters so that their posture and behavior can be criticized at the same time", stated Christa Neubert-Herwig in the specialist journal Germanistik . In addition to a whole series of secondary literature , studies by cultural sociologists also exist on Match itself and the reception behavior of young people .

Groß stated that Bertolt Brecht was his role model. The title of his world war piece Ashes in Mouth goes back to a quote from Brecht, which is also used as a motto . The comparisons used by Gudrun Klatt with regard to the play Motzek , the protagonist of which veils his Nazi past, are Heiner Müller's wage presser and Volker Braun's Hinze and Kunze .

Jürgen Groß's plays have been staged at home and abroad and have been translated into six languages. They are predominantly located in the respective time of origin ( now time ) and in the GDR and can be assigned to socialist realism .

Plays

Published pieces

  • Beaten path. Piece for two people (based on Daniiel Granin's short novel “Rain in a Foreign City”). Bauer, Berlin 1976. (Premiere 1977)
  • Match. Play. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Henschel Schauspiel, Berlin 1978.
  • Birthday guests. Folk piece. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Henschel Schauspiel, Berlin 1980.
  • Beaten path. Piece for two people (based on Daniiel Granin's short novel “Rain in a Foreign City”). In: New GDR Drama. [...] (= dialogue ). Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1981, pp. 7–39.
  • Blind zeal. Grotesque three-part work. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Henschel Schauspiel, Berlin 1981. (In it the one-act plays : Bruno the First , John Blake and Love Tchaikovsky? )
  • The thief and the liar. Play. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Henschel Schauspiel, Berlin 1982.
  • Monument. Play. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Henschel Schauspiel, Berlin 1983.
  • Match / birthday guests / memorial . In: pieces. Match. Birthday guests. Monument (= dialogue ). With an afterword by Gudrun Klatt. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1984.
  • Auditor or cat out of the bag. Comedy. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Henschel Schauspiel, Berlin 1989.
  • Match. In: The transition society. Pieces from the 1980s from the GDR (= Reclams Universal Library; Volume 1301; Fiction ). Edited and with an afterword by Peter Reichel. Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1989, ISBN 3-379-00447-2 , pp. 150-203.
  • Motzek / ash in the mouth . In: Motzek. Ash in the mouth. Two pieces (= dialogue ). With an afterword by Gudrun Klatt. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-362-00406-7 .
  • The party bride. A tragedy. Bauer, Berlin 1989.
  • The Eisbeindame. An unbelievable piece with music and colorful uniforms. Bauer, Berlin 1989.
  • With Brigitte Werner: poor devils. Piece with music. Henschel Schauspiel, Berlin 1991.

Imprints of plays in the Theater of Time

  • Match. In: Issue 11, November 1978, pp. 53-64. (Premiere September 20, 1978 Studio Stage Maxim Gorki Theater, Director: Wolfram Krempel )
  • Birthday guests. In: Issue 4, April 1980, pp. 59-72. (Premiere January 25, 1980 Maxim Gorki Theater, Director: Wolfram Krempel)
  • The thief and the liar. In: Issue 6, June 1982, pp. 63-72. (Premiere September 27, 1982 Staatstheater Dresden , studio theater , director: Anke Heinrich)
  • Monument. In: Issue 9, September 1983, pp. 56-72. (Premiere March 4, 1983 Schauspielhaus Karl-Marx-Stadt, director: Siegfried Höchst )
  • Ash in the mouth. In: Issue 6, June 1986, pp. 52-64.
  • Auditor or cat out of the bag. In: Issue 3, March 1989, pp. 52-64. (Premiere January 20, 1989 German-Sorbian People's Theater Bautzen, Director: Hella Müller )

Other pieces (selection)

  • Battle for Helena , 1970.
  • City of Children , 1974.
  • Ugh , 1993.
  • Beanie , 1994.

Poetry

  • Notated poems. My reading trip to Germany. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-320-01864-7 .

Film scripts

  • The bastard. Part 1: Of the Troubles of Survival. / The bastard. Part 2: Of Life's Troubles. DFF Berlin, September 20/22, 1983. (Available on DVD.)
  • The Moorsoldaten '33. 1984.

Radio plays

  • The thief and the liar. Radio Paris, 1984.
  • Match. , Broadcasting of the GDR, 1988.
  • Auditor or cat out of the bag. RIAS Berlin , 1989.
  • Beaten path. RIAS Berlin, 1990.

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Jürgen Groß . In: Theater of Time . No. 11/1978 . Henschelverlag Art and Society, November 1978, ISSN  0040-5418 , p. 53 (also in issue 4/1980, p. 59).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l About the author . In: Notated Poems. My reading trip to Germany . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-320-01864-7 , p. 97-99 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Jürgen Groß in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors , accessed on October 2, 2019
  4. ↑ a b c d e Jürgen Groß. In: theaterderzeit.de. 1991, accessed October 2, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Jürgen Groß. In: henschel-schauspiel.de. Retrieved October 2, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b c d e Christa Neubert-Herwig: Offers for contemporary theater. Comments on Jürgen Groß '"Match" . In: Journal for German Studies . No. 3/1981 . VEB Verlag Encyclopedia, August 1981, ISSN  0323-7982 , p. 287-299 .
  7. ↑ Jürgen Groß: Auditor or cat out of the bag. To the piece . In: Theater of Time . No. 3/1989 . Henschelverlag Art and Society, March 1989, ISSN  0040-5418 , p. 52 .
  8. ↑ Heidi Jäger: incorruptible and full of humor. The founder of the theater ship, Wilfried Mattukat, is dead. Obituary. In: pnn.de. Janine Gronwald-Graner, September 14, 2013, accessed on October 2, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Writing: Pleasurable discovery work. Workshop discussion with Jürgen Groß, Berlin, on "birthday guests" and other things . In: The morning . Berlin December 28, 1979.
  10. ↑ a b c d Interview with Jürgen Groß . In: Theater of Time . No. 11/1978 . Henschelverlag Art and Society, November 1978, ISSN  0040-5418 , p. 64 .
  11. ↑ a b c Gudrun Klatt: Afterword . In: Motzek. Ash in the mouth. Two pieces . With an afterword by Gudrun Klatt (=  dialogue ). Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-362-00406-7 , p. 206-211 .
  12. ↑ Peter Reichel: Afterword . In: The transition society. Pieces from the 1980s from the GDR (=  Reclams Universal Library . Volume 1301 ). 1st edition. Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1989, ISBN 3-379-00447-2 , III, p. 455 .
  13. ↑ a b Peter Reichel: Afterword . In: The transition society. Pieces from the 1980s from the GDR (=  Reclams Universal Library . Volume 1301 ). 1st edition. Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1989, ISBN 3-379-00447-2 , III, p. 458 .
  14. ↑ Peter Reichel: Afterword . In: The transition society. Pieces from the 1980s from the GDR (=  Reclams Universal Library . Volume 1301 ). 1st edition. Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1989, ISBN 3-379-00447-2 , I, p. 449 .

literature

  • Gudrun Klatt: Epilogue. In: pieces. Match. Birthday guests. Monument (= dialogue ). Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1984, pp. 245–250.
  • Christa Neubert-Herwig: Offers for contemporary theater. Comments on Jürgen Groß '"Match". In: Journal for German Studies , Vol. 2, No. 3 (August 1981), pp. 287-299.
  • Monika Runge: "Match" by Jürgen Groß in the production of the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, premiere: 1978; Director: Wolfram Krempel - Performance analysis under the aspect of possible impact potentials for the development of socialist patriotism (= large chapter in: On the social function of theater in the GDR - possibilities of theater in the development of socialist patriotism; examined on selected plays from the 1970s / 1980s .) Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED , Berlin 1981 (Diss.).
  • Hans-Jürgen Timm: On the dialectic of conflict structure and artistic valuation - examined on selected dramatic literature of the GDR from the first half of the 1980s. [Jürgen Groß, Volker Braun, Christian Martins]. Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED, Berlin 1987 (Diss.).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Great, Jürgen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Groß, Jürgen Siegmar Franz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German dramaturge, theater director and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Brandenburg on the Havel